Until his death in Saudi Arabia this week, Munir al-Ajlani was the only living Syrian politician from the French Mandate era (1920-1946). I first met him in 1997, where while in his 90s, he enjoyed an excellent memory and a sharp sense of humor. Having led a colorful life that varied from journalist, to academic, poet, parliamentarian, cabinet minister, and ended as a consultant in the royal courts of Riyadh, Munir Bey (as customarily called in Damascus) looked back upon his career with pride, reminiscence, and a slight tone of regret. Calling upon him at his Beirut residence while doing research for my first book The Politics of Damascus 1920-1946, I found an aged yet elegant man dressed in a dark Western suit, cane in hand, rising in respect for all guests who enter his home no matter how many years his junior. I was a college student, and he was a veteran leader from Syria. Yet, he treated me like a head of state. He was not too talkative during our first meeting, but stood out as an excellent listener. Following a third and fourth round with Munir al-Ajlani, one finds the seasoned statesman as eloquent and interesting as he had been during his heyday, 50-years ago. I had the honor of being the last disciple of Munir al-Ajlani, meeting him on a weekly basis every summer for three years in Beirut, and accumulating loads of information from him, about minor details in Syrian history. Thanks to Munir al-Ajlani, I became a specialist on Syrian affairs. This letter is a farewell to my mentor.

Munir al-Ajlani studied law at the Sorbonne University in Paris and obtained a minor degree in literature and linguistics. The date of his birth is debatable. While some sources say that he was born in 1904, Dr Ajlani used to insist that he was born in 1914. He returned to Damascus in 1936, changed his age in official records, and nominated himself for Parliament, winning a seat at the age of 22 and becoming the youngest deputy in Syrian history. He wrote frequently for the Damascus daily al-Qabas and founded his own newspaper with the attorney Sami Kabbara called al-Nidal. In 1934, he joined the National Bloc, the leading anti-French movement in Syria, and in 1936 ran for Parliament on a Bloc ticket. He nominated himself for Parliament again in 1943, 1947, 1949, and 1954, winning in every round with a majority vote in Damascus. Once in Parliament, Ajlani joined with Sayf al-Din al-Ma’mun, another prominent young lawyer, and co-founded the Steel Shirts, a military youth force modeled after the Black Shirts in Italy and the Brown Shirts in Germany. The Steel Shirts aimed at protecting locals from French aggression and mobilizing support for the National Bloc. Its leaders were a group of young men who wanted to introduce the concept of disciplined and armed resistance to occupation. As long as the French were not permitting the creation of a Syrian Army, Ajlani claimed, the Steel Shirts would have to serve as an alternative. He believed in the concept of mass politics and created a powerful network of young men to engage in marches, strikes, and rallies. The Steel Shirts wore an armband showing a torch bearing hand, similar to the infamous swastika that was being promoted in Nazi Germany at the time. Among the party’s co-founders were the university professor Ahmad al-Samman, and the National Bloc leader Fakhri al-Barudi. The Steel Shirts remained in charge of Syrian mass politics during the years 1936-1946 and was disbanded by its own leaders when Syrian independence was achieved in 1946. The Steel Shirts transformed Ajlani into a youth leader in Damascus, who had a magical spell on his students, matched only by Fakhri al-Barudi.

