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Izz ad-Din al-Qassam

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Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
عز الدين القسام
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam.jpg
Born19 December 1882
Died20 November 1935(1935-11-20) (aged 52)
Alma materAl-Azhar University
Occupation(s)Guerrilla leader, Muslim revivalist, preacher, teacher, imam
Organization(s)Young Men's Muslim Association, The Black Hand
Personal
ReligionIslam
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceHanafi
TariqaQadariyya

Izz ad-Din Abd al-Qadar ibn Mustafa ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassam (1881[1] or 19 December 1882[2][3] – 20 November 1935) (Arabic: عز الدين بن عبد القادر بن مصطفى بن يوسف بن محمد القسام / ALA-LC: ʿIzz ad-Dīn ibn Abd al-Qāder ibn Mustafa ibn Yūsuf ibn Muhammad al-Qassām) was a Syrian Muslim preacher, and a leader in the local struggles against British and French Mandatory rule in the Levant, and a militant opponent of Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Al-Qassam studied at Al-Azhar University in Egypt and afterward became an Islamic revivalist preacher in his hometown of Jableh in Syria during the last years of Ottoman rule. Following his return, he became an active supporter of the Libyan resistance to Italian rule, raising funds and fighters to aid the Libyans and penning an anthem for them. He would later lead his own group of rebels in alliance with Ibrahim Hananu to fight against French Mandatory forces in northern Syria in 1919–20.

Following the rebels' defeat, he immigrated to Palestine,[4][5][6][7] where he became a Muslim waqf (religious endowments) official and grew incensed at the plight of Palestinian Arab peasants. In the 1930s, he formed bands of local fighters and launched attacks against British and Jewish targets. He was eventually killed in a manhunt following his alleged role in the killing of a British policeman. Israeli historian Tom Segev has called him 'the Arab Joseph Trumpeldor'.[8] His campaign and death were factors that led to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

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Mandatory Palestine

Mandatory Palestine

Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 in the region of Palestine under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

Levant

Levant

The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean in southwestern Asia, i.e. the historical region of Syria, which includes present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates. Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica in eastern Libya.

Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar University

The Al-Azhar University is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is renowned as the most prestigious university for Islamic learning. In addition to higher education, Al-Azhar oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million students. As of 1996, over 4,000 teaching institutes in Egypt were affiliated with the university.

Islamic revival

Islamic revival

Islamic revival refers to a revival of the Islamic religion. The revivers are known in Islam as mujaddids.

Jableh

Jableh

Jableh is a Mediterranean coastal city in Syria, 25 km (16 mi) north of Baniyas and 25 km (16 mi) south of Latakia, with c. 80,000 inhabitants. As Ancient Gabala it was a Byzantine (arch)bishopric and remains a Latin Catholic titular see. It contains the tomb and mosque of Ibrahim Bin Adham, a legendary Sufi mystic who renounced his throne of Balkh and devoted himself to prayers for the rest of his life.

Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire, historically and colloquially the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Libyan resistance movement

Libyan resistance movement

The Libyan resistance movement was the rebel force opposing the Italian Empire during its Pacification of Libya between 1923 and 1932.

Italian Libya

Italian Libya

Libya was a colony of Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania, which had been Italian possessions since 1911.

Hananu Revolt

Hananu Revolt

The Hananu Revolt was an insurgency against French military forces in northern Syria, mainly concentrated in the western countryside of Aleppo, in 1920–1921. Support for the revolt was driven by opposition to the establishment of the French Mandate of Syria. Commonly named after its leading commander, Ibrahim Hananu, the revolt mainly consisted of four allied insurgencies in the areas of Jabal Harim, Jabal Qusayr, Jabal Zawiya and Jabal Sahyun. The rebels were led by rural leaders and mostly engaged in guerrilla attacks against French forces or the sabotage of key infrastructure.

Tom Segev

Tom Segev

Tom Segev is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's New Historians, a group challenging many of the country's traditional narratives.

Joseph Trumpeldor

Joseph Trumpeldor

Joseph Vladimirovich (Volfovich) Trumpeldor was an early Zionist activist who helped to organize the Zion Mule Corps and bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Trumpeldor died defending the settlement of Tel Hai in 1920 and subsequently became a Jewish national hero. According to a standard account, his last words were "It's nothing, it is good to die for our country", but that he ever said these words has been challenged.

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt or The Great Palestinian Revolt, was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchases with the stated goal of establishing a "Jewish National Home". The uprising coincided with a peak in the influx of immigrant Jews, some 60,000 that year –the Jewish population having grown under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935 – and with the growing plight of the rural fellahin rendered landless, who as they moved to metropolitan centers to escape their abject poverty found themselves socially marginalized. Since 1920 Jews and Arabs had been involved in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks, and the immediate spark for the uprising was the murder of two Jews by a Qassamite band, and the retaliatory killing by Jewish gunmen of two Arab laborers, incidents which triggered a flare-up of violence across Palestine. A month into the disturbances Amin al-Husseini, president of the Arab Higher Committee and Mufti of Jerusalem, declared 16 May 1936 as 'Palestine Day' and called for a General Strike. The revolt was branded by many in the Jewish Yishuv as "immoral and terroristic", often compared to fascism and Nazism. Ben Gurion, however, described Arab causes as fear of growing Jewish economic power, opposition to mass Jewish immigration and fear of the English identification with Zionism.

