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Nuri bin Hazaa Al Shalaan
Nuri bin Hazaa Al Shalaan
	Nuri Al Shalaan (photo by Carl Raswan in 1927)
Emir of the Ruwallah tribe
In office	1904–1942
Predecessor	Fahd bin Hazaa Al Shalaan
Successor	Fawwaz bin Nawwaf Al Shalaan
Born	1847
Died	1 July 1942 (aged 94–95); Damascus, Syria
Burial	Adra, Syria
Issue	Nawwaf bin Nuri Al Sha'alan
House	Al Shalaan
Father	Hazaa Al Shalaan
Occupation	Tribal chief
Military career
Allegiance	Kingdom of Hejaz
Service / branch	Sharifian Army
Battles / wars	Arab Revolt Battle of Megiddo; Battle of Daraa; Capture of Damascus; ; Great Syrian Revolt;

Nuri bin Hazaa Al Shalaan (Arabic: نوري بن هزاع الشعلان, romanized: Nuri ibn Hazaa as-Shaalan; 1847–1942) was the chieftain of Ruwallah tribe settled in northern Arabia and the Syrian Desert. He headed the tribe between 1904 and 1942 and developed alliances with various ruling forces in the region.

Early life

Al Shalaan was born in 1847 as one of the children of the Emir of the Ruwallah tribe.^[1] The tribe belonged to the Anizah Confederation.^[2] They settled in Syria in late 18th century, due to the Wahhabi attacks.^[2]

Tribal chieftaincy and activities

After the death of his father, Al Shalaan's brother Sattam succeeded him as the Emir of the Ruwallah tribe.^[1]^[3] Nuri killed his brother in 1904, becoming the ruler of the tribe.^[4]^[5] He also murdered another brother to secure his rule.^[5]^[6] He occupied Al Jawf region in 1909 that had been under the control of Al Rashid forces.^[7] Following this he was called Emir of Jawf.^[5] He had good relations with the Ottomans, and their alliance continued until 1910 when he was exiled by the Ottomans to Spain because of his clash with an Ottoman official,^[8] as he declined to join Sami Pasha al-Farouqi's campaign against the Hauran Druze Rebellion.^[9] His exile ended in 1916 and he returned to Damascus.^[8]

In that period, the Ruwallah tribe was one of the most influential nomadic groups in the Syrian Badiya, with loose encampments that could spread over hundreds of kilometres. Al Shalaan was responsible for the management of water and pastural resources across these encampments and maintaining peace amongst the various factions within the tribal confederacy.^[10]

Then Al Shalaan became a supporter of the Hashemites as a result of the Allies' influence, particularly of T. E. Lawrence, and was financially assisted by Emir Faisal, son of Sherif Hussein.^[8]^[11] Al Shalaan first rejected the offer of Emir Faisal to join the Arab revolt against the Ottomans, and his meeting with Lawrence in July 1917 was not fruitful.^[12] Because he was suspicious of the Sykes–Picot Agreement and the British.^[13] Al Shalaan accepted the offer in September 1917 only after the arrest of his son, Fawwaz.^[12]

Al Shalaan made significant efforts in the occupation of Daraa and capture of Damascus by the Hashemite forces.^[5] His forces were one of the regular Arab armed units which entered into Damascus on 1 October 1918.^[14] However, his alliance with Emir Faisal did not last long since he began to support the occupying French forces from July 1920 and was paid by them for his services.^[1] In addition, he presented General Henri Gouraud with two Arabian horses and a gold-plated sword during the latter's visit to Damascus.^[15]

He lost the Al Jawf region in 1920 when Ibn Saud captured it.^[16] Al Shalaan's alliance with the French was also short-lived ending in July 1921 due to the emergence of a new cooperation between him and Emir Abdullah, another son of Sherif Hussein.^[1] Al Shalaan had to leave Damascus because of the threats of the French and asked for the British protection in October 1921.^[1]

During this period, the adoption of modern technology such as automobiles by the Ruwallah tribe enabled the group an advantage in the desert.^[10] It changed the nature of tribal conflict and raiding. Al Shalaan himself owned multiple vehicles and in 1926 attached machine guns to these early automobiles to create a fleet of three "armoured cars", according to reports by the French military administration.^[17] These innovations drew protest from other tribal leaders.^[10]

When the Hashemite forces were defeated by the Saudi forces led by Ibn Saud and lost their rule in Hejaz, he managed to develop an alliance with Ibn Saud in 1926 after his visit to him in Mecca.^[1] Al Shalaan started an anti-Hashemite propaganda among his tribesmen which led to the end of the financial aid from Emir Abdullah.^[1] Al Shalaan restored his alliance with the French authorities in April 1926.^[18] The French financial aid to him resumed in 1927.^[4] He was also financially assisted by Ibn Saud.^[4] During the French Mandate in Syria Al Shalaan was given the title of emir.^[19] In the meantime, he allied himself with the French forces against the Druze during the Great Syrian Revolt, in exchange for providing aerial support against his tribal adversaries.^[20] He was also awarded the medal of Knight of the Legion of Honour.^[21]

