Symbols and Figures of the State in Syria (25) Jamil Mardam Bey

• Born in 1895 in Damascus, Jamil Mardam Bey is a descendant of an ancient political family from the Mardam Bey family, whose origins date back to his great-grandfather Mustafa Lala Pasha, the conqueror of Cyprus in the sixteenth century.
• His grandfather, Osman Mardam Bey, emerged as one of the city’s notables in the latter half of the 19th century.
• Othman Mardam Bey was a wealthy man who owned the entire village of Hosh al-Mutaben in Ghouta Damascus, Khan al-Zayt in Madhat Pasha’s market, Hosh al-Husseinina in Wadi al-Ajam, the entire village of Khan al-Sheih, and large tracts of land in Hosh al-Salhiyah, which later became known as Bustan al-Rais.
• He studied in Damascus and attended the Institute of Political Science in Paris, where he worked with a group of Arab students to found the Young Arab Society to liberate Syria from Ottoman rule.
• He participated in the organization of the First Arab Congress in France in 1913 and was elected its secretary general. He was sentenced to death by Jamal Pasha, the military ruler of Syria, and remained in France until the end of World War I in 1918.
• He traveled to Latin American countries as a representative of the Arab Conference to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the Girl’s Association and the Arab community residing there.
• He returned to Damascus and pledged allegiance to Prince Faisal bin al-Hussein as Arab ruler of Syria, becoming his personal interpreter due to his fluency in French.
• In January 1919, he traveled to France with Prince Faisal to attend the Paris Peace Conference, where he served as a translator during the prince’s meetings with French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.
• When the government of Lieutenant General Reda Pasha al-Rikabi was formed after Faisal was crowned king of Syria on March 8, 1920, Jamil Mardam Bey was appointed assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Shahbandar.
• After the fall of the monarchy in Syria and the imposition of the French mandate in 1920, he joined the ranks of the national movement led by Abdul Rahman al-Shahbandar, and participated in the establishment of the People’s Party, which aimed to liberate the country from any foreign domination and establish a monarchical rule in Syria, in which the throne would belong to one of the sons of Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the leader of the Great Arab Revolution.
• The party was launched in the summer of 1925 and a large number of patriots joined its ranks, such as Fawzi al-Ghazi, Fares al-Khoury, and Lotfi al-Haffar, but the party only lasted for a short time as it was eliminated on the day the Great Syrian Revolution was declared, due to its members’ support for its leader, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash.
• He worked with al-Shahbandar and the leaders of the People’s Party to move the revolution from Jabal al-Druze to Damascus, and bought weapons and smuggled them to the Ghouta rebels through his village in Hosh al-Mutaben.
• France ordered his arrest and exile to Arwad Castle Prison and then placed him under house arrest in the Palestinian city of Jaffa, where he remained until the end of the revolution in mid-1927.
• After his release from detention, he joined a new political organization called the National Bloc, headed by Hashim al-Atassi, one of the leaders of the Syrian national movement.
• The National Bloc sought to liberate Syria from French rule through political struggle and the ballot box, raising the slogan of “honorable cooperation” with the occupation government in order to achieve full and unconditional independence.
• The bloc’s initiative came after the failure of the Great Syrian Revolution to achieve any of its declared goals, and immediately led to a major split in the national movement, between those advocating the continuation of the armed struggle, represented by Abd al-Rahman al-Shahbandar, and those demanding the laying down of arms, represented by Jamil Mardam Bey.
• A general conference of the National Bloc was held in the city of Homs in 1932, at which a permanent council was elected with Hashim al-Atassi as president for life, Fares al-Khoury as dean, Ibrahim Hanano as leader, and Jamil Mardam Bey and Shukri al-Qutli, both Damascus leaders, as permanent representatives to the permanent council of the bloc.
• In the same year, he was elected as a deputy from Damascus in the Syrian parliament, representing the National Bloc.
• When Muhammad Ali al-Abed was elected president, he offered Jamil Mardam Bey the Ministry of Finance in the French-aligned government of President Haqi al-Azm.