Early life and Muslim scholarship

Al-Qassam was born in Jableh
Al-Qassam was born in Jableh
Al-Azhar Mosque, where al-Qassam studied, in 1906
Al-Azhar Mosque, where al-Qassam studied, in 1906

Al-Qassam was born in Jableh, northwestern Syria, to father Abd al-Qadar, a Sharia court official during Ottoman rule and a local leader of the Qadariyya Sufi order. His grandfather had been a leading sheikh of the Qadariyya order and moved to Jableh from Iraq. Al-Qassam also followed the Hanafi fiqh (school of jurisprudence) of Sunni Islam and studied at the local Istambuli Mosque under the teaching of well-known ′alim (scholar) Sheikh Salim Tayarah.[9]

Sometime between 1902 and 1905, al-Qassam left for Cairo to study at the al-Azhar Mosque. Who he studied with is disputed by sources; some accounts say he studied under the Muslim reformist scholar Muhammad Abduh and came into contact with the prominent proto-Salafist, Rashid Rida,[9] who himself studied under Abduh, while others are skeptical of al-Qassam's relationships with either. However, the attitude al-Qassam later adopted toward the political issues in the Arab world suggests he was well-acquainted with the ideas Abduh and Rida espoused.[10] At al-Azhar, al-Qassam developed the thinking that would guide his future activism. Critical of a stagnant Islam, he preached among the ranks of farmers and other locals about the necessity for a modern Islam, one capable of defending itself from Western colonialism through jihad (holy struggle).[11] He returned to Jableh in 1909 as an ′alim and worked as a teacher at a Qadariyya madrasa (Islamic school) where he taught both the mystical practices of the Qadariyya Sufi order and the jurisprudence and commentary of the Qur'an. In addition he preached as the imam of the Ibrahim Ibn Adham Mosque.[12]

Following his return to Jableh, al-Qassam commenced a program of Islamic revival based on moral reforms which included the encouragement of maintaining regular salaah (prayer) and the sawm (fasting) during Ramadan as well as advocating an end to gambling and alcohol consumption. Al-Qassam's campaign highly influenced Jableh's residents who increasingly adopted his reforms. He developed amiable relations with the local Ottoman police who he would call upon to enforce Sharia law on rare cases of major violations. In some occasions, he would send disciples as vigilantes to intercept caravans transporting alcohol which would then be disposed of. Despite the support for Arab nationalism from some of his fellow alumni at al-Azhar and among Syrian notables, al-Qassam's loyalties most likely laid with the Ottoman Empire as his relationship with the authorities would indicate.[13] He was well-regarded among much of Jableh's population where he gained a reputation for piety, simple manners and good humor.[12]

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Jableh

Jableh

Jableh is a Mediterranean coastal city in Syria, 25 km (16 mi) north of Baniyas and 25 km (16 mi) south of Latakia, with c. 80,000 inhabitants. As Ancient Gabala it was a Byzantine (arch)bishopric and remains a Latin Catholic titular see. It contains the tomb and mosque of Ibrahim Bin Adham, a legendary Sufi mystic who renounced his throne of Balkh and devoted himself to prayers for the rest of his life.

Al-Azhar Mosque

Al-Azhar Mosque

Al-Azhar Mosque, known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic Islamic core of the city. Commissioned by Jawhar al-Siqilli shortly after Cairo was established as the new capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in 970, it was the first mosque established in a city that eventually earned the nickname "the City of a Thousand Minarets". Its name is usually thought to derive from az-Zahrāʾ, a title given to Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad.

Ottoman Syria

Ottoman Syria

Ottoman Syria refers to divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and south of the Taurus Mountains.

Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire, historically and colloquially the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Qadiriyya

Qadiriyya

The Qadiriyya are members of the Sunni Qadiri tariqa. The tariqa got its name from Abdul Qadir Gilani, who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order relies strongly upon adherence to the fundamentals of Sunni Islamic law.

Fiqh

Fiqh

Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding and practices of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah. Fiqh expands and develops Shariah through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (ulama) and is implemented by the rulings (fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them. Thus, whereas sharia is considered immutable and infallible by Muslims, fiqh is considered fallible and changeable. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam as well as economic and political system. In the modern era, there are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a faqīh.

Cairo

Cairo

Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the city-state Cairo Governorate, and is the country's largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metropolitan area, with a population of 21.9 million, is the 12th-largest in the world by population. Cairo is associated with ancient Egypt, as the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient cities of Memphis and Heliopolis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, the city first developed as Fustat, a settlement founded after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640 next to an existing ancient Roman fortress, Babylon. Under the Fatimid dynasty a new city, al-Qāhirah, was founded nearby in 969. It later superseded Fustat as the main urban centre during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo's historic center was awarded World Heritage Site status in 1979. Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC.

