Amin al-Husseini

Palestinian Arab nationalist (1897–1974)

Fame61.8
Momentum15.0
Turkey rank#249

Source-basedRising

Fame61.8
Momentum15.0
Turkey rank#249
Wikipedia51K

Lived 1895–1974, aged 79Turkey

Turkey PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
50 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Turkey
#249
Politicians
Era
1895–1974
Aged 79

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

A Jerusalem-born religious and political leader who opposed Zionism from the 1920s onward, then spent World War II in Nazi Germany seeking Axis support for Arab independence. His wartime collaboration remains a flashpoint in arguments over Palestinian nationalism and its relationship to antisemitism.

Biography

About

Born around 1897 into a noble Jerusalemite family, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini studied in Islamic and Catholic schools before serving in the Ottoman army during World War I. After briefly supporting the Arab Kingdom of Syria, he returned to Jerusalem and led the 1920 Nebi Musa riots against Zionism, earning a prison sentence the British soon pardoned. In 1921 the British appointed him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a new role he used to rally Arab opposition to Jewish settlement while remaining a British ally through the mid-1930s. He fled Palestine in 1937 after leading the Arab revolt, moving throu…

Voice