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Haider Toukan (1871-1952) - Member of the Nablus Municipal Council , and member of the Ottoman Parliament in 1912, Mayor of Nablus for a short period, one of the leading figures of the opposition in Nablus.
the biography
He is Haidar bin Ali Bey Touqan, born in Nablus in 1871. He worked as an employee in the Ottoman Agricultural Bank in Nablus, then became the deputy director of that branch in Tulkarm . He was chosen as a member of the Nablus Municipal Council and its Education Committee, and later as a member of the General Administration Council in Beirut , which served as the parliament for the province to which it belonged. After 1908, Haidar Touqan became one of the strongest supporters of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Nablus district. He won a seat in the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies in 1912 with the help of the Committee and the governor, Fathi Pasha. Touqan traveled to Istanbul as a representative of the Nablus and Balqa districts in the Ottoman Parliament. It is said that during this period he obtained some hairs of the Prophet Muhammad from the Ottoman capital and brought them back to Nablus. They were received with great ceremony and are still kept in a special cabinet to the left of the mihrab of the Hanbali Mosque in Nablus, the construction of which was funded by the state.
He also contributed to the expansion of the National Hospital in Nablus during this time and was chosen as vice-chairman of the committee responsible for the project. Like As'ad al-Shuqairi in Acre , he was a staunch supporter of Ottoman Islamic policy in Nablus and head of the Committee of Union and Progress in Nablus. Towards the end of World War I, he was appointed by the Ottomans as mayor of Nablus for a short period, succeeded by Omar Zu'ayter, the last mayor of Nablus under Ottoman rule. Haydar Bey was a strong rival of the Hammadi Society, headed by Tawfiq Hammad , during the late Ottoman period. He was elected to the Ottoman Parliament, but in 1913, Tawfiq Hammad was chosen as the leader of the opposing faction. Instead of him in the council, Haidar Bey turned to the opposition and became one of its prominent figures in the Nablus district.
Haidar Bey remained a supporter of conservative Islamic thought and an opponent of the policies of the Arab Executive Committee. In 1943, he supported the establishment of a branch of the Farmers' Party in his hometown in 1924 and was one of its prominent figures, under the leadership of Fayeq Masoud . This party arose after the rural and Bedouin populations felt that city dwellers had the lion's share in various political, economic, and educational fields, and the need arose for a party to advocate for the demands of these farmers, peasants, and Bedouins, a party that would have a strong influence on the government to demand their rights. The main objective was to oppose the national movement led by the Al-Husseini family . He was elected as a member of the Nablus Municipal Council for two years, 1925-1927. Haidar Bey Touqan retired from political life in the late 1920s and died in 1952.
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