Symbols and Flags of the State in Syria (26) Atta al-Ayoubi

• He was born in 1877 in Damascus, the scion of an ancient family, and his father, Muhammad Ali al-Ayoubi, was a notable person.
• He studied in schools in Damascus and at the Royal Institute in Istanbul, where he graduated with an advanced degree in political science.
• He then joined the government in the Ottoman Empire.
• He was appointed Qaim Maqam and then governor of the city of Latakia, after which he was transferred to Karak.
• He did not join the Great Arab Revolt that began in Hijaz in 1916 but pledged allegiance to its general leader, Sharif Hussein bin Ali, on the eve of the fall of Ottoman rule in Damascus on September 26, 1918.
• He was appointed as a member of the Transitional Governing Council formed in Damascus at the time, led by Prince Mohammed Said al-Jazairy, Ayoubi’s brother-in-law.
• Karima Al-Ayoubi Hefza was married to Prince Kazim Al-Jazairi, nephew of Prince Mohammed Said Al-Jazairi and grandson of the mujahideen Prince Abdelkader Al-Jazairi.
• This provisional government quickly fell after the Allied forces entered Damascus on October 3, 1918, and was replaced by a national government headed by General Reda Pasha al-Rikabi.
• Al-Rikabi appointed him Minister of Justice, a position he maintained throughout the Hashemite rule in Syria. He pledged allegiance to Prince Faisal bin al-Hussein as King and Arab over the country and witnessed his coronation ceremony at the Municipality Building in Damascus on March 8, 1920.
• After King Faisal I was deposed from the throne of Syria and before leaving Damascus, he appointed Alaa al-Din al-Droubi to form a new government, who in turn appointed Atta al-Ayoubi as Minister of Interior, replacing Minister Reda al-Solh (father of Lebanese Prime Minister Riad al-Solh).
• The people of the Horan Plain refused to recognize the legitimacy of the French Mandate on Syria and took up arms against the French, demanding the return of King Faisal I to the throne. They also refused to pay the financial fine imposed on them by the Mandate government as punishment for their support of the Syrian army in the Battle of Maysaloun.
• A high-level delegation was formed to negotiate with the people of Horan, headed by Prime Minister Alaa al-Din al-Droubi and including Interior Minister Atta al-Ayoubi and Shura Council Chairman Abd al-Rahman Pasha al-Yousef. The government delegation headed to Horan on August 21, 1920, and when the train stopped in the village of Khirbet Ghazala it was attacked by rebels loyal to King Faisal.
• Atta al-Ayoubi narrowly escaped death when a Damascene merchant from the al-Midan neighborhood, who recognized him at the train station, took him to a safe place so that he would not be caught by the rebels.
• He returned to Damascus and was again assigned the justice portfolio in the government of President Jamil al-Alashi, which was formed on September 6, 1920, and his duties included prosecuting the perpetrators of Khirbet Ghazaleh and bringing them to the gallows. However, Al-Alshi’s government resigned in protest against the division of Syria into states and the giving of four strategic districts to the State of Greater Lebanon, namely Hadabiya, Rashaya, the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek.
• A mini-government was then formed for the state of Damascus, headed by the ruler of the state, Haqi al-Azm, who kept Atta al-Ayoubi in the justice portfolio, until the latter resigned in protest against France’s policies on January 10, 1921.
• He was named Minister of Justice again by President Sobhi Barakat when the states of Damascus and Aleppo were merged with the Alawite Mountain state in what was known as the Syrian Federal Union, and he was appointed a member of the central federal parliament, representing Damascus along with Fares al-Khoury and Muhammad Ali al-Abid.
• He was able to enact a number of important laws, including a cost-of-living allowance and a monthly stipend for educated prisoners if they taught an illiterate prisoner.
• He maintained his position in the State of the Union from June 28, 1922 until August 31, 1925, when President Barakat’s government fell a few weeks after the outbreak of the Great Syrian Revolution in Jabal al-Druze, led by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash. He returned to the government as Minister of Justice one last time in March 1934, in the government of President Taj al-Din al-Hasani, which was formed after the end of the revolution and the arrival of Mohammad Ali al-Abid as President of the Republic of Syria, and remained as Minister until February 24, 1936.
• He refused to belong to any political party throughout his life but was close to the National Bloc, which was born in 1927, and its president, Hashim al-Atassi, an old friend of Ayoubi’s from his school days in Istanbul.
• Together with the leaders of the National Bloc, he contributed to the establishment of the cement factory in the Damar area, part of the proceeds of which were allocated to finance the national movement, and was elected as a member of its board of directors.
• In 1936, there was a clash between the leaders of the National Bloc and the French government, following the arrest by the mandate authority of the Damascus deputy and its leader, Fakhri al-Baroudi, the Bloc launched what was known on that day as the 60th strike, which led to the fall of the French-affiliated government of Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hasani. The mandate government agreed to stop the arrests and open the doors of the prisons with room for negotiation, offering the leaders of the National Bloc to nominate an independent political figure to head the government that the Syrian street would accept, and the choice fell on Atta al-Ayoubi.
• Atta al-Ayoubi’s first government was formed on February 24, 1936, with the president taking over the Ministry of Interior.
• President Atta al-Ayoubi traveled to Beirut to negotiate with French High Commissioner Henri de Martel, and managed to reach a political settlement that would end the strike in exchange for inviting a high-ranking delegation from the National Bloc to France to negotiate the future of the country.
• He went down to the Hamidiya market with Hashem Atassi and cut the red ribbon that had been placed at its entrance, announcing the return of economic life to the city of Damascus and the end of the sixty-day strike.
• The High Commissioner presented him with the French Medal of Honor in recognition of his role in defusing the crisis with Syria, which greatly damaged France’s reputation in international forums.
• When the National Bloc delegation went to Paris, headed by Hashim Atassi, two ministers from Ayoubi’s government were attached to him, and they returned to Syria in September 1936 with an agreement signed with the government of President Leon Blum, promising the Syrians that they would be granted full and gradual independence within a period of twenty-five years. Immediately, President Muhammad Ali al-Abid resigned from his post, opening the way for early parliamentary and presidential elections, followed by President Atta al-Ayoubi on December 21, 1936.
• General Charles de Gaulle offered him the presidency of the Syrian state during World War II, but he set a series of strict conditions, in coordination with his friend President Hashim al-Atassi, that led to his immediate disqualification, including the condition that Syria join the League of Nations and reintegrate both the Alawite and Druze mountains into the motherland.
• In 1941, the French-aligned Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hasani was named president of the Syrian Republic, but he died in office and was replaced by acting Prime Minister Jamil al-Alshi.
• Al-Alshi faced massive popular protests led by the National Bloc against the high price of bread to finance the French war effort in World War II. The city of Damascus consumed 117 tons of flour per month, and Al-Alshi was unable to meet the needs of the people, so he was dismissed and Ata al-Ayoubi was assigned to form a transitional government on March 25, 1943, to end the bread crisis and prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections in the summer of 1943.
• He handled the interior and defense portfolios, in addition to heading the government, and addressed the bread crisis in cooperation with Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, who sent the Druze Mountain crop to Damascus at a low price and in easy installments, in response to the prime minister’s request.
• During the preparations for the 1943 presidential elections, Atta al-Ayoubi’s son Khaled al-Ayoubi tried to collect the votes of a number of MPs to nominate his father for the first presidency, instead of the National Bloc candidate Shukri al-Qutli, where Khaled al-Ayoubi succeeded in collecting 72 signatures in favor of his father, and the matter reached the ears of Shukri al-Qutli, who called Atta al-Ayoubi, offering to withdraw his candidacy if al-Ayoubi was interested in the first presidency.
  Al-Ayoubi apologized for his son’s action, of which he had no knowledge, and withdrew his candidacy.
• He died in Damascus at the age of 76 in 1950, and a large street was named after him in the center of the Syrian capital, where his old and luxurious palace was located in the White Bridge area.

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 that contributed to influencing its structure, “Atta al-Ayoubi” 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, in 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 years of oppression, tyranny, and corruption.