Elizabeth F. Thompson - How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs: The Destruction of the Syrian Arab Kingdom in 1920 and the Rise of Anti-Liberal Islamism

The Syrian Arab Congress of 1920
and the Destruction of Its Historic
Liberal-Islamic Alliance

Copyright 2020 by Elizabeth F. Thompson

Cover photograph: Prime Minister David Lloyd Georges final meeting with Prince Faisal, breaking Britains promise of Arab independence, London, October 1919. Left to right: General Edmund Allenby, Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson, Faisal, Lloyd George, Mrs. Allenby. Courtesy of the Agence Rol, Bibliothque nationale de France (Public domain).

Cover photograph: Prime Minister David Lloyd Georges final meeting with Prince Faisal, breaking Britains promise of Arab independence, London, October 1919. Left to right: General Edmund Allenby, Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson, Faisal, Lloyd George, Mrs. Allenby. Courtesy of the Agence Rol, Bibliothque nationale de France (Public domain).

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First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition: April 2020

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ISBN 978-0-8021-4820-9
eISBN 978-0-8021-4821-6

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For all Syrians

Photos (Banna): Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photographers unknown.

Photo (Georges-Picot): Reproduced from LIllustration, no. 3908, January 26, 1918.

Photos (Faisal Victoria Hotel): Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Photo (T.E. Lawrence): Photographed by Lowell Thomas, 1919.

Photos (Curzon): Courtesy of the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division; LC-USZ62-55640; LC-DIG-ggbain-29038, photographed by Edward Jackson; LC-DIG-ggbain-35223.

Photo (Deraa Station): Courtesy of Nigel Tout, September 12, 2000.

Photos (Crane): Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Underwood and Underwood; 1921, LG-DIG-anrc-14227; 1920, LC-USZ62-35870.

Photo (Faisal in Aleppo): Courtesy of Fonds Iconographique, Service Historique de lArmee de Terre at Vincennes, Paris.

Photos (Azmeh): Courtesy of the Sami Moubayed Archive.

Photos (King Crane Commission): Courtesy of SALT Research, Ali Saim lgen Archive.

Photos (Deraa protest): Courtesy of Getty; Hulton Archive; AFP PHOTO / YOUTUBE.

(Syro-Palestinian Congress): Courtesy of the Institute for Palestine Studies; photographer unknown, 1931; photographer unknown, ca. 1932; photographer unknown, 1921.

Photo (American map): Courtesy of the Library of Congress Manuscripts Division, Papers of Tasker H. Bliss, box 354.

Photos (Rustum and Faisal): Reproduced from LIllustration, no. 3960, January 25, 1919; cover; p. 87.

Photo (Lighthouse): Reproduced from Al-Manar, December 2, 1918; cover.

Photo (Bliss): Courtesy of American University of Beirut, Jafet Library Archives and Special Collections.

Photo (De Caix): Courtesy of Archive du Ministre des Affaires trangres, Srie G, Image no. A007860, passport photo 1915.

Photos (The Initial Law of the United States of Syria, 1919): Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives.

Photos (Gourard): Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division; CAI-Rogers, no. 252; LC-USZ62-122341, photographer unknown, ca. 1923.

Photos (Cachin): Courtesy of Bibliotheque nationale de France, dpartement Estampes et photographie.

Photo (snowy Damascus): Original postcard postmarked 1923, published by Ed Angell, Beyrouth et Damas.

Photos (Independence Map): Reproduced from Dhikra Istiqlal Suriya (Damascus: Sioufi Ikhwan, 1920), reprinted in Cairo by Matbaat Taha Ibrahim wa Yusuf Barladi.

Photo (Marjeh Square): Courtesy of Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-matpc-11717.

Photo (Arslan): Courtesy of Hassan Eltaher, eltaher.org.

Photo (Fatat meeting): Courtesy of Izzat Darwazeh, grandson of Congress secretary Izzat Darwazeh.

Photo (French army): Reproduced from LIllustration on the family website of Gen. Mariano Goybet: http://goybet.e-monsite.com/pages/prise-de-damas-en-1920-par-le-general-goybet-presse-du-monde-et-reportage-de-l-illustration.html.

Photo (Rappard): Courtesy of United Nations Archives at Geneva.

Photo (Syrian Revolt): Courtesy of Le Petit Journal, November 29, 1925, cover, Un contre Dix: lHroisme de nos Troupe en Syrie.

Photo (Faisal Iraq): Courtesy of Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-matpc-16055.

Territorial Claims in 1919. Prince Faisal claimed the territory of Bilad al-Sham, also known as Greater or Natural Syria, in his presentation to the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference. Meanwhile, the Entente armies had occupied the entire territory and divided it into zones of Occupied Enemy Territory.

Territorial Claims in 1922. The regions of Greater Syria were officially partitioned and apportioned to Britain and France by the League of Nations Council in July 1922.

O n March 8, 1920, the Syrian Congress issued its Declaration of Independence in the name of the largely Arabic-speaking peoples living in Greater Syria, comprising todays states of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. During World War I, the Syrian Arabs joined the Allies in fighting against the Ottoman military dictatorship. At wars end, they embraced Dr. [Woodrow] Wilsons lofty principles of freedom for great and small nations alike, their independence based on equal rights, and the renunciation of the politics of conquest and colonialism. The Congress had already begun drafting a constitution for a democratic, parliamentary monarchy. Syria could then take its place in civilized international society alongside Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other nation-states carved from the Russian, Austrian, and Ottoman empires defeated in World War I.