Muhammad Abduh

Muhammad Abduh

Muḥammad ʿAbduh was an Egyptian Islamic scholar, journalist, teacher, author, editor, judge, and Grand Mufti of Egypt. He was a central figure of the Arab Nahḍa and Islamic Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Rashid Rida

Rashid Rida

Muḥammad Rashīd ibn ʿAlī Riḍā ibn Muḥammad Shams al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn Munlā ʿAlī Khalīfa, widely known as Sayyid Rashid Rida was a prominent Sunni Islamic scholar, reformer, theologian and revivalist. As an eminent Salafi scholar who called for the revival of Hadith sciences and a theoretician of Islamic State in the modern-age; Rida condemned the rising currents of secularism and nationalism across the Islamic World following the Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, and called for a global Islamic Renaissance program to re-establish an Islamic Caliphate.

Colonialism

Colonialism

Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their religion, language, economics, and other cultural practices. The foreign administrators rule the territory in pursuit of their interests, seeking to benefit from the colonised region's people and resources. It is associated with but distinct from imperialism.

Jihad

Jihad

Jihad is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God's guidance, such as struggle against one's evil inclinations, proselytizing, or efforts toward the moral betterment of the Muslim community (Ummah), though it is most frequently associated with war. In classical Islamic law (sharia), the term refers to armed struggle against unbelievers, while modernist Islamic scholars generally equate military jihad with defensive warfare. In Sufi circles, spiritual and moral jihad has been traditionally emphasized under the name of greater jihad. The term has gained additional attention in recent decades through its use by various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideology is based on the Islamic notion of jihad.

Madrasa

Madrasa

Madrasa is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious, whether for elementary education or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated Madrasah arifah, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc. In countries outside the Arab world, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the religion of Islam, though this may not be the only subject studied.

Support for Libyan resistance

Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Ottoman-Libyan resistance anthem, 1911[13]

Following Italy's September 1911 invasion of Libya, al-Qassam began collecting funds in Jableh for the joint Ottoman-Libyan resistance movement and composed a victory anthem. Jableh's district governor sought to gain control over the fundraiser and when locals nevertheless continued to send their donations to al-Qassam, he attempted to have him jailed. The district governor alleged that al-Qassam was working against the Ottoman state, but an official investigation found him not guilty and the governor was consequently dismissed.[13]

In June 1912, during one of his Friday prayer sermons, he called for volunteers to engage in a jihad against the Italians.[13] Accepting only volunteers with prior Ottoman military training, al-Qassam enlisted dozens of volunteers and set up a fund for the expedition to Libya as well as a small pension for the families of volunteers while they were abroad. Although accounts vary, al-Qassam was accompanied by 60 to 250 volunteers known as mujahideen (those who engage in jihad) when he arrived in Alexandretta in the latter part of that year. Intending to gain sea transportation from the Ottomans, al-Qassam's request was rejected by the authorities who ordered him and his men back to Jableh. A new Ottoman government in Istanbul had gained power and shifted the state's focus to the Balkan front in October, abandoning the Libyan resistance. Part of the money that was raised was then used to establish a madrasa in Jableh while the remainder was saved for future efforts.[14]

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Italo-Turkish War

Italo-Turkish War

The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captured the Ottoman Tripolitania Vilayet, of which the main sub-provinces were Fezzan, Cyrenaica, and Tripoli itself. These territories became the colonies of Italian Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, which would later merge into Italian Libya.

Libyan resistance movement

Libyan resistance movement

The Libyan resistance movement was the rebel force opposing the Italian Empire during its Pacification of Libya between 1923 and 1932.

Friday prayer

Friday prayer

In Islam, Friday prayer or Congregational prayer is a prayer (ṣalāt) that Muslims hold every Friday, after noon instead of the Zuhr prayer. Muslims ordinarily pray five times each day according to the sun's sky path regardless of time zones. Jumu’ah means Friday in the Arabic language. In many Muslim countries, the weekend is inclusive of Fridays, while in others, Fridays are half-days for schools and some workplaces. It is one of the most exalted Islamic rituals and one of its confirmed obligatory acts.

Mujahideen

Mujahideen

Mujahideen, or Mujahidin, is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad, interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community (ummah).

Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, is the largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, cultural and historic hub. The city straddles the Bosporus strait, lying in both Europe and Asia, and has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is the most populous European city, and the world's 15th-largest city.

Anti-French resistance in Syria

The French Army occupying the Syrian coast, 1920
The French Army occupying the Syrian coast, 1920

He later enlisted in the Ottoman army when World War I broke out, where he received military training and was attached as a chaplain to a base near Damascus.[15] Returning to Jableh before the war's end, al-Qassam used funds from his planned expedition to Libya to organize a local defense force to fight the French occupation. His principal role in the local resistance was financing the acquisition of weapons for Jableh's militia. By 1919, French forces moved into the coastal area of northern Syria while Faisal I established the Kingdom of Syria in Damascus as an independent Arab state. During this period, al-Qassam's Jableh militia fought against local French-backed Alawite militiamen who occupied areas around the city. The Alawites were eventually repelled, but French forces moved in soon after to consolidate their control. Consequently, al-Qassam and many of his disciples left Jableh for Mount Sahyun where he established a base near the village of Zanqufeh to launch guerrilla raids against the French Army.[14]

Al-Qassam's militia grew when it was joined by another militia based in the mountains following the death of its commander Umar al-Bitar. However, as the French tightened their control of the area, they were able to successfully pressure several of Jableh's major landowners to drop their financial support for al-Qassam and pay taxes to the French Mandate government. This further isolated al-Qassam who decided to flee Mount Sahyun for Aleppo in May 1920. There he and his fighters joined ranks with Ibrahim Hananu who was leading attacks against the French Army until the latter captured Jisr ash-Shugur in July. As a result of this French victory and the impending capitulation of Aleppo, al-Qassam and members of his unit fled past French Army lines with forged passports to Tartus.[16]

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Military of the Ottoman Empire

Military of the Ottoman Empire

The military of the Ottoman Empire was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.

