Jamil al-Ulshi
Jamil al-Ulshi (
1883-
1951) (
Arabic: جميل الألوسي) was a
Syrian politician and acting head of state (
January 17 -
March 25,
1943) during the
French Mandate era.
He was born and raised in
Damascus, and educated in the
Ottoman Military Academy in
Istanbul.
He defected from the Ottoman army and joined the
Arab revolt under the leadership of
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca. After the end of
World War II, he was a member of a six-man committee charged with discharging executive authority in Syria until the Kingdom of Syria was proclaimed under
Faisal I, after which, in October of
1918, he was appointed private chamberlain to the new monarch. However, the kingdom was dissolved by the
French, who imposed their mandate on Syria in July of
1920 and exiled Faisal (see
Sykes-Picot Agreement and
Sanremo conference). Ulshi remained behind and participated in successive pro-French and French-appointed puppet governments, occupying several high posts in the cabinet, becoming acting Prime Minister on
September 6, 1920. He rapidly gained a reputation for subservience to the French and
nepotism, appointing several family members to high government posts. The French mandate authorities subdivided Syria into independent and semi-independent zones and annexed large areas to
Lebanon, enraging Syrian nationalists, and several revolts broke out across the country.
Ulshi became increasingly unpopular when he did nothing to oppose these measures, and raised no objections to the severe French military response to the revolts. He was forced to resign on
November 30, 1920. He remained a political outcast until
1928, when he was able to return to the cabinet as finance minister when his long tome ally
Taj al-Din al-Hasani became Prime minister; he held this post until August of
1930, when he retired. He came out of retirement in September of
1941 to become an advisor to Hasani when the latter assumed the presidency. Hasani asked Ulshi to form a government in January of
1943. He did so, giving several posts to nationalist politicians to appease the opposition. However Hasani died that same month, and Ulshi became acting president as well as prime minister. His tenure was marred by widespread public anger and rioting at high prices and taxes imposed to aid the unpopular French war effort in
Europe. He was again forced to resign, and disappeared from public life until his death eight years later.
* Sami Moubayed
Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 (Cune Press, Seattle, 2005).
