Rafiq al-Tamimi | |
---|---|
Member of Central Committee of al-Fatat | |
In office 1918–1919 |
|
Chairman of al-Najjada | |
In office 1945–1947 |
|
Personal details | |
Born | 1889 Nablus, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 1957 (aged 67–68) |
Nationality | Palestinian Arab |
Political party | Palestine Arab Party |
Other political affiliations |
al-Fatat |
Occupation | Arab nationalist political activist |
Profession | Administrative leader and educator |
Committees | Arab Higher Committee |
Muhammad Rafiq al-Tamimi (Arabic: محمد رفيق التميمي, 1889-1957) was a Palestinian Arab educator and political figure in the 20th century. He was appointed to the Arab Higher Committee in 1945 and was the chairman of the Palestinian Arab paramilitary scout movement, al-Najjada (1945–47).
Al-Tamimi was born in Nablus to a Sunni Arab landowning family in 1889. He attended elementary and secondary school in the city and then at the Marjan Preparatory School in Istanbul, Turkey. Because of his well-rated performance at Marjan, he entered and won an academic contest. He enrolled at the Mulkiyya College in Istanbul as a result. He was consequently recognized by the Ottoman Education Ministry and given a grant to learn at the Sorbonne in Paris. There he received a degree in literature and education.
Al-Tamimi served in the local administration of the Ottoman Empire as a principal of a government-run school in Beirut. Despite working for the Ottoman government, in 1911, while in Paris, he and his colleague Awni Abd al-Hadi founded the underground organization, al-Fatat, which called for Arab independence from the empire. In 1916, during World War I, Ottoman officials ordered al-Tamimi to gather information for a general "guide book" on the southern half of the Beirut Province, namely Jabal Nablus.
He was elected to the central committee of al-Fatat in December 1918. In July 1919, following the Arab Revolt (1916–18) which succeeded in gaining Arab independence, al-Tamimi along with Izzat Darwaza, Sa'id Haydar and other members of al-Fatat's inner circle formed a group in the Syrian National Congress that rejected the establishment of any foreign mandate (British or French) in Greater Syria, claiming it would only be a "disguised form of imperialist penetration."