Symbols and Figures of the State in Syria (24): Lotfi Al-Haffar

1. Lutfi Al-Haffar was born in the Al-Shaghour neighborhood of Damascus in 1885. He came from a prestigious and conservative family.
2. He studied Islamic jurisprudence under the scholar Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi and the Grand Mufti of the Levant, Sheikh Ata Allah al-Kassem. He tried to enroll at the American University of Beirut, but his father, the merchant Hassan Al-Haffar, prevented him from doing so.
3. In his youth, he was one of the founders of the Arab Renaissance Society in 1906, which aimed to raise Arab national awareness and combat illiteracy among the people of Damascus by establishing reading rooms in various neighborhoods of the city.
4. Al-Haffar was passionate about reading and eager for bold, unconventional ideas in a conservative society. For example, he called for the liberation of women from the control of men, in addition to authoring several valuable studies on Shakespeare’s theater and the acting profession in Damascus.
5. He avoided mandatory military service after his father donated four hundred kilograms of beans annually to support the Ottoman Empire’s war effort. During World War I, he devoted himself to community work and writing for newspapers.
6. He was elected Vice President of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce in 1922 and was assigned to the joint customs committee between Syria and Lebanon.
7. In collaboration with the Chamber’s president, Aref Al-Halawani, he issued a monthly economic bulletin and wrote in it an article against smuggling to Palestine and Lebanon, and another calling for teaching traditional crafts in public schools instead of focusing solely on studying medicine and engineering.
8. In October 1925, he traveled to Beirut as a representative of the Chamber of Commerce to negotiate with High Commissioner Maurice Sarrail to stop the shelling of Damascus during the Great Syrian Revolt.
9. He reached a settlement with the French that consisted of stopping the bombardment in exchange for the withdrawal of all armed men and their return to Eastern Ghouta.
10. In the same year, he was elected Chairman of the Relief Committee for the Victims of the Revolution in Damascus, and he provided food and clothing for eight thousand people, including children, the elderly, and the homeless.
11. He participated in the founding of the People’s Party with Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Shahbandar in 1925, but the party did not last long due to the outbreak of the Great Syrian Revolt.
12. He was appointed Minister of Public Works and Trade for five weeks in 1926 in a national government formed by Damat Ahmad Nami, but the French ordered his arrest on charges of communicating with the rebels in Damascus’ Ghouta.
13. He was exiled to Al-Hasakah along with his fellow ministers Fares Al-Khoury and Hosni Al-Barazi.
14. Upon their release and return to Damascus after an exile that lasted three years, he joined both men in founding the National Bloc, the largest political coalition in the country during the occupation. It aimed to achieve the evacuation of the French and the unity of Syrian lands and complete independence through political action, via constitutional institutions, parliament, and the executive authority, instead of armed struggle.
15. He became one of the most prominent figures in the National Bloc’s office in Damascus, alongside Shukri Al-Quwatli, Fakhri Al-Baroudi, and Jamil Mardam Bey. He was elected as a representative of his city to draft the first republican constitution in 1928 and retained his parliamentary seat continuously until 1949.
16. In the summer of 1920, he traveled to Egypt and roamed the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. He was deeply impressed by the advanced water network system spread throughout the major cities, comparing it to Damascus, whose residents relied solely on the Barada River for drinking water—often polluted and responsible for many diseases and epidemics.
17. He decided to study the Egyptian experience and apply it in Damascus. He held extensive meetings with Syrian investors living in Cairo who owned shares in the Egyptian Water Company and visited the company’s offices to meet with its managers and technical engineers.
18. The Syrian shareholders expressed complete satisfaction with their investment in the project, saying they would not sell their shares no matter how much profit they made, noting that their annual returns sometimes reached twenty percent of their invested capital.
19. He returned to Damascus after fully envisioning the project of establishing a private joint-stock company aimed at channeling the water of Ain Al-Fijeh spring to the Syrian capital—one of the purest and coldest spring waters in the Middle East.
20. He presented the idea to Aref Al-Halawani, who immediately accepted it, and the Damascus Chamber of Commerce adopted it.
21. Due to the Roman vaults near the Fijeh spring at the foot of the Barada Valley, it became clear to Al-Haffar and Al-Halbouni that the Romans had used that same water during their rule in Damascus centuries ago.
22. The idea was not new at all; it was initiated by the Ottoman governor Nazim Pasha in 1905, when he transported that natural water to the city through pipelines, amounting at the time to two thousand cubic meters per day.
23. He returned to the records of the Damascus Municipality and found that the cost of transporting water in 1905 was forty thousand gold liras.
24. He approached the head of the Damascus Municipality, Yahya Al-Sawwaf, and obtained his support for the project, then requested a legal study from his friend Fares Al-Khoury.
25. It was presented before the Chamber of Commerce Council in January 1922 and was adopted as the cornerstone of the Fijeh project.
26. The merchants of Damascus decided to establish a national joint-stock company, the first of its kind between the public and private sectors, aiming to “transport and distribute the water of the Ain Al-Fijeh spring to the residents of the city of Damascus,” in exchange for a sum of money they would pay annually for the quantities of water they wished to subscribe to, with the water ownership being registered in the land registry for all Damascus homes.
27. A committee was formed to obtain the legal concession in the name of “the City of Damascus,” which included, in addition to Al-Haffar, Al-Halbouni, and Al-Khoury, the notable Sami Pasha Mardam Bey, Damascus deputy in the Syrian federal government, Anton Siyoufi, son of the owner of the Sabbagh and Siyoufi Bank, Ata Al-Azmeh representing the capital’s municipality, and its head Yahya Al-Sawwaf.
28. The committee requested a technical consultation from the government of Prime Minister Subhi Barakat, which sent the water engineer Roushdi Salhab to the Chamber of Commerce. He presented a detailed report to the members and estimated that the project costs would reach 150 thousand Ottoman gold liras.
29. Al-Haffar decided to open public subscription on this basis, after obtaining all legal approvals, to sell one cubic meter of water in installments to those wishing to buy it at a price of 30 gold liras.
30. At that time, two French companies appeared behind the backs of the Syrian merchants, seeking to obtain the same concession, supported by several French advisors residing in Beirut.
31. Al-Haffar submitted the request to what was known as the “Economic Studies Committee” chaired by High Commissioner Maxime Weygand, which met in Beirut at the end of each month, but the request was met with procrastination and repeated postponement by French officials and their Syrian and Lebanese aides.
32. A large bribe was offered to them, consisting of shares in the French company worth twenty thousand gold liras, and a permanent membership in the board of directors with annual returns of no less than 500 Ottoman liras. The condition was that they withdraw their request submitted on behalf of the merchants of Damascus to the High Commission in Beirut.
33. Al-Haffar pretended to accept the offer, and it was circulated in political circles at his direct request, in order to secure himself from the French investors. He told everyone that he had indeed withdrawn from the project, then traveled to Beirut to attend the monthly session of the economic committee chaired by Maxime Weygand, and as soon as he entered, he reopened the topic of the concession.
34. The French general was surprised by his question about the project, as he had been informed that the Syrians had completely withdrawn from it. Al-Haffar then revealed to him everything that had happened, including all the threats and bribes.
35. Weygand signed the concession the next day and handed it to Al-Haffar himself, saying: “This is your project signed by me. I can only approve it after seeing such enthusiasm in you, but I hope this experience succeeds.” That was in February 1924, after about two years of continuous back and forth.
36. Construction work began immediately but stopped after a year and a half due to the outbreak of the Great Syrian Revolt.
37. After that, a new committee was formed to reactivate the project after a three-year hiatus. It included a number of dignitaries: Louis Qashisho representing the Christians, Iklil Mouayyad Al-Azm from the major Damascus families, Moussa Touth representing the Jewish community council, and Muhammad Saeed Al-Yousef, son of the Damascus Hajj Emir during the Ottoman era, Abdul Rahman Pasha Al-Yousef. They established the Water Owners Association, which was headed by Abdul Hamid Diab, the merchant and industrialist later associated with the Khamasiyah Company.
38. Lutfi Al-Haffar asked the founders to postpone the installments for all investors and shareholders whose properties and shops were destroyed during the French assault on Damascus. As a result of the increase in Damascus’ population from displaced persons due to those bloody events, the number of workers was raised to 2,500 to dig forty tunnels in the mountains between Damascus and the Fijeh spring, and a new reservoir was placed on the highest peak of Mount Qasioun, with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters, four times larger than the Al-Salihiyah reservoir, to meet the needs of the new residents of Damascus.
39. The project was inaugurated ten years after the beginning of the dream on August 3, 1932, in the presence of the newly elected President of the Republic, Muhammad Ali Al-Abid, who gave a speech and blessed the efforts of the residents and merchants. He was followed on the podium by Fares Al-Khoury, as one of the founding fathers of the Fijeh project, who addressed the audience by saying: “Yes, our nation is poor in money, but it is rich in national faith, and when a nation has faith, it is capable of working miracles.”
40. In the 1920s, Al-Haffar participated in founding the People’s Party and then the National Bloc. He worked on drafting the Syrian constitution, and in 1936 he was among the architects of a nationwide general strike, known as the sixty-day strike, which was a response by nationalists to the arrest of their colleague, the deputy Fakhri Al-Baroudi.
41. Lutfi al-Haffar was arrested again by the French and released after reaching a political settlement with President Hashim al-Atassi, during which a delegation from the National Bloc traveled to France and reached an agreement granting Syria gradual independence over twenty-five years, in exchange for giving France military and cultural rights in the country in the event of a second world war in Europe.
42. The 1936 treaty led to the resignation of President Muhammad Ali al-Abid and the election of Hashim al-Atassi as his successor. It also brought Fares al-Khoury to the presidency of parliament.
43. He was appointed Minister of Finance in the government of President Jamil Mardam Bey from December 1936 until July 1938.
44. In February 1939, President Hashim al-Atassi tasked his friend Lutfi al-Haffar with forming a new government to succeed Jamil Mardam Bey’s, but his ministry lasted no more than forty days due to clashes between nationalists and the French Mandate authorities after the French Parliament refused to ratify the 1936 treaty and separated the Sanjak of Alexandretta, handing it over to France before the outbreak of World War II.
45. Al-Haffar resigned from his post, followed a few months later by the resignation of President Hashim al-Atassi, bringing the entire nationalist era to a collapse by mid-summer of 1939.
46. Afterwards, he was subjected to several harassments by the French, such as being accused along with his companions Jamil Mardam Bey and Saadallah al-Jabiri of assassinating their political rival Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Shahbandar, who was killed in his clinic in Damascus in July 1940.
47. He condemned all the accusations and was deeply saddened by this tragic incident, especially since al-Shahbandar was one of his close friends, despite their political rivalry stemming from the latter’s opposition to the 1936 agreement.
48. The three leaders — Lutfi al-Haffar, Saadallah al-Jabiri, and Jamil Mardam Bey — fled to Iraq and were hosted by Prime Minister Nuri al-Said until they were completely acquitted of all charges before the French military court in Damascus.
49. His daughter Salma al-Haffar wrote a book about her father’s experience during the al-Shahbandar assassination incident, published under the title “Hala’s Diaries.”
50. In August 1943, Lutfi al-Haffar re-entered the House of Representatives as a deputy for Damascus and was elected on the National Bloc list alongside President Shukri al-Quwatli. He assumed the post of Minister of Interior during his term from August 1945 until April 1946.
51. By assignment from President al-Quwatli, al-Haffar contributed to the founding of the Arab League in Egypt and was appointed a member of the Bloudan Conference and Syria’s representative to the League’s permanent council in Cairo.
52. At the beginning of the independence era, the National Bloc was transformed into a political party called the National Party, and al-Haffar became its president in 1947.
53. During the Palestine War, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister under Jamil Mardam Bey, a position created especially for him.
54. When Husni al-Za’im’s coup occurred in March 1949, al-Haffar, accompanied by fifty deputies, went to an emergency meeting at the Foreign Ministry building after the suspension of parliament and the constitution. The meeting was called by Fares al-Khoury to discuss how to deal with Syria’s new military ruler.
55. On that day, al-Haffar told his colleagues: “The deputies of this nation, the deputies of this council, have sworn an oath to respect the constitution and uphold its provisions. The coup that took place yesterday is a violation of the constitution and a flagrant assault upon it and upon the sovereignty of the country.” He described the arrest of the President and Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm as a “crime” that must never be tolerated.
56. Al-Haffar’s words reached Husni al-Za’im immediately, who ordered that he be placed under house arrest. He was not released until the intervention of Lebanese Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Karami.
57. In the mid-1950s, he ran for the presidency of Syria against former Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm but withdrew from the race before it began after the return of Shukri al-Quwatli from exile in Egypt and his nomination for the presidency.
58. When al-Quwatli won, he tried to return the favor to his old friend and offered him the premiership again. However, the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party strongly opposed this appointment, considering Lutfi al-Haffar to represent the peak of capitalism, which the socialists sought to eliminate and remove from power.
59. Al-Haffar announced his retirement from political life due to reaching the age of seventy and devoted himself to his family and writing. He hosted a cultural salon in his home every Wednesday and followed theater movements in Syria and Lebanon.
60. He appeared publicly at the Damascus International Fair during a concert by Umm Kulthum, singing along with her emotionally to “Daleeli Ehtaar.” He never missed a Fairuz evening at the Baalbek Festivals since 1957.
61. He did not like the chaotic way in which the Syrian-Egyptian union was executed but blessed it and sent congratulations to President Gamal Abdel Nasser, which were published in Egyptian and Syrian newspapers.
62. He was harshly critical in private of the Syrian officers who handed the country over to the Egyptian president and agreed to transfer the capital to Cairo and dissolve all political parties. It appears that these words reached President Nasser, who banned him from returning to Syria in March 1958.
63. He lived in Beirut for ten consecutive months during which he was forced to resign from his position as General Inspector of the Ain al-Fijeh Institution in Damascus, which he had taken during retirement to cover his financial deficit.
64. The Egyptian authorities cut off his pension, disregarding his role in establishing the Syrian Water Authority. He filed a lawsuit to reclaim his rights — totaling 25,000 Syrian lira — which lawyer Abdul Qader al-Midani won for him against the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.
65. Nader al-Kuzbari, ambassador of the United Arab Republic to Argentina and husband of writer Salma al-Haffar al-Kuzbari, mediated with former Egyptian ambassador to Damascus Mahmoud Riyad to allow his uncle’s return from forced exile. The answer came from Abdel Nasser personally, with approval, on the condition that his return be via Cairo Airport, not Beirut, and that he first stop at the Qubba Palace to write statements of praise, loyalty, and reverence to Gamal Abdel Nasser.
66. Al-Haffar agreed to this request, as he did not wish to start a confrontation with Syria’s new ruler, and he returned to Damascus a few days later, sad and distressed.
67. His son-in-law Nader al-Kuzbari was dismissed from his position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which later turned out to be an additional attempt to punish Lutfi al-Haffar for his positions.
68. Afterwards, Abdel Nasser issued an order to investigate Lutfi al-Haffar regarding an amount of money he had received from the government when he was Minister of the Interior in 1944 to distribute to a number of Syrian journalists. Since al-Haffar did not dispose of any paper or receipt, he proved that he had repaid the required amount since 1949, but the authorities refused to acknowledge this and forced him to repay it again, even if from his own pocket.
69. It was no secret in Damascus that Lutfi al-Haffar, once a wealthy man, was suffering from a severe financial crisis, forcing him to sell his house on Abu Rummaneh Street to one of his friends, Salah Sheikh al-Ard, to pay off the accumulated debts caused by his constant spending on the nationalist movement from youth to old age.
70. When the secession coup took place in 1961, Voice of the Arabs radio in Cairo opened fire on Lutfi al-Haffar, and Al-Ahram newspaper described him as “one of the great old feudalists known for always being loyal to colonialism and reactionary forces.” Lutfi al-Haffar responded to these accusations calmly and said: “Gamal Abdel Nasser has not spared anyone from his evil and lies, but I was not concerned with what was in his speech of falsehood and slander and did not pay attention to it and relied on not responding.”
71. The insults did not stop there. On March 28, 1962, Lutfi al-Haffar was arrested again in Mezzeh Military Prison, despite having retired from politics for many years and his advanced age — he was nearly eighty at the time.
72. He was arrested along with Prime Minister Maarouf al-Dawalibi, Parliament Speaker Maamoun al-Kuzbari, and former Prime Ministers Khalid al-Azm and Sabri al-Asali. A soldier entered Lutfi al-Haffar’s house and said to him: “Sir, I hope you will accompany me immediately and not blame me for disturbing you. I am just following orders. We are your sons.” Al-Haffar angrily replied: “No, you are not our sons because we did not raise our sons to storm citizens’ homes and arrest them without a warrant or to play with nations and destroy laws. Give me a moment to prepare my medicine.” He was then taken to prison in a military jeep in the middle of the night, shivering from the biting cold, and cried out in a frail voice: “I am sick, I am cold… have mercy on me, people.”
73. They placed him in a large cell with only one bathroom for about thirty detainees. They stayed there for two weeks, eating only one loaf of bread a day and five olives.
74. Al-Haffar was released and returned home on April 11, 1961.
75. He did not live long afterward and died in his home in Damascus on February 4, 1968. Above his head was a plaque in Arabic script inscribed with verses from the Holy Qur’an: “And We made from water every living thing,” and another that read: “And their Lord will give them a pure drink.”
76. In 1954, some of Lutfi al-Haffar’s articles and speeches were compiled into a book edited by Syrian journalist Wajih Baydoun, and al-Haffar supervised its printing in Damascus.
77. In 1997, writer Salma al-Haffar al-Kuzbari published a comprehensive book about her father’s life entitled “Lutfi al-Haffar: His Memoirs, His Life and…”

We in the Syrian Future Movement, as we commemorate the legacy of the founding statesmen of Syria, recall one of the country’s influential figures and a prominent symbol of the early Syrian state who contributed to shaping its structure: the Water Bearer of Damascus, Lotfi al-Haffar. We present him within a sequential file featuring the symbols and figures of the Syrian state, stemming from our desire to connect our contemporary present with a solid past and pivotal historical moments — in the hope of reviving in our people the need to cultivate and shape true statesmen. Let us learn from their experiences, overcome their shortcomings, and build upon their legacy, so we may safeguard the homeland, preserve its gains, and restore the Syrian state’s dignity and glory after years of injustice, tyranny, and corruption.