Youssef Diya al-Din al-Khalidi (1842 – 1906), one of the prominent Palestinian Jerusalemites who played an important role in the political and constitutional life in Palestine and the Ottoman Empire.
Youssef Al-Khalidi rose to political positions in the Ottoman Empire and assumed the presidency of the municipality of Jerusalem from 1876 to 1873. Then he was appointed as its representative to the Council of Envoys (Ottoman Parliament) before he was appointed as an Ottoman consul in the Russian city of Poti.
Birth and upbringing
Youssef Ziya al-Din al-Khalidi was born in Jerusalem in 1842 to a prominent family. His father, Muhammad Ali, was a judge in Marash and Erzurum during the Ottoman rule, while his maternal grandfather, Musa al-Khalidi, was a judge in the Anatolian military.
Youssef Al-Khalidi married but did not have children. He is one of dozens of members of the Khalidi family, who enriched civilization with his peers, brothers, and their children from this family.
The Khalidi family produced a group of men of religion, science, literature, journalism, and politics, such as Rawhi Yassin Al-Khalidi (1864-1913), the pioneer of modern historical research, Sheikh Raghib Noman Al-Khalidi (1858-1951), founder of the Khalidi Library, and the literary journalist Jamil Al-Khalidi (1876-1952). One of the pioneers of the Palestinian press, and others.
Study and training
Youssef Diaa Al-Din Al-Khalidi received his first education at the “Honorary School” in Jerusalem, and he wanted to continue studying at Al-Azhar Mosque, but his father arranged for him to study at the Protestant College on the island of Malta, and he remained there for two years during which he studied arithmetic and the Greek, French, and English languages.
In 1859, he worked as an intern in the Sharia Court in Jerusalem, and then traveled to Istanbul to study medicine, but he did not like it, so he left after two years and joined the American Robert College there to study engineering, but he did not complete it due to the death of his father and his return to Jerusalem in 1867.
In Istanbul, he witnessed the opening of modern schools and the growth of the reform movement, so he tried to implement this in Jerusalem. In 1867-1868, he succeeded, with the help of Rashid Pasha, the governor of Syria, in establishing the first Rashidiya school in Jerusalem after great efforts, but he was disappointed because he was not appointed as a director for the school, which was taken over by a Turk who came from Istanbul.
Al-Khalidi resided in Vienna and studied Arabic at the School of Oriental Languages there. He was the first to investigate Labid’s collection and publish it in Vienna in 1880. He took over the administration of Wataki District in the Kurdish state of Tbilisi, and wrote a book on the grammar of the Kurdish language.
Creator of the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary
He was appointed as a translator at the Foreign Ministry in Istanbul, as he was fluent in Arabic, Turkish, Latin, English, and French, as well as Kurdish, which he learned between 1887 and 1893.
Youssef Al-Khalidi is the author of the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary entitled “The Hamidiye Gift”, published in 1893 in Istanbul. It contains 5425 words and includes an introduction to the structure of the Kurdish language, its characteristics and rules. There are two original copies of the dictionary, one in his family and the other in the Bayezid Library. in Istanbul.
Youssef Al-Khalidi was one of those working on establishing the “Khalidi Library” in Jerusalem, which is the first Arabic book house of its kind established in Jerusalem.
Jobs and responsibilities
Youssef Dhia Al-Khalidi was offered the position of Mayor of Jerusalem, which he accepted and held for a period of 6 years. During his reign, many projects were implemented to develop the city, such as constructing, repairing and maintaining streets, extending the sewage network and paving a road suitable for vehicle traffic between Jerusalem and Jaffa in cooperation with the Jerusalem Governor.
But he disagreed with Kamel Pasha, the new governor of Jerusalem, and with the intervention of the governor of Syria, he was removed from his position.
At the beginning of the year 1874, his friend Rashid Pasha from the Islah Party was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He invited him to Istanbul to work as a translator at the Sublime Porte (the headquarters of the Grand Vizier and served as Prime Minister), and he worked in that position for 6 months.
Political experience
Al-Khalidi was one of Palestine’s representatives in the Ottoman Parliament, and was distinguished by his oppositional positions to the negatives of Ottoman rule and its constitutional violations.
He called for the prosecution of the Grand Vizier and the army commanders who failed in their duties. He led a front of opposition representatives whose reports and speeches aroused the anger of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, so he dissolved the council and ordered the exile of 10 opposition representatives outside of Istanbul, among whom was Youssef Zia al-Khalidi.
Al-Khalidi’s activity was not limited to opposing the Ottoman situation, but rather he was a pioneer of the Palestinian awakening and an effective opponent of the Zionist movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine.
In 1899, he sent the Rabbi of France, Zadok Kahn, a long letter in which he assured him that Palestine was an inseparable part of the body of the Ottoman Empire, that Jewish immigration was a threat to the fate of the people of Palestine, and that the Jews should search for another place other than it.
It is worth noting that the leader of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, responded to Al-Khalidi in a letter he wrote on March 19, 1899, in which he said that there was no fear of immigration, and he considered that “the Jews are friends of Turkey,” and that Zionism did not harbor feelings of hostility towards the Ottoman government, but rather wanted to create New resources through migration.
This message had no impact on Al-Khalidi’s position, as he remained opposed to Zionist immigration to Palestine.
His death
Youssef Zia Al-Khalidi died in 1906 in the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. He remained an observer until the end of his days under the eyes of Sultan Abdul Hamid. He continued to call for the Constitution and Reform Movement that arose with him and believed in it until the end of his days.