In 1939, Turkey annexed the Sanjak of Alexanderetta, territory in northern Syria that had once belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Ajlani resigned from party office to protest the National Bloc’s inability of preventing the annexation. He became a member of the opposition, headed by Dr. Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar, and engaged in anti-Bloc activity for the remainder of the 1930s. When agents of the French killed Shahbandar in 1940, Ajlani allied himself with Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hasani, a hard-line opponent of the National Bloc and an ally of Paris. Ajlani married his daughter Inaam, and when Hasani was appointed President of the Republic by General Charles de Gaulle in 1941, he appointed him Secretary-General of the Presidential Palace. The following year, Hasani appointed him Minister of Youth Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Husni al-Barazi. Hasani created the portfolio exclusively for his son-in-law, and it was terminated when he left office in 1943 to become Minister of Social Affairs. In January 1943, President Hasani died and Ajlani shifted back into the National Bloc orbit. In October 1947, Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey, a National Bloc leader, appointed him Minister of Education. That same year, he was also voted into the Arab Language Assemblage, which is the highest international scientific authority in the field of Arab language and literature. During these years, Ajlani endorsed the career of the 21-year old poet Nizar Qabbani, marketing his name in literary circles and writing the prelude to his first set of poems in 1944 entitled, "The Brunette Said to Me," establishing a friendship that was to last until Qabbani's death in 1998. Meanwhile, he was professor of law at Damascus University and authored many legal works, some of which are still taught in Syria until the present.

In the 1940s, Ajlani befriended King Abdullah of Jordan and called for union between Syria and the Hashemite regimes in Baghdad and Amman. He advocated the Hashemite cause and in 1949, Syria’s new president, General Husni al-Za’im, accused him of being an agent for Abdullah, trying to overthrow the republic. Ajlani was arrested and al-Nidal newspaper, which he frequently wrote in, was closed. When Za’im was toppled in August 1949, Ajlani was released by Syria’s new leader Hashim al-Atasi and voted into the Constitutional Assembly that formulated a new constitution for Syria. In 1950, General Adib al-Shishakli, the de facto ruler who was a staunch enemy of Hashemite Iraq, brought him to trial on the charge of trying to topple Syria’s republican regime and replace it with a Hashemite monarchy. Ajlani went to court on the charge of conspiracy, but was declared innocent of the charges. When Shishakli came to power in 1951, Ajlani joined the opposition to his regime and was once again, arrested for his views and deported to the Mezzeh Prison. He was released from jail by Hashim al-Atasi, when Shishakli was overthrown in February 1954. In November 1954, he became Acting President of Damascus University and in September 1955, became Minister of Justice in the independent cabinet of Prime Minister Sa’id al-Ghazi.

In the second half of the 1950s, however, Ajlani became increasingly alienated from the rising movement of socialism, headed by President Gamal Abd al-Nasser of Egypt. He joined a group of disgruntled politicians and sought to bring down the pro-Nasser and pro-USSR regime of President Shukri al-Quwatli. It was planned that a group of armed men, trained in Lebanon (by the anti-Nasser regime of Kamil Sham’un) and funded by Hashemite Iraq, would occupy Damascus, dismiss all pro-Nasser officials and force Quwatli to change his pro-Egypt and pro-USSR policies. Once all Nasserist elements were dismissed, Syria would unite with Hashemite Iraq. The conspirators would assassinate the socialist leader Akram al-Hawrani, who was Master Speaker of Parliament, along with Afifi al-Bizreh, the Chief of Staff, and Abd al-Hamid Sarraj, the Director of Syrian Intelligence. Prime Minister Sabri al-Asali would be dismissed, and Munir al-Ajlani would create a pro-Hashemite cabinet in which Subhi al-Omari, an ex-officer in the Hashemite Army of the Arabian Desert, would become Minister of Defense. The plan was funded from Baghdad by Crown Prince Abd al-Illah and Prime Minister Nuri al-Sa’id. Involved in the conspiracy were the Druze leader Hasan al-Atrash, a long-time ally of the Hashemites, Sami Kabbara, publisher of the al-Nidal newspaper, and Adnan al-Atasi, a founding member of the pro-Hashemite People’s Party. It was engineered by Ajlani, Atasi, and Mikhail Ilyan, a businessman and politician from Aleppo. They had no intention, however, of toppling President Quwatli. Abd al-Hamid Sarraj foiled the plot prior to its implementation and had all of its leaders, including Ajlani, imprisoned and charged with high treason. Munir al-Ajlani was fired from his post at Damascus University and expelled from the Arab Language Assemblage. He refused to hire an attorney and defended himself before court, receiving a standing ovation from an audience of Damascus University students who came to support their former professor. He was tried by Chief of Staff Bizreh. His defense proved futile, however, and Bizreh's military tribunal sentenced him to death on the charge of treason. Three Arab leaders, King Faysal II of Iraq, King Husayn of Jordan, and President Kamil Sham’un of Lebanon, intervened on his behalf, and as a result, Ajlani’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He served at the Mezzeh Prison fro 1956 to 1961. During his imprisonment, Syria and Egypt merged to form the United Arab Republic (UAR) and the Hashemite monarchy in Baghdad, which had supported his career, was overthrown by a bloody military coup d’etat in July 1958. He was released from jail in 1961, following the dissolution of the UAR, but refrained from any political activity. When the Baath Party came to power in March 1963, its leaders pledged to restore the UAR and Ajlani was once again forced to flee Damascus. He went to Saudi Arabia and served as a private advisor to King Saud and his brothers, King Faysal, King Khalid, and King Fahd. He also taught law at Riyadh University and became editor-in-chief of al-Majala al-Arabiyya.

