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The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement

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With the publication of Elpeleg's excellent biography, Hajj Amin al-Husayni is now the subject of six biographies in the English alone, as well as several in other languages. Why so much attention to a seemingly minor and failed figure now repudiated by his own people? Because, as Elpeleg shows, Hajj Amin established many of the basics of Palestinian nationalism which endure to this day-from the adoption of the 1916 Sharifian banner of as the Palestinian flag to the inveterate anti-Semitic tone of Palestinian politics. Elpeleg credits him, "more than any other figure," with turning a local conflict into a major regional crisis. More: Hajj Amin determined the lines of Palestinian politics that endure decades after his influence eroded: "There is almost nothing in the PLO doctrine, or in the national charters of the Palestine National Council, which had not already been conceived and given expression by Haj Amin." Despite his profound importance, the man is neglected by his heirs today, embarrassed as they are by his overt extremism, his failure, and his smell of evil (he joined the Nazi cause and succeeded in preventing Jews from escaping the Nazi death machine). Still, along with Yasir Arafat, he remains one of the two outstanding figures of Palestinian nationalism; thanks to Elpeleg's meticulous, comprehensive, and fast-moving account, we have a real sense who this figure was and how it was that he did uniquely much to poison relations between Jews and Muslims in Palestine.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1994

The 'Grand' Mufti Hajj Amin al Husayni was the scion of a rich Jerusalemite family that traced their line back hundreds of years. It is the only book on the man. He was a central figure in Palestinian nationalist politics in the 1920s and 1930s. He collaborated with local Christian Arabs and worked to frustrate Zionism. He finally led the Arabs into open revolt against the British between 1936-1939.

The Mufti held up in the dome of the rock, and the british refused to remove him, as Indira would also have toruble doing with the Golden Temple in India int he 1980s, he finally was expelled and fled first to Baghdad and then to Nazi Germany where he raised Bosnian and Albanian units for Hitler. In the end he returned to the middle east to lead the Palestinians during the 1948 war, was sidelined by King Abdullah of Jordan and went to Gaza, he eventually died in Lebanon.

He was the physical embodiment of Palestinian politics, a rich effendi who sold land to ZIonists while claiming to fight them, an ally of Hitler and religious figure charged with keeping the peace. This is one of the only books on the Mufti, it quickly covers all aspects of his life but does little deep analysis, due to its length.

Seth J. Frantzman