Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAbd al-Rahman Shahbandar
Syrian politician
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Damascus, Damascus Governorate, Syria
About Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar
- Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar (Arabic: ??? ?????? ?????????; ALA-LC: ‘Abd al-Ra?man al-Shahbandar; November 1879 – June 1940) was a prominent Syrian nationalist during the French Mandate of Syria and a leading opponent of compromise with French authority.
- His devotion to Arab nationalism dated to the days of the Committee of Union and Progress and its "Turkification" policies.
- He supported the Arab Revolt during World War I and briefly headed the foreign ministry under Emir Faisal. When France occupied Syria in July 1920 he fled the country.
- Shahbandar returned in 1921 and organized the Iron Hand Society to agitate against French rule.
- This was the first Syrian nationalist group to emerge in Damascus during the Mandate and Shahbandar organized its spread to Homs and Hama.
- In April 1922, the French arrested him and other Iron Hand leaders for incitement against their rule.
- The arrests triggered several days of demonstrations and bloody confrontation between protesters and French forces in Damascus.
- Nonetheless, the French tried Shahbandar for subversive activities and sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment. After serving 1½ years of his sentence the French sent him into exile where he joined the activities of the Syrian-Palestine Congress based in Cairo.
- The French allowed him to return to Syria in 1924.
- The following year Shahbandar guided the formation of Syria's first nationalist party, the People's Party.
- He then helped organize the spread of the Syrian Revolution from Jabal Druze to the rest of Syria.
- He eluded the French authorities and moved to Jabal Druze for the duration of the revolt.
- There he and Sultan al-Atrash formed a provisional government.
- When the revolt collapsed in 1927 Shahbandar fled to Transjordan and from there to Egypt. In 1937 a French amnesty allowed him to return from exile and he directed his supporters to oppose the Franco-Syrian Treaty on the grounds that it granted France privileges that detracted from Syrian sovereignty.
- He was joined by powerful Syrian politicians such as Munir al-Ajlani.
- He also directed a political campaign to discredit the National Bloc government of Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey.
- During World War II the French considered cooperating with Shahbandar because of his opposition to the National Bloc and because of support for him from Britain and the Hashemites.
- In June 1940 he was assassinated in Damascus.
- The French accused several prominent National Bloc figures, including Jamil Mardam and Saadallah al-Jabiri, of plotting the murder and they fled to Iraq.
- While Shahbandar was one of Syria's most popular leaders he never built up an organization that would perpetuate his political legacy.
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