"I have no problem in returning to Syria" Ajlani pointed out in 1997, "and have received numerous invitations asking me to comeback, guaranteeing that no harm will be done if I do." This invitation was extended to him by Basil al-Asad in 1993, and years later, by Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas. However, he added, "a simple cross-check at the airport, or having to wait for an extra minute at the passport control is enough reason to give me second thoughts." "To tell you the truth," Ajlani adds, "I miss Syria very much. I received red-carpet treatment in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis were very good to me, but no matter what, one's country is always different." He admitted that being away for four decades was painful, but added that it did not change his views and convictions on what is right and what is not. He lived and died as a firm believer in democracy. His only regret, he admitted to me once, was the failed coup d'etat against the pro-Nasser regime of Shukri a-Quwatli in 1956, which has gone down in history as the "Iraqi Conspiracy." The move, sporadic as it was, cost him his political career. During and after the ordeal, Ajlani denied receiving funds from Baghdad yet admitted that there were in fact secret contacts with the Iraqis, and added, "We were young and foolish. Maybe we overdid it!" On other topics, however, he remained a hard-core democrat. "I did not change in so many years abroad, and did not for once give in to any one or praise any one without due right. I am a man of principle, and I believe in the democratic, multi-party system that we once enjoyed and were unfortunately, unable to keep. Although we made mistakes, our era in comparison to what came after us qualifies us to be angels." He had a grudge on a few figures from history, mainly Gamal Abd al-Nasser, along with his agents in Syria, Akram al-Hawrani, Abd al-Hamid Sarraj, and Afif al-Bizreh, holding them directly responsible for much of the strife Syria was to experience in future years. When asked, "Had members of your generation, who created the modern Middle East, lived to see how lacking democracy was to become in the Arab World in the second half of the 20th century, what would they have said?" Chuckling, Ajlani replied, "Its good that they didn't! They died at the right time!" The last time I saw him was in 2000, while we were watching the funeral of King Hasan II of Morocco. Before leaving him I said, "I am leaving to Syria. Do you need anything from me Munir Bey?" He took a long pause and smiled saying: "Yes, in fact I do. Go back home, create a strong, angry, determined, and brave generation of Syrians, and build a stronger and better Syria!" Munir al-Ajlani established himself forcefully in Syrian history as a leader who was not afraid of expressing views that challenge the existing norm. He had the willingness and courage to say "no" to Arab nationalism and Gamal Abd al-Nasser in the 1950s, when it was politically incorrect to be anything but a Nasserist. Instead of Arab nationalism, Ajlani preached "Syria first!" He was very public with his rebellious views during the 1950s, arguing that his ideas are unafraid to be debated, tried by history, then established or discarded. Munir al-Ajlani was a brave man who loved Syria. He will be missed dearly by all those who knew him.
 

Damascus
June 24, 2004.