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Youssef Diaa Al-Din Al-Khalidi

Personal Info

  • Country of residence: Turkey
  • Gender: Male
  • Born in: 1842
  • Age: 181
  • Curriculum vitae :

Information

Yusuf Diaa al-Din al-Khalidi (born in 1842 in Jerusalem - died in 1906 in Istanbul), was known for his critical stances on the policies of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. He graduated in political positions in the Ottoman Empire, and assumed the presidency of the municipality of Jerusalem in the years 1876 to 1873, then he was appointed as its deputy at « The Council of Envoys” i.e. the Ottoman parliament before he appointed an Ottoman consul in the Russian city of “Poti”.

His upbringing and education
He was born in Jerusalem to a distinguished family. His father, Muhammad Ali, was a judge in Marash and Erzurum during the Ottoman rule. His maternal grandfather, Musa al-Khalidi, was a judge in the Anatolian military.

Yusef Diaa al-Din al-Khalidi received his first education in the “Honorary School” in Jerusalem, then he wanted to continue his studies at Al-Azhar, but his father arranged for him to study at the Protestant College on the island of Malta, where he remained there for two years, during which he studied arithmetic and the Greek, French and English languages, and in 1859 he worked He was a trainee lieutenant in the Sharia court in Jerusalem, then to Istanbul to study medicine, but she did not impress him, so he left it after two years, and proceeded to enroll in the American Robert College there to study engineering, but he did not finish it due to the death of his father and his return to Jerusalem in 1867. He took office in September 1867 He assumed the mayorship of Jerusalem, and in March 1873 he was appointed as a translator at the Foreign Ministry in Istanbul. He was influenced by the thinker Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and was on good terms with him.

Translator and author of the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary
He was appointed as a translator at the Foreign Ministry in Istanbul, as he was fluent in Arabic, Turkish, Latin, English and French, as well as Kurdish, which he learned between 1887 and 1893.

Yusef al-Khalidi is the author of the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary entitled The Hamidian Gift, published in 1893 in Istanbul. The dictionary includes 5425 alphabetic words, and includes an introduction to the structure of the Kurdish language and its grammatical characteristics. There are two original copies of the dictionary, one in his family and the other in the Beyazit Library. in Istanbul.

His position on Palestine and the Zionist movement
Al-Khalidi played a major role in the opposition political factions that were established to prevent the Ottoman Empire's attempts to violate the constitution. Al-Khalidi was familiar with Zionist thought and the anti-Semitic environment in Europe from which it emerged. He also recognized the danger that Zionism could present to Jews throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Al-Khalidi expressed his fears that Zionism would threaten the friendly relations between Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and on March 19, 1899, he wrote a letter to Theodore Herzl through Herzl's friend Zadok Khan, the chief rabbi of France, asking him to give up Palestine with the aim of establishing a Jewish state, in which he said: “Palestine is part of It is inseparable from the Ottoman Empire, and it is inhabited today by non-Jews, and this country is sanctified by 390 million Christians and 300 million Muslims, so what right do the Jews claim for themselves? Jewish money will not be able to buy Palestine, and therefore its possession will only be with the power of cannons and warships... So until Herzl obtained the approval of Sultan Abdul Hamid on the Zionist plan, he must not think that the day will come when the Zionists will become the masters of this country.

The letter was shown to Theodore Herzl on 19 March 1899, who replied to Khalidi in French with a letter stating that both the Ottoman Empire and the non-Jewish population of Palestine would benefit from Jewish immigration, as "the Zionists do not intend to expel the Arabs or dispossess them, but rather they will bring good and prosperity for the country.” This message is considered the only one addressed by "Herzl" to an Arab leader.

According to Rashid Khalidi, Alexander Schulch, and Dominique Perrin, Khalidi was prescient in predicting that, regardless of Jewish historical rights, given the geopolitical context, Zionism could spark an awakening of Arab nationalism that would unite Christians and Muslims. He died in Istanbul in 1906.

 

 

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Achievements and Awards

He received several decorations of varying degrees from Austria, Hungary, Russia and Germany.

 

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