Damascus

Damascus

Damascus is the capital of Syria, the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine", Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.

Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon

Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon

The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning Syria and Lebanon. The mandate system was supposed to differ from colonialism, with the governing country intended to act as a trustee until the inhabitants were considered eligible for self-government. At that point, the mandate would terminate and an independent state would be born.

Faisal I of Iraq

Faisal I of Iraq

Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death. He was the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Emir and Sharif of Mecca, who was proclaimed as King of the Arabs in June 1916.

Jabal al-Akrad

Jabal al-Akrad

Jabal al-Akrad is a rural mountainous region with an elevation that ranges from 400 to 1,000 meters above sea level, in northwestern Syria along the Coastal Mountain Range. It is located in the northeastern Latakia Governorate, near the borders with Idlib Governorate and Turkey. Jabal al-Akrad should not be confused with the neighboring Kurd Mountain, which is located further northeast.

Zanqufa

Zanqufa

Zanqufa is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the al-Haffah District, located northeast of Latakia. It is situated along the southern edge of city of al-Haffah. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Zanqufa had a population of 928 in the 2004 census.

Umar al-Bitar

Umar al-Bitar

Umar al-Bitar (1886–1946) was a Syrian rebel leader who led a revolt against French military forces in his native Latakia region in 1920. After the suppression of his revolt, he evaded arrest by the French authorities by escaping to Turkey. He was pardoned and returned to Syria in 1936 and entered politics as part of the anti-French opposition. The French authorities again tried to arrest Bitar in 1945, but he managed to escape to Turkey, where he died the next year.

Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents as of 2021, it is Syria's second-largest city and also one of the largest cities in the Levant region.

Ibrahim Hananu

Ibrahim Hananu

Ibrahim Hananu or Ibrahim Hanano (1869–1935) was an Ottoman municipal official and later a leader of a revolt against the French presence in northern Syria. He was a member of a notable landholding family of Kurdish origin in northern Syria.

Tartus

Tartus

Tartus is a city on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. It is the second largest port city in Syria, and the largest city in Tartus Governorate. Until the 1970s, Tartus was under the governance of Latakia Governorate, then it became a separate governorate. The population is 458,327 .In the summer it is a vacation spot for many Syrians. Many vacation compounds and resorts are located in the region. The port holds a small Russian naval base.

Activism in Palestine

Establishment in Haifa

From Tartus, al-Qassam travelled to Beirut by boat and then to Haifa,[16] then under the British Mandate, where his wife and daughters later joined him.[15] During the early 1920s, al-Qassam taught at the Madrasa Islamiya, an Islamic educational institution with many schools in Haifa and its periphery. It was funded by the Jamiat Islamiya, a waqf (religious endowments) administered by prominent Muslims from the city.[16] Unlike other Muslim scholars, al-Qassam made himself easily accessible to the public and often arrived late to teach his classes because he was frequently stopped by passersby for advice. He resigned from his teaching career due to the school's insistence that he maintain consistent hours.[17] As part of his Islamic revivalist teaching, he denounced and discouraged some local Palestinian traditions, including unorthodox funeral rituals, mothers' visitation to the al-Khidr shrine on nearby Mount Carmel to give thanks for their children's well-being or achievements and tribal dances around religious sites, as superstitious innovations to Islam.[18]

Al-Qassam concentrated his activities on the lower classes, setting up a night school for casual labourers and preaching to them as an imam,[15] first in the Jurayneh Mosque,[17] and later in the Istiqlal Mosque (both of which still exist in Haifa's Lower City). He would seek them out on the streets, in brothels and hashish dens.[15] His greatest following came from the landless ex-tenant farmers drifting into Haifa from the Upper Galilee where purchases of agricultural land by the Jewish National Fund and Hebrew labour policies excluding Arabs had dispossessed many of their traditional livelihoods.[19][20] Al-Qassam grew increasingly popular with northern Palestine's poorer Muslims and was frequently sought out to preach at Mawlid celebrations.[21]

In 1929 he was appointed the marriage registrar at the sharia court in Haifa by the Waqf authorities in Jerusalem,[22] a role that allowed him to tour the northern villages, whose inhabitants he encouraged to set up agricultural cooperatives. According to the American historian Edmund Burke, al-Qassam was:

An individual deeply imbued with the Islamic social gospel and who was struck by the plight of Palestinian peasants and migrants. Al-Qassam's pastoral concern was linked to his moral outrage as a Muslim at the ways in which the old implicit social compact was being violated in the circumstances of British mandatory Palestine. This anger fueled a political radicalism that drove him eventually to take up arms and marks him off from the Palestinian notable politicians.[23]

He also took advantage of his travels to deliver fiery political and religious sermons in which he encouraged villagers to organise resistance units to attack the British and Jews.[15] He intensified his agitation and obtained a fatwa from Shaykh Badr al-Din al-Taji al-Hasani, the Mufti of Damascus, which ruled that the struggle against the British and the Jews was permissible.[24]

