George Antonius

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

George Antonius
جورج حبيب أنطونيوس
Deir al Qamar, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Empire
DiedMay 21, 1942(1942-05-21) (aged 50)
Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
RegionEastern Mediterranean
SchoolNationalism, Arab nationalism
Main interests
History, Literature
Tombstone of George Antonius at the Orthodox cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The epitaph says "Heed and awaken, O Arabs".

George Habib Antonius,

Eastern Orthodox Christian family, he served as a civil servant in the British Mandate of Palestine. His 1938 book The Arab Awakening generated an ongoing debate over such issues as the origins of Arab nationalism, the significance of the Arab Revolt of 1916, and the machinations behind the post-World War I political settlement in West Asia and North Africa. In the book, he raised concern about the fate of religious coexistence in Palestine in the face of Zionist colonization, while also recognizing the horror of anti-Jewish Nazism.[2]

Philosophy

Antonius traced Arab nationalism to the reign of

Greater Syria
and in Europe and to Arab officers in the Ottoman army who formed a secret society to ultimately promote Arab nationalist interests. These officers proved particularly useful later during World War I after the leadership of the movement openly shifted allegiance to support the Entente. Other than tracing the birth of the Arab national movement, Antonius also argued that it was Great Britain that dishonoured its prior commitments to the Arabs and instead pursued its own colonial interests at the expense of what Antonius calls the "true will of the people," namely unity and independence of the would-be Arab state.

Career

Sir Gilbert Clayton and George Antonius (in white suit) with King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud (centre), Jedda c 1925.

Antonius graduated from

Cambridge University and joined the newly formed British Mandate Administration in Palestine as the deputy in the Education Department. His wife, Katy, was a daughter of Faris Nimr Pasha, a wealthy Lebanese Christian and cultural activist. Antonius had a difficult relationship with the British. Despite his senior position he and his wife were refused membership in the Jerusalem sports club which had a "No Natives" policy.[3]

In 1925, Antonius joined Gilbert Clayton in the newly formed Saudi Arabia, as his translator and advisor in the negotiations to agree on the boundaries of Saudi Arabia[4] with Iraq, Transjordan and Yemen.[5]

He resigned his position in 1930 to join the

London Conference (1939).[6]

An annual lecture is given in his memory at St Antony's College, Oxford.[7]

Personal life

Antonius was the son-in-law of Faris Nimr who was a Lebanese journalist and founder of the newspaper Al Muqattam.[8]

Gallery

  • London Conference, St. James' Palace, February 1939. Palestinian delegates (foreground), Left to right: Fu'ad Saba, Yaqub Al-Ghussein, Musa Alami, Amin Tamimi, Jamal Al-Husseini, Awni Abdul Hadi, George Antonius, and Alfred Roch. Facing the Palestinians are the British, with Sir Neville Chamberlain presiding. To his right is Lord Halifax, and to his left, Malcolm MacDonald.
    London Conference, St. James' Palace, February 1939. Palestinian delegates (foreground), Left to right: Fu'ad Saba,
    George Antonius, and Alfred Roch. Facing the Palestinians are the British, with Sir Neville Chamberlain presiding. To his right is Lord Halifax, and to his left, Malcolm MacDonald
    .
  • While writing The Arab Awakening, Antonius was a tenant at the Shepherd Hotel.[citation needed]
    While writing The Arab Awakening, Antonius was a tenant at the
    Shepherd Hotel.[citation needed
    ]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-349-62114-9
    . Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  2. ISBN 978-0-520-97174-5
    .
  3. ISBN 0-9525-379-0-7
    .
  4. ^ University of Oxford. St Antony's College. Middle East Centre. George Antonius Collection. Fonds level description. Biographical history: Antonius, George Habib (1891–1942)
  5. ^ Report by Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G., on his missions to negotiate certain agreements with the Sultan of Nejd, and instructions issued to him in regard to his mission, National Archives, 25 November 1925, CO 935/1/7
  6. ISBN 0-88728-143-5
    .
  7. ISBN 9789774163746
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-8160-6986-6
    .

Sources

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Antonius&oldid=1202518631"