Al Shalaan signed a peace treaty with the chief of the Sba'a tribe, Rakan bin Mershed, in June 1930.^[22] The Sba'a tribe was also part of the Anizah confederation.^[2] Al Shalaan was one the richest tribal chiefs in the region since his lands produced the best wheat in Syria and headed one of the most influential tribal confederation.^[5]^[19] However, he could not manage to establish his tribal alliance as an emirate.^[19]

Personal life

Al Shalaan bought a large residence in Damascus in 1920 which included a mosque and gardens, and his family moved there.^[23] This area became a modern and cosmopolitan district over time and is named after him.^[23]

His most notable son was Nawwaf, known as the most advanced thinker in the desert, who participated in Al Shalaan's military activities.^[13] One of his granddaughters, Nouf bint Nawwaf, married Ibn Saud.^[24] She had three sons from her marriage to Ibn Saud: Prince Thamir, Prince Mamdouh and Prince Mashour.^[24] Nuri's another granddaughter, Fawzia bint Nawwaf, married Prince Saud, heir of Ibn Saud, but they divorced.^[4]^[6] Fawzia's daughter from her later marriage wed another son of Ibn Saud, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.^[6] Al Shalaan's other granddaughters also married to the Al Saud members, including Mishaal bin Abdulaziz and Nasser bin Abdulaziz.^[6] These marriages improved the relations between Al Shalaan and Ibn Saud.^[24]

Al Shalaan was a warrior poet and produced many short poems and sayings.^[4] He died in Damascus on 1 July 1942 and was succeeded by his grandson Fawwaz as Emir of the Ruwallah.^[25] He was buried in Adra, near Damascus, on land he owned.^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Philip S. Khoury (1982). "The tribal shaykh, French tribal policy, and the nationalist movement in Syria between two world wars". Middle Eastern Studies. 18 (2): 181–184, 190}. doi:10.1080/00263208208700504. JSTOR 4282880.
^ ^a ^b ^c John Frederick Williamson (1974). A political history of the Shammar Jarba tribe of al-Jazīrah, 1800-1958 (PhD thesis). Indiana University. p. 36. ISBN 9798659836040. OCLC 4481937. ProQuest 302745090.
^ Annika Kropf; Tanya Cariina Newbury-Smith (2016). "Wasta as a Form of Social Capital? An Institutional Perspective". In Mohamed A. Ramady (ed.). The Political Economy of Wasta: Use and Abuse of Social Capital Networking. Cham: Springer. p. 18. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-22201-1_1. ISBN 978-3-319-22201-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Andrew J. Shryock (1990). "The Rise of Nasir Al-Nims: A Tribal Commentary on Being and Becoming a Shaykh". Journal of Anthropological Research. 46 (2): 161–164. doi:10.1086/jar.46.2.3630070. JSTOR 3630070. S2CID 147396225.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Lowell Thomas (4 April 1925). "Knights of the Black Tents". Victoria Daily Times. p. 27. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d William Lancaster (1981). The Rwala Bedouin Today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 84, 86. ISBN 978-0-521-28275-8.
^ Alexei Vassiliev (2013). The History of Saudi Arabia. London: Saqi Books. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-86356-779-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dawn Chatty (Winter 2010). "The Bedouin in Contemporary Syria: The Persistence of Tribal Authority and Control". The Middle East Journal. 64 (1): 33. doi:10.3751/64.1.12. JSTOR 20622981. S2CID 143487962.
^ ^a ^b نوري الشعلان (in Arabic). Syrian Modern History. 19 September 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c Sakatni, Mehdi. "From Camel to Truck? Automobiles and the Pastoralist Nomadism of Syrian Tribes during the French Mandate (1920–46)". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 39 (1): 159–169. doi:10.1215/1089201X-7493865.
^ Linda J. Tarver (1978). "In Wisdom's House". Journal of Contemporary History. 13 (3): 604. doi:10.1177/002200947801300309. JSTOR 260210. S2CID 161319305.
^ ^a ^b Elizabeth Tauber (2014). The Arab Movements in World War I (2nd ed.). Abingdon; New York: Routledge. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-135-19985-2.
^ ^a ^b Tariq Moraiwed Tell (2013). The Social and Economic Origins of Monarchy in Jordan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 48, 51. doi:10.1057/9781137015655. ISBN 978-1-137-01565-5.
^ Angus M. Mundy (1965). The Arab Government in Syria from the Capture of Damascus to the Battle of Meisalun (MA thesis). American University of Beirut. p. 35. hdl:10938/1013. ISBN 9781085715720. ProQuest 2396852806.
^ هدية نوري الشعلان إلى الجنرال غورو عام 1920 (in Arabic). Syrian Modern History.
^ "Notes on the Proposal to create a Buffer State in the Wadi Sirhan between Trans-Jordania and Nejd". Arabian Gulf Digital Archive. 7 March 1924. p. 104. Retrieved 13 August 2023. British intelligence document
^ Müller, Victor (1931). En Syrie avec les Bédouins. Les tribus du désert [In Syria with the Bedouin: The Desert Tribes]. Paris: E. Leroux. p. 68.
^ "The National Syrian State". The Times