Relationship with local leaders

Leading members of Hizb al-Istiqlal, 1932. Al-Qassam was closely associated with the party, particularly with Rashid al-Hajj Ibrahim, seated second from left
Leading members of Hizb al-Istiqlal, 1932. Al-Qassam was closely associated with the party, particularly with Rashid al-Hajj Ibrahim, seated second from left

According to Israeli historian Shai Lachman, between 1921 and 1935 al-Qassam often cooperated with Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. They were initially on good terms, and al-Qassam's various official appointments required the mufti's prior consent. He suggests their cooperation increased after the 1929 riots, in which one source claims al-Qassam's men were active. The two fell out in the mid-1930s, perhaps due to al-Qassam's independent line of activism.[25] In 1933, al-Qassam sent an emissary to al-Husseini, requesting the latter's participation in a revolt against the British. At the time, al-Husseini refused, preferring a political solution.[26]

Between 1928 until his death, al-Qassam served as the president of the Young Men's Muslim Association (YMMA) in Haifa. While he focused his activism with the lower classes, his position in the YMMA afforded him access with the middle and educated classes of the city who were attracted to Hizb al-Istiqlal (Independence Party), an Arab nationalist political party.[27] In particular, he developed a strong relationship with leading local party member Rashid al-Hajj Ibrahim, the previous president of the Haifa YMMA. A wide ideological gap between the secularist al-Istiqlal and al-Qassam was bridged by a convergence in the view that the struggle against Zionist expansion in Palestine was inseparable from active opposition to British rule. This view separated al-Qassam and al-Istiqlal from the mainstream political forces in Palestine at the time. While men from al-Istiqlal and the YMMA generally refrained from joining al-Qassam's cause, his association with them helped protect him from political figures who opposed his activism.[28] His activities were also financed by several well-off businessmen associated with al-Istiqlal due to his spreading reputation.[15]

Organisation of armed struggle

In 1930[29] or 1931,[30] al-Qassam had recruited numerous hand-picked followers and organised them into about a dozen different circles, each group of supporters unaware of the existence of the other groups. The majority of his men were peasants and urban labourers.[21] The majority of al-Qassam's circles were based in northern Palestine, but he had disciples throughout the country, including in Gaza in the south.[27] In contrast to traditional Palestinian leaders who campaigned against Zionist settlement while avoiding confrontation with the British authorities, al-Qassam saw it as a priority to fight against both. He also saw the brewing conflict in Palestine as a religious struggle, unlike most Palestinian leaders who advocated a secular and nationalist response. Al-Qassam advocated a moral, political and military jihad as the solution to end British rule and Zionist aspirations in Palestine.[31]

In training his men, al-Qassam stressed that maintaining good character was of paramount importance. As such, fighters should provide for the needy, aid people with illness, maintain good ties with their families and pray regularly to God. These virtues, he claimed, were prerequisites to being disciplined and fearless fighters. The moral component of al-Qassam's teachings were especially geared towards the young men of Haifa's labour slums who lived away from their families and who were exposed to activities considered immoral in Islam.[31] He viewed marriage as key to preventing the moral corruption of young men and managed to financially aid his more destitute supporters with their wedding expenses. He encouraged his men to grow beards as a sign of their commitment to jihad and to carry a Qur'an with them wherever they went.[32] Although many of his followers had been illiterate, he taught them how to read and write using the Qur'an as their basis for learning.[21] Al-Qassam also asked his fighters to engage in the spiritual exercises practiced by the Qadiriyya Sufi order and to recite Sufi chants before battle.[32]

The guerrilla bands became known as the Black Hand (al-kaff al-aswad), an anti-Zionist and anti-British militant organisation.[29] The idea for such a group appeared to have crystallised after the 1929 riots. From the outset, a split occurred in the movement. One faction led by Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir argued for immediate attacks against British and Jewish targets, while the other faction, headed by al-Qassam, thought than an armed revolt was premature and risked exposing the group's preparations. According to Subhi Yasin, a comrade of al-Qassam, the group's attacks in the north were executed by Abu Ibrahim's group in defiance of al-Qassam, though in 1969, Abu Ibrahim denied this allegation. The Black Hand's ensuing campaign began with the ambush and killing of three members of Kibbutz Yagur on 11 April 1931, a failed bomb attack on outlying Jewish homes in Haifa in early 1932, and several operations that killed or wounded four members of northern Jewish settlements. The campaign climaxed with the deaths of a Jewish father and son in Nahalal, from a bomb thrown into their home, on 22 December 1932.[33]

By 1935, al-Qassam had recruited several hundred men—the figures range from 200 to 800—organised in cells of five men, and arranged military training for peasants.[29][34] The cells were equipped with bombs and firearms, which they used to raid Jewish settlements and sabotage British-built rail lines.[15] Though striking a responsive chord among the rural poor and urban underclass, al-Qassam's movement deeply perturbed the Muslim urban elite as it threatened their political and patronage connections with the British Mandatory authorities.[35] Following the October 1935 discovery of a clandestine cache of arms in the port of Jaffa apparently originating from Belgium and destined for the Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary force,[36] Palestinian Arab indignation broke out in two general strikes. The arms shipment to the Haganah served as the final impetus for al-Qassam to launch a revolt against the authorities.[37]

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Haifa

Haifa

Haifa is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of 282,832 in 2021. The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area in Israel. It is home to the Baháʼí Faith's Baháʼí World Centre, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a destination for Baháʼí pilgrimage.