• This request was frowned upon by the nationalists, who refused to give any legitimacy to Haqi al-Azm, but Mardam Bey accepted the appointment and entered the government despite the opposition of Aleppo’s leader Ibrahim Hanano.
• He tried to convince Hanano by saying that having one national leader in this government is better than having it completely devoid of any national figure.
• Hanano came to Damascus from Aleppo, went to the home of Jamil Mardam Bey’s sister, and ordered the latter to come from the Ministry of Finance to find a table in the center of the room with his resignation letter and a pistol, asking him to choose between them.
• Due to the amount of pressure, he was forced to resign in April 1933.
• Upon leaving office, he toured the Arab world, including a meeting with King Abdulaziz Al Saud, reminding opponents and friends alike that he was still the most difficult figure among the bloc’s leaders.
• Hanano died in November 1935. Violent clashes occurred during his funeral between National Bloc youth and policemen, leading to the arrest of Damascus leader and deputy Fakhri al-Baroudi, who was accused by France of inciting the street against the Mandate government.
• The National Bloc organized a sixty-day general strike in all Syrian cities, led by Jamil Mardam Bey, who preached from the pulpit of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on January 21, 1936, calling for the expulsion of the French from Syria.
• France responded by arresting him and exiling him to the town of Azaz on the Syrian-Turkish border, but released him two months later when the Paris government agreed to negotiate with the leaders of the National Bloc as legitimate representatives of the Syrian people.
• A high-level delegation was formed to go to Paris and negotiate with the government of President Edouard Deladier, including Hashim Atassi, Jamil Mardam Bey, and Saadallah al-Jabri, representatives of the National Bloc, and representatives of President Muhammad Ali al-Abid, in addition to three advisors.
• Deladier’s government fell while the National Bloc delegation was in Paris and was succeeded by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Léon Blum.
• In September 1936, the National Bloc signed a historic agreement with the French government that gave the Syrians the right to gradual independence over twenty-five years. Syria was allowed to have a national army on the condition that France would train and arm it, and two permanent military bases on the Syrian coast were given to French forces, in addition to transit facilities for French goods and exports. France also agreed to reintegrate the Alawite and Druze states into the territory of the Syrian Republic, and the two sides agreed to a mutual defense agreement, giving the French army the right to use the land, air, and sea in Syria in the event of a new world war in Europe.
• The celebrations lasted four days and nights in Syria, followed by President Abed’s resignation from office and the holding of early parliamentary and presidential elections, in which Hashim al-Atassi won the presidency and Jamil Mardam Bey became the first prime minister in what was known as the First National Era.
• The government of Jamil Mardam Bey was formed on December 21, 1936, in which the prime minister assumed the portfolio of national economy, appointed his colleague Saadallah al-Jabri as minister of foreign affairs, handed over Shukri al-Qutli as minister of finance and defense, and brought Dr. Abd al-Rahman al-Kayyali from Aleppo as minister of knowledge and justice.
• The great joy was short-lived as the French parliament rejected the terms of the agreement and launched a press campaign against it in major French newspapers, in which some sixty French organizations with business interests in the Levant, including tramway, electricity, and railway companies, participated.
• In June 1937, Leon Blum left office and Edouard Daladier returned to power, raising the slogan of “clinging to the French Empire.” President Jamil Mardam Bey traveled to Paris in November 1937 and signed several annexes to the Syrian-French treaty, including additional guarantees for minorities and emphasizing the use of permanent French experts in Syrian government institutions.
• Mardam Bey went to Paris in August 1938 and stayed there for three months, during which he signed additional concessions and gave the French the right to explore for oil in the eastern region, and guaranteed them the status of the French language in the Syrian educational curriculum and a fixed number of advisors and experts in all branches of the state.
• Under the general amnesty issued after the signing of the treaty, Abd al-Rahman al-Shahbandar returned to Syria on May 14, 1937, after an enforced absence of nearly twelve years, and opened fire on Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey, accusing the former ally of giving France too many political and economic concessions.
• School students, government employees and representatives of trade unions turned out in their thousands with pictures of Shahbandar in all the streets and squares of Damascus, calling him Syria’s Zaghloul, after the great Egyptian leader Saad Zaghloul, head of the Wafd Party and leader of his country’s struggle against British rule.
• Mardam Bey was greatly disturbed by this hospitality, and he and all the men of his rule were absent from all the events held for Shahbandar.
• The agreement signed between Jamil Mardam Bey and the government of Leon Blum was full of unforgivable political and legal lapses and humiliating and unjustified concessions, adding that it legitimized the mandate and gave the French far more than they deserved to decide the future of Syria. In his press talks and public speeches, Shahbandar strongly blamed the Mardamian government, considering that it came to power on the blood of the martyrs of the great Syrian revolution, saying that it came to power on the blood of the martyrs of the great Syrian revolution.
• In response to Shahbandar and his campaign, Mardam Bey refused to give him a license to practice political work in Damascus. He then ordered him to be placed under house arrest and arrested a number of his supporters for holding unauthorized political meetings in the al-Midan neighborhood during which they incited against the safety of the state and its republican system.
• On June 16, 1938, Jamil Mardam Bey suffered an assassination attempt at the entrance to the Saraya when a bomb placed in his car exploded, and fingers were immediately pointed at Shahbandar and his associates.
• One of the most serious challenges facing President Mardam Bey was the issue of the Iskenderun Brigade, which was annexed in stages to Turkey during the years 1936-1939. France gave the brigade to Turkey to ensure its neutrality in the upcoming World War in Europe, and Jamil Mardam Bey’s inability to protect that area sparked a violent attack against him by al-Shahbandar and other Syrian politicians.
• The fact that he stopped in Ankara on his return from France and spent a night in the hospitality of President Kemal Ataturk further fueled a rumor in Damascus that Jamil Mardam Bey had “sold the brigade” to Turkey.
• The flaying of the brigade led to the displacement of at least 50,000 refugees into Syria, which greatly embarrassed the National Bloc government and showed its complete inability to contain the crisis
• The issue of the decree regulating personal status in Syria, issued by High Commissioner Henri de Martel, came to light. Under this law, any Syrian citizen who reached the age of majority was allowed to choose his religion and freely move from one sect to another, or from one religion to another, without informing the Mullah Council, the church, or the Dar al-Ifta, and the law also allowed any Mardam Bey, known for his secular leanings since the Faisalist era, was inclined to ratify the French decree and had obtained the approval of his colleague in the National Bloc, Justice Minister Abdul Rahman al-Kayyali, a graduate of the American University of Beirut who was also influenced by Western secular thought. But he quickly realized the impossibility of this, under pressure from religious associations and scholars, led by Sheikh Kamel al-Qassab, who threatened armed rebellion against the Mardamian government if Jamil Mardam Bey completed his project.
• After giving his initial approval to the decision, he disavowed it and gave a contrary order to all Syrian courts not to apply it, arguing that it had not been approved by parliament.
• He then resigned from office on February 23, 1939, to satisfy the conservative Syrian street. Before leaving his office in the Grand Serail, he formed a committee to re-examine the law, consisting of Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al-Astwani, Sheikh Kamel al-Qassab, President of the Court of Cassation Mustafa Barmada, and Judge Hanna Malik, who decided to postpone the decision indefinitely.
• On June 6, 1940, Abdul Rahman al-Shahbandar was assassinated in his medical clinic in Damascus, and fingers were pointed at former Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey and his comrades in the National Bloc, Saadallah al-Jabri and Lutfi al-Haffar, due to the historical rivalry between them and al-Shahbandar.
• The three fled to Iraq and were guests of the government of President Nouri al-Saeed, and were tried in absentia in Syria on charges of incitement to murder.
• One of the perpetrators reported that Jamil Mardam Bey sent them money and guns through his office manager, the young lawyer Assem al-Naeli, who incited them against al-Shahbandar, saying he was a secular atheist and an agent of British intelligence in Syria.
• Jamil Mardam Bey returned to Damascus with his comrades after they were acquitted of all charges against them and the criminals were convicted of trying to frame the National Bloc leaders to get rid of both them and Shahbandar, at the behest of French intelligence.
• When the National Bloc returned to power and Shukri al-Qutli was elected president in the summer of 1943, Jamil Mardam Bey was appointed ambassador to Egypt and then foreign minister in the government of President Saadallah al-Jabri, and from this position, he participated in the establishment of the Arab League in 1944.
• On October 14, 1944, he received the portfolios of economy and defense in the government of President Fares al-Khoury, in addition to the portfolio of foreign affairs.
• He led the negotiations with France to take over all joint interests from the Mandatory Authority, including civil and military airports, the tobacco industry, and the electricity company, and was on the front lines when foreign forces evacuated Syria on April 17, 1946.
• France tried to arrest him on the day of its aggression against Damascus on May 29, 1945, and tried to liquidate President Shukri al-Qutli and Parliament Speaker Saadallah al-Jabri, but Mardam Bey escaped from the government house in Marjeh Square and went to the house of former Prime Minister Khaled al-Azm in Saroja Market, where he stayed with his cabinet members until the aggression ended under British intervention with General Charles de Gaulle on June 1, 1945.
• At the beginning of the independence era, he returned to prominence when he was tasked with forming the government on October 7, 1947.
• Following the death of President Saadallah al-Jabri, he appointed jurist Said al-Ghazi as Minister of Justice, Dr. Munir al-Ajlani as Minister of Knowledge, Dr. Mohsen al-Barazi as Minister of Interior, and Ahmad al-Sharbati as Minister of Defense.
• During his reign, the Syrian constitution was amended to allow President Shukri al-Qutli a new presidential term, which angered the political class in Aleppo and contributed to the birth of the People’s Party in the north of the country, which opposed the rule of the National Bloc in Damascus.
• Jamil Mardam Bey’s fifth and final reign witnessed the partition of Palestine, the establishment of the Salvation Army led by Fawzi al-Qawqji, the announcement of the birth of the State of Israel, and the entry of the Syrian army into the battlefield.
• After Mardam Bey was named martial law governor of Syria, he reshuffled his cabinet on August 22, 1948, creating the position of deputy prime minister, which went to his old friend Lotfi al-Haffar, and appointed lawyer Sabri al-Asli, one of the closest confidants of the president, to the interior portfolio, charging him with controlling the Syrian street that was revolting against his government because of the Zionist gangs’ advances in Palestine.
• During his reign, a number of dissidents were arrested, including Michel Aflaq, the founder of the Baath Party, and many daily newspapers were suspended.
• Before the end of the war, Jamil Mardam Bey resigned from his government in December 1948, announcing his complete withdrawal from politics due to the defeat of the Arab armies in Palestine.
• He lived his last years in Cairo, where he met President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who respected him and tried to convince him to return to Syria to run for the presidency in February 1954, after the demise of President Adib Shishakli, but Mardam Bey refused and published a statement in Syrian and Egyptian newspapers announcing his official retirement from politics.
• His last appearance was in February 1958, when he was invited to attend the birth of the United Arab Republic in Cairo, where he stood behind President Nasser and his old friend President Shukri al-Qutli.
• He died in Egypt at the age of 65 on March 28, 1960, and his body was returned to Damascus, where he was buried in the Mardamiya family cemetery.
• He left a collection of papers and diaries, some of which were published by his only daughter, Salma Mardam Bey, in a book titled “Papers of Jamil Mardam Bey” published in Beirut in 1994 and later translated into English.

We at Syrian Future Movement, as we recall the memory of the founding statesmen of Syria, we recall one of Syria’s influential men, and one of the symbols of the first Syrian state flags who contributed to influencing its structure, “Jamil Mardam Bey” within a sequential file that we present to you to include the symbols and flags of the Syrian state, in our desire to link our contemporary present to a solid past and historical stations, with the hope that we revive in our people the need to build and create statesmen par excellence. We hope to revive in our people the need to build and create statesmen par excellence, learn from their experiences, overcome their negatives, build on their history, preserve the homeland, safeguard the gains, and restore the Syrian state to its glory after the years of oppression, tyranny and corruption.