Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj

Abdel Hamid Sarraj عبد الحميد السراج
Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj, 1958
Chairman of the Executive Council of the Northern Region of the United Arab Republic
In office 20 September 1960 – 16 August 1961
Prime Minister	Gamal Abdel Nasser
Preceded by	Nur al-Din Kahala
Succeeded by	Maamun al-Kuzbari
Personal details
Born	1925 Hama, Syria
Died	23 September 2013 (aged 87-88) Cairo, Egypt
Nationality	Syrian
Occupation	Minister of Interior (1958-1961) Vice-president (1961)
Religion	Sunni Islam
Military service
Rank	Colonel

Abdel Hamid Sarraj (Arabic: عبد الحميد السراج‎‎, b. 1925 – 23 September 2013) was a Syrian Army officer and political figure in the mid-20th century.

Sarraj was born in Hama to a conservative Muslim family, of Kurdish descent. He joined the Homs Military Academy and was one of the first officers in the army after Syria's independence from France. Sarraj participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, as a volunteer in the Arab Liberation Army. He led a detachment of six armored vehicles to surround Safad.

He played a role in the 1949 coup that removed Husni al-Zaim from power and took over the personnel department of Adib Shishakli's government in 1952. When Shishakli was ousted, Sarraj was temporarily sent to Paris as an assistant military attache. However, in March 1955, he was appointed head of the Syrian military intelligence. From this position, he was able to play a crucial role in preventing conspiracies against the government. Sarraj did not join any political parties, but cooperated with the ones in power, in particular against the Ba'ath. In September 1957, he helped negotiate the landing of 4,000 Egyptian troops in Latakia as part of defence pact made between the two countries.

When the union between Egypt and Syria was declared, Sarraj, a staunch supporter of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, was handed a key position in the cabinet as Minister of Interior. His position was elevated when the Syrian gendarmerie, the desert patrol, and the Department of General Security were transferred to his jurisdiction on 13 March 1958. Following the resignation of Ba'ath party ministers from the UAR government, Sarraj was given the additional appointments of Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of Awqaf on 1 January 1960.