Founding of the League of National Action at Qurnail in Mt. Lebanon - 23 August 1933

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Image Source: Mohammad Ali Eltaher Library and Website

Originally founded in complete secrecy, the League of National was a coalition of fifty like-minded nationalists who wanted sovereignty, independence, and unity of Arab lands. To drive out the French from Syria, they needed an economic rebirth, preaching a certain degree of socialism . The League’s founder was a young nationalist from Talkalakh, Abdul Razzaq al-Dandashi.  Among its founders were the Damascus merchant Uthman al-Sharabati, his son the MIT-trained Ahmad al-Sharabati, future prime minister Sabri al-Asali, Wasif Kamal a Palestinian intellectual from Nablus, Jalal al-Sayyed a nationalist from Deir ez-Zour, the Syrian officer in the Iraqi Army Mahmud al-Hindi, and the Boy Scout founder from Talkalakh, Ali Abdul Karim al-Dandashi. The founders list also included the AUB professors Constantine Zurayk and the Georgetown-trained George Tomeh, the educator Ahmad Munif al-Aidi, the philosopher Zaki al-Arsuzi, the nationalist leader Fihmi al-Mahayri, and the Atasi cousins Adnan, Makram, and Hilmi. Adnan al-Atasi, a Paris-trained political scientist, was the son of Hashem al-Atasi.