Mandate for Palestine

Mandate for Palestine

The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, both of which had been conceded by the Ottoman Empire following the end of World War I in 1918. The mandate was assigned to Britain by the San Remo conference in April 1920, after France's concession in the 1918 Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement of the previously-agreed "international administration" of Palestine under the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Transjordan was added to the mandate after the Arab Kingdom in Damascus was toppled by the French in the Franco-Syrian War. Civil administration began in Palestine and Transjordan in July 1920 and April 1921, respectively, and the mandate was in force from 29 September 1923 to 15 May 1948 and to 25 May 1946 respectively.

Madrasa

Madrasa

Madrasa is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious, whether for elementary education or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated Madrasah arifah, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc. In countries outside the Arab world, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the religion of Islam, though this may not be the only subject studied.

Cave of Elijah

Cave of Elijah

The Cave of Elijah is a grotto on Mount Carmel, in Haifa, Israel, associated with Biblical prophet Elijah. According to tradition, Elijah is believed to have prayed at a grotto before challenging the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, and to have hidden in either the same or in another nearby grotto from the wrath of Jezebel.

Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel, also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias, is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situated there, most notably the city of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, located on the northern and western slopes.

Jewish National Fund

Jewish National Fund

Jewish National Fund is a non-profit organization founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria for Jewish settlement. By 2007, it owned 13% of the total land in Israel. Since its inception, the JNF says it has planted over 240 million trees in Israel. It has also built 180 dams and reservoirs, developed 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) of land and established more than 1,000 parks.

Mawlid

Mawlid

Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi is the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which is commemorated in Rabi' al-awwal, the third month in the Islamic calendar. 12th Rabi' al-awwal is the accepted date among most of the Sunni scholars, while most Shia scholars regard 17th Rabi' al-awwal as the accepted date, though not all Shias consider it to be this date. It is also called Maouloud in West Africa.

Edmund Burke III

Edmund Burke III

Edmund Burke III is Professor Emeritus of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research areas include Islamic history, modern Middle Eastern and North African history, Mediterranean history, French history, orientalism, European imperialism, and world history. From 2003–2007 he was presidential chair and director of the Center for World History. He received his PhD from Princeton University.

Fatwa

Fatwa

A fatwā is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Faqih in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a mufti, and the act of issuing fatwas is called iftāʾ. Fatwas have played an important role throughout Islamic history, taking on new forms in the modern era.

Mufti

Mufti

A Mufti is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion (fatwa) on a point of Islamic law (sharia). The act of issuing fatwas is called iftāʾ. Muftis and their fatwas played an important role throughout Islamic history, taking on new roles in the modern era.

Damascus

Damascus

Damascus is the capital of Syria, the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine", Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem's Islamic holy places, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The position was created by the British military government led by Ronald Storrs in 1918. Since 2006, the position has been held by Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, appointed by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.

Death

Al-Qassam's grave in Balad al-Sheikh, 2010
Al-Qassam's grave in Balad al-Sheikh, 2010

On 8 November the body of a Palestine Police constable, Moshe Rosenfeld, was discovered near Ein Harod.[38][39] Al-Qassam and his followers were believed to have been responsible and search parties set out to capture him. In this context, al-Qassam and twelve of his men decided to go underground and, leaving Haifa, took to the hills between Jenin and Nablus.[39] There they spent ten days on the move, during which they were fed by the residents of villages in the area. The British police manhunt eventually surrounded al-Qassam in a cave near Ya'bad, in the village of Sheikh Zeid.[38] In the long ensuing firefight, al-Qassam and three of his followers were killed, and five captured on 20 November.[15][38]

The manner of his last stand galvanized Palestinians at the time, according to American historian Abdallah Schleifer:[9]

Surrounded, he told his men to die as martyrs, and opened fire. His defiance and manner of his death (which stunned the traditional leadership) electrified the Palestinian people. Thousands forced their way past police lines at the funeral in Haifa, and the secular Arab nationalist parties invoked his memory as the symbol of resistance. It was the largest political gathering ever to assemble in mandatory Palestine.[9]

To the surprise of the Palestine Police Force, al-Qassam's funeral, which was held at the Jerini Mosque, attracted at least 3,000 mourners, mostly members of the peasant and working classes.[38] His coffin and those of his slain comrades were draped in the flags of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, the only three independent Arab countries at the time. In reaction to al-Qassam's death, strikes were held in Haifa and several Palestinian and Syrian cities.[40] Al-Qassam is buried at the Muslim cemetery at the former Palestinian village of Balad al-Sheikh, now Nesher, a Jewish suburb of Haifa.[41] An obituary for al-Qassam was published in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram on 22 November, eulogizing him as a "martyr" with the following statement: "I heard you preaching from up in the pulpit, summoning to the sword ... Through your death you are more eloquent than ever you were in life."[42]

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Balad al-Sheikh

Balad al-Sheikh

Balad al-Sheikh or Balad ash-Shaykh was a Palestinian Arab village located just north of Mount Carmel, 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) southeast of Haifa. Currently the town's land is located within the jurisdiction of the Israeli city, Nesher.

Ein Harod

Ein Harod

Ein Harod was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Palestine's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz HaMeuhad.

Jenin

Jenin

Jenin is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate of the State of Palestine and is a major center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, Jenin had a population of approximately 40,000 people, whilst the Jenin refugee camp had a population of 10,000. Jenin is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority.

Nablus

Nablus

Nablus is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately 49 kilometres (30 mi) north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a commercial and cultural centre of the State of Palestine, home to An-Najah National University, one of the largest Palestinian institutions of higher learning, and the Palestine Stock Exchange. Nablus is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority.

Ya'bad

Ya'bad

Ya'bad is a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, 20 kilometers west of Jenin in the Jenin Governorate. It is a major agricultural town with most of its land covered with olive groves and grain fields. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 13,640 in 2007. Its mayor is Samer Abu Baker who was elected in 2005. The Israeli settlement of Mevo Dotan is built on Ya'bad's land.

Nazlet Zeid

Nazlet Zeid

Nazlet Zeid is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, administratively part of the Jenin Governorate. The village is in Area C, putting it under full Israeli military and civilian control. The West Bank barrier runs through the village. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 704 in the 2007 census.

Abdallah Schleifer

Abdallah Schleifer

S. Abdallah S. Schleifer is a prominent Middle East expert; a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and at the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (Jordan).

Palestine Police Force

Palestine Police Force

The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920, when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from General Allenby's Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (South).

Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen

Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen

The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, also known as the Kingdom of Yemen or simply as Yemen, or, retrospectively, as North Yemen, was a state that existed between 1918 and 1962 in the northwestern part of what is now Yemen. Its capital was Sana'a until 1948, then Taiz. From 1962 to 1970, it maintained control over portions of Yemen until its final defeat in the North Yemen Civil War. Yemen was admitted to the United Nations on 30 September 1947.

Kingdom of Iraq

Kingdom of Iraq

The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq was a state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958.

Nesher

Nesher

Nesher is a city in the Haifa District of Israel. In 2021 it had a population of 23,760. It was founded in 1923 as a workers town for the Nesher Cement factory, the first cement factory in the country.

Al-Ahram

Al-Ahram

Al-Ahram, founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya. It is majority owned by the Egyptian government, and is considered a newspaper of record for Egypt.

Legacy

Five months after al-Qassam's death, members of his movement, known as "Qassamiyun"[9] or "Qassamites",[43] also Ikhwan al-Qassam, (the Brothers of al-Qassam)[44] under the leadership of Farhan al-Sa'di, al-Qassam's spiritual heir, shot and killed two Jewish passengers on a bus and shot three Jewish drivers, killing two, in the 1936 Anabta shooting, acts that became major contributing factors in the start of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.[43] Peasant and urban guerrilla factions (fasa'il) led by the Qassamiyun played a significant role in commencing the countrywide revolt.[9] At the start of the revolt, al-Qassam's close disciples al-Sa'di, Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir, and Attiyah Ahmad Awad led fasa'il in the Jenin region, the Upper Galilee and Balad al-Sheikh, respectively.[43]

Al-Qassam, according to Palestinian-American Rashid Khalidi,

played a crucial role in winning the populace away from the elite-brokered politics of compromise with the British, and in showing them the "correct" path of popular armed struggle against the British and the Zionists.[45]

The first Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, compared the glory that al-Qassam's actions aroused in the 1930s to the fame won in Zionist discourse by Zionist activist Joseph Trumpeldor who died in a battle with Arab forces. Recalling this, Israeli historian Tom Segev has argued that "The terrorists that al-Qassam led and the intifada fighters, more recently, may also be likened to the terrorists that Menachem Begin led."[46]

Although al-Qassam's revolt was unsuccessful in his lifetime, militant organizations gained inspiration from his example. His funeral drew thousands, which turned into a mass demonstration of national unity.[15] The Palestinian fedayeen who emerged in the 1960s saw al-Qassam as their originator. The founders of the Palestinian nationalist armed movement Fatah had initially considered naming their group the "Qassamiyun". Leila Khaled, a well-known member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, once stated that her organization began "where al-Qassam left off: his generation started the revolution, my generation intends to finish it."[47]

The military wing of the Palestinian Islamist armed movement Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, bears his name as does the Qassam rocket, a short-range rocket the group produces and uses.

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Farhan al-Sa'di

Farhan al-Sa'di

Sheikh Farhan al-Saadi was born in the village al-Mazar near Jenin, Palestine. He participated in national conferences and demonstrations against the British Mandate of Palestine, and in the 1929 Palestine riots. He is thought to have been the first to use a weapon during the 1936 revolt.

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt or The Great Palestinian Revolt, was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchases with the stated goal of establishing a "Jewish National Home". The uprising coincided with a peak in the influx of immigrant Jews, some 60,000 that year –the Jewish population having grown under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935 – and with the growing plight of the rural fellahin rendered landless, who as they moved to metropolitan centers to escape their abject poverty found themselves socially marginalized. Since 1920 Jews and Arabs had been involved in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks, and the immediate spark for the uprising was the murder of two Jews by a Qassamite band, and the retaliatory killing by Jewish gunmen of two Arab laborers, incidents which triggered a flare-up of violence across Palestine. A month into the disturbances Amin al-Husseini, president of the Arab Higher Committee and Mufti of Jerusalem, declared 16 May 1936 as 'Palestine Day' and called for a General Strike. The revolt was branded by many in the Jewish Yishuv as "immoral and terroristic", often compared to fascism and Nazism. Ben Gurion, however, described Arab causes as fear of growing Jewish economic power, opposition to mass Jewish immigration and fear of the English identification with Zionism.

Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir

Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir

Khalil Muhammad Issa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Ibrahim al-Kabir, was a Palestinian Arab commander during the 1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine.

Jenin

Jenin

Jenin is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate of the State of Palestine and is a major center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, Jenin had a population of approximately 40,000 people, whilst the Jenin refugee camp had a population of 10,000. Jenin is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority.

David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel.

Joseph Trumpeldor

Joseph Trumpeldor

Joseph Vladimirovich (Volfovich) Trumpeldor was an early Zionist activist who helped to organize the Zion Mule Corps and bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Trumpeldor died defending the settlement of Tel Hai in 1920 and subsequently became a Jewish national hero. According to a standard account, his last words were "It's nothing, it is good to die for our country", but that he ever said these words has been challenged.

Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was initially opposed by the Jewish Agency. Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine.

Fatah

Fatah

Fatah, formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist and social democratic political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the second-largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, is the chairman of Fatah.

Leila Khaled

Leila Khaled

Leila Khaled is a Palestinian refugee, former militant, and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Islamism

Islamism

Islamism is a religio-political ideology. There is no consensus definition of Islamism, which has many varieties and alternative names. The use of the term is objected to by some as derogatory and by others as so broad and flexible as to have lost its meaning. In its original formulation, Islamism described an ideology seeking to revive Islam to its past assertiveness and glory, purifying it of foreign elements, reasserting its role into “social and political as well as personal life"; and in particular “reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam". According to at least one observer, Islamist movements have "arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence", redefining "politics and even borders".

Hamas

Hamas

Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip following the 2007 Battle of Gaza. It also holds a majority in the parliament of the Palestinian National Authority.

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, is the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas. Currently led by Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa, IQB is the largest and best-equipped group operating within Gaza today.

Source: "Izz ad-Din al-Qassam", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 27th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izz_ad-Din_al-Qassam.

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References
  1. ^ Abū ʻAmr, 1994, p. 98.
  2. ^ Krämer, 2011, p. 260
  3. ^ Guidère, 2012, p. 173
  4. ^ Bloomfield, 2010, p. 149.
  5. ^ Fleischmann, 2003, p. 292.
  6. ^ Kayyali, 1978, p. 180.
  7. ^ Lozowick, 2004, p. 78.
  8. ^ Segev, 2001, pp. 362–363.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 166.
  10. ^ Milton-Edwards, 1999, p. 14.
  11. ^ Milton-Edwards, 1999, p. 17.
  12. ^ a b Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 167.
  13. ^ a b c d Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 168.
  14. ^ a b Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 169.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Segev, 1999, pp.360–362
  16. ^ a b c Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 170.
  17. ^ a b Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 171.
  18. ^ Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, pp. 170–171.
  19. ^ Rashid Khalidi, citing Abdullah Schleifer's essay "Palestinian Peasant Resistance to Zionism before World War I" in Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens (eds.) Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question, Verso, London 2001 ch. 11 pp. 207–234 p. 229.
  20. ^ Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness,Columbia University Press, 2009 p.115.
  21. ^ a b c Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 172.
  22. ^ Milton-Edwards, 1999, p.16.
  23. ^ Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 164
  24. ^ Milton-Edwards, 1999, p. 18.
  25. ^ Lachman 1982, pp. 75–76.
  26. ^ Mattar, 1992, p. 67.
  27. ^ a b Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 175.
  28. ^ Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 176.
  29. ^ a b c Kimmerling and Migdal, 2003, p. 65.
  30. ^ Judis, 2014, p. 108.
  31. ^ a b Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993 p. 173.
  32. ^ a b Schleifer, ed. Burke, 1993, p. 174.
  33. ^ Lachman 1982, pp. 65–66
  34. ^ Beverly Milton-Edwards, 1999, p. 18.
  35. ^ Kimmerling and Migdal, 2003, p. 66.
  36. ^ Matthews, 2006, p. 237.
  37. ^ Johnson, p. 44.
  38. ^ a b c d Milton-Edwards, 1999, p. 19.
  39. ^ a b Laurens, 2002, p. 298.
  40. ^ Moubayed, 2006, p. 392.
  41. ^ Benvenisti, 2000, p. 97.
  42. ^ Johnson, 2013, p. 45.
  43. ^ a b c Kedourie, Elie (2015), "Qassamites in the Arab Revolt, 1936–39", Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israe, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-44272-1
  44. ^ Mustafa Kabha. "The Palestinian Press and the General Strike, April–October 1936: "Filastin" as a Case Study." Middle Eastern Studies 39, no. 3 (2003): 169–89. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284312.
  45. ^ Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, p. 195.
  46. ^ Tom Segev, "Back to school: Ben-Gurion for beginners," Haaretz, 22 June 2012.
  47. ^ Swedenberg, p. 105.
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