SHUQAYRI FAMILY

Prominent Palestinian family from Acre.

In the late nineteenth century, the Shuqayris emerged among the elites of Acre, one of the fastest-growing Palestinian cities of the time. They were landowners, Ottoman administrators, and religious officials. The family's prominence continued into the twentieth century. Asʿad Shuqayri (1860–1940), mufti of Acre, served on the Shariʿa Inquiries Court at Istanbul and as mufti for the Fourth Army during World War I. Opposed to the anti-Zionist movement, Asʿad sold several hundred dunums of the family's land near Haifa to Zionists in the 1930s.

The family was associated with the Nashashibiled National Defense party. Another member of the family, Dr. Anwar al-Shuqayri (?–1939), was assassinated by members of the opposing Husayni party in 1939. Asʿad's son Ahmad Shuqayri (1908–1980), a lawyer, edited the newspaper Mir'at al-Sharq for two years and was a founder of the Istiqlal Party in 1931. In the 1940s Ahmad became known as a feisty nationalist, taking on several leading political roles. In the 1950s he represented Syria and Saudi Arabia at the United Nations and in the 1960s was chosen Palestinian delegate to the Arab League. He founded the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964.

see also istiqlal party: palestine; shuqayri, ahmad.

Bibliography

Khalaf, Issa. Politics in Palestine: Arab Factionalism and Social Dis-integration, 1939–1948. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Mandel, Neville J. The Arabs and Zionism before World War I. Berkeley University of California Press, 1976.

Muslih, Muhammad Y. The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

elizabeth thompson