Muhammad Kurd Ali

Muhammad Kurdali (1876-1953) (Arabic: محمد كرد علي‎) was a notable Syrian scholar, historian and literary critic in the Arabic language. He was the founder director of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Damascus (1918) till his death.

Early life

Is Muhammad ibn Abd al-Razzaq ibn Muhammad Kurd Ali, born in Sulaimaniya in 1876. Originally from Kurdish Sulaimaniya (the work of Mosul), learned to read and write in the kuttab where he also studied the Koran. He studied the preparatory phase at Al-Rushdieya school, and then completed his secondary education at the Azarieh School.

Muhammad Kurd Ali, loved writing and journalism, and developed an early interest in reading books and collecting them since childhood. Although illiterate himself, his father encouraged him to acquire books, and gave him sufficient assistance to possess them. As he developed more strength in science and language, he started to read newspapers and magazines in French, Turkish and Arabic. At the age of sixteen, he was writing news and articles and was paid by the newspapers; his hobbies did not stop at this point, he loved Arabic poetry, rhyme rhetoric, and kept close company with well-known elderly scholars at the time from his country drawing on their knowledge and literature, such as: Saleem Bukhari, Sheikh Mohammed Al Mubarak, and Sheikh Taher Algaza’ri.

Career in writing

In 1897, he was entrusted with editing the government weekly newspaper (Sham); he carried on with this job for three years and was committed in his articles to assonance. Then Kurd Ali started corresponding with Al-Muqtataf (excerpt) magazine in Egypt for five years through which his fame passed through into Egypt.

Kurd Ali Left for Cairo, and remained there for ten months during which he worked as the editor of Al-Ra’ed Almasri (Egyptian pioneer) newspaper, and was introduced to its scientists, literary men and thinkers, thus further broadening his horizon and increasing his fame so much so that his name in Egypt became no less known than the most famous writers and the very best scholars of that period.

He returned to Damascus where he was a victim of a slander that lead to orders by the Turk ruler to have Kurd Ali’s house searched but was later proved innocent; following this, he emigrated to Egypt in 1906, and established the monthly Al-Muqtabas (quoted) magazine where he published scientific, literary and historical research, he also edited the Al-zaher newspaper and then edited Al-Mu’ayyad, and the two are daily newspapers. He used to report from the West magazines the latest news on science, civilization, invention and development; and he also translated a number of rare manuscript books so he combined both the old and the new.

In Politics

Muhammad Kurd Ali returned to Damascus in 1908 after the proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution, and published the Al-Muqtabas magazine in addition to a daily newspaper he also called Al-Muqtabas in collaboration with his brother Ahmed. He also founded its own press, but the Ottoman Empire harassed and fought against him and later closed the newspaper after one of the Turk rulers accused him of exposing the Sultan’s family in one of his articles; so he fled to Egypt and then to Europe and returned later exonerated. But the same was repeated through another charge, so he left the daily newspaper to his brother Ahmad and dedicated himself to the magazine. His alarm was intensified after the declaration of the First World War and the beginning of a revenge campaign against ‘free Arabs’; so he closed the magazine and the newspaper, and was almost driven to the gallows like many other critics of the tyrannical regime and freedom advocates, but was saved by a document found in the French consulate in Damascus written by a staff member of the French Foreign Ministry before the war. This French staff member had paid a visit to Kurd Ali in his house and wanted to exploit his dislike of the (unionists) and bring him closer towards the pro-French policy in the Middle East, but Kurd Ali disappointed him and advised him to alter their policy in Algeria and Tunisia. There were also similar documents like the 'official publication of confidentiality' that had been sent by the French ambassador in Istanbul to French consuls in Syria warning them from Kurd Ali and stating that: he only works with the Turks. This came together with other papers of this kind found through inspection of consulates early in the war; following that, Djemal Pasha called Kurd Ali and jubilantly informed him of these news but also warned him that should Kurd Ali turn to opposition again, he would kill him with his own pistol, and then ordered the reopening of the newspaper and gave Kurd Ali financial assistance. Then he appointed him editor of Al-Sharq (East) newspaper which was issued by the army.

After entering the Faisali Covenant and the independence of Syria from the Ottoman Empire, Kurd Ali found the opportunity to realize the dream that has long enticed him: the establishment of Arab Academy in Damascus in the manner that civilized nations do to save their heritage and maintain their language, and disseminate their literature and sciences. So, he presented the idea to the military ruler Rida Pasha al-Rikabi, who agreed to turn the Court of knowledge with its president and members into an Academy of Arabic Language in Damascus. This was in the eighth of June 1919, and Muhammad Kurd Ali was appointed president of the Assembly and continued to be so until his death.

Heritage

Kurd Ali cherished the Academy more than his heart and looked at it as the one gift of his whole life and the fruit of all his labour, and he especially gave his magazine all his effort and his genius and would not absent himself from any of the Academy's meetings except in emergency. Mohammad Kurd Ali was a pioneer in journalism, and an authority on investigative journalism; he made a name for himself in writing and authorship, and was one of the leaders of the pen and thought in the Arab world, as he was the first one to establish high-quality newspaper and magazine in Damascus, and was the first one to establish an Arab Science Assembly in the Arab world, which was an example followed by the Arabic Language Assembly in Egypt and some other councils in a number of countries of the Arab world.

The style of his writing has been described as ‘easy but impossible’. It is characterised with bland expression and verbal eloquence; and it uses words loaded with meaning, and sentences varying in length, which in all cases moves away from affectation, and aims to focus on the meaning without giving much attention to the structure. In much of what he has written, he can be said to follow the same course of the writing as that of Ibn Khaldoun in his Introduction.

Muhammad Kurd Ali combined the press, the university, the Ministry, the Arab Science Assembly in Damascus, and the language Council in Egypt. He assumed the Ministry of Education twice in the era of the French occupation.

Muhammad Kurd Ali occupies the first literary and scientific place among his peers of influential Arab scholars. His writings reached the number of twenty-two authorships:

(Islam and Arab civilization) two volumes.

(History of civilization) are two parts, translated from French.

(Oddity of the West) two volumes.

(Our words and deeds) two volumes.

(Damascus, a city of charm and poetry).

(The Past of Andalusia and its Present).

(Princes of Eloquency) are two parts.

(The Old and the New), which is a selection of his articles.

(Ancestral Treasures).

(The Islamic Management under Arabs).

(Damascus Greenery)

(The Diaries) four parts.

Muhammad died On Thursday of April 2nd, 1953 in Damascus, and was buried beside the tomb of Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan in Damascus.

References

Abd al-Ghani al-Otari (genius Chamie, Al-Hindi Press, Damascus, the first edition 1986, p. (10-16).

Khairuddin Zarkali (Encyclopedia of the famous, the House of Science for millions, Beirut, Fifth Edition 1980, Part VI, p. (202,203).

Persondata
Name	Kurd Ali, Muhammad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1876
Place of birth
Date of death	1953
Place of death