Akram El-Hourani

Akram Al-Hourani أكرم الحوراني
Vice President of Syria
In office 7 March 1958 – 19 September 1960
President of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 14 October 1957 – 20 July 1960
Preceded by	Nazim al-Kudsi
Succeeded by	Anwar Sadat
Member of the People's Council for Hama
In office July 1947 – October 1953
In office November 1954 – 1963
Member of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office 1952 – 1 September 1959
Personal details
Born	1912 Hama, Ottoman Syria
Died	February 24, 1996 (aged 83-84) Amman, Jordan
Political party	Arab Socialist Party (1936–52) Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party(1952–62) Arab Socialist Party (1962–63)

Akram Al-Hourani (Arabic: أكرم الحوراني‎‎, also transcribed El-Hourani, Howrani or Hurani) (1912 – February 24, 1996), was a Syrian politician who played a prominent role in the formation of a widespread populist, nationalist movement in Syria and in the rise of the Ba'ath Party. He was highly influential in Syrian politics from the beginning of the 1940s until his departure into exile in 1963. Al-Hourani held various positions including a government ministry and the joint vice-presidency of the United Arab Republic.

Al-Hourani's family had its origins in the Arab al-Halqiyyin tribe and moved to Hama in central Syria from the town of Jasim in the southern Hawran region (hence the surname Al-Hourani.) Akram Al-Hourani himself was born in Hama and grew up in modest circumstances as the family's wealth had dissipated. He was educated in Hama and Damascus before joining the medical faculty at the Jesuit University in 1932. He was forced to leave the institution soon thereafter, having been implicated in the attempted assassination of former Syrian president, Subhi Barakat.

In 1936, he enrolled in the Damascus Law School, and became a member of the Syrian Social National Party. In 1938 he left the party and returned to Hama to practice law. There he took over the Hizb al-Shabab (Youth Party) founded by a cousin.

The province of Hama in the earlier part of the twentieth century was characterised by feudalism, with landlords owning most of the land . The landlords exercised complete control over the peasantry, backed up by what amounted to private armies. Al-Hourani set about attacking this system and called for agrarian reforms, giving him considerable popular support in Hama and its province, and in 1943 he was elected as a deputy to the Syrian Parliament. He retained his seat in the elections of 1947, 1949, 1954, and 1962.

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