| Description | This collection contains photocopied documents, reports and correspondences covering several Arab countries. The majority of the collection consists of letters and responses to Nabih Al-Azmah from renowned personalities of the period, such as Hajj Amin Al-Husayni, Amir Shakib Arslan, Shaykh Rashid Rida, Amir Adil Arslan, Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash, Asad Daghir, Shukri Al-Quwatli, Riyad Al-Sulh, Yasin Al-Hashimi, Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, Rashid Ali Al-Kaylani, and others. Also included is correspondence from King Abdul-Aziz Al-Sa'ud and Prince (King) Abdullah, and President Gamal Abdul-Nasser. Copies and drafts of some of Nabih's own letters are also found in the collection.
The collection also includes some papers originating from Adil Al-Azmah, who is known to have kept a large collection of private papers and official documents, although most of these were lost during his travels. What remains is a collection of personal diaries in which Adil noted his daily memoirs and comments while in various government positions. Also included is his rich correspondence with Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, which covers important chapters of the relations between the Arab countries and the Axis Powers during the Second World War.
Also included in the collection are political leaflets and pamphlets, agendas of meetings, and some state papers originating from periods of office held by the Al-Azmah brothers. |
| Admin History | Nabih Al-Azmah was born in Damascus in 1886 and graduated from the Military Academy in Istanbul. He had previously fought with the Ottoman Army against the Italians in Libya, and also served in the Ottoman Army in Anatolia and Great Syria during World War One. After graduation, he switched sides, joining the Arab Revolt, and was made Chief of Police in Aleppo under the Arab Kingdom between 1918 and 1920. He was then forced to leave Syria by the French authorities, spending the next 25 years in exile and dedicating himself to politics and to the Arab nationalist movement. In the 1920s and 1930s, he left an impact on politics in Transjordan and Palestine, Hijaz, Najd and Saudi Arabia, without distancing himself from the national movement in Syria. He was also an important member of the Syrian nationalist party Hizb al-Istiqlal al-Arabi. After independence, he returned to Syria, was briefly Minister of Defence, and then held the position of Chairman of the National Party until his retirement in the early 1950s. He died in 1972.
Throughout his struggles, Nabih Al-Azmah was accompanied by his younger brother, Adil (? 1888-1952). Adil Al-Azmah did not have a military background, graduating instead from the Royal Academy in Istanbul, which produced senior state officials. He worked as a lawyer in the early 1920s, was resident for a period in Transjordan, and participated in similar political activities to his brother, including a spell spent in Iraq in the early 1940s. After independence, he occupied various posts of government, including Minister of the Interior.
Nabih Al-Azmah and Adil Al-Azmeh are uncles of the depositor of the collection, Professor Aziz Al-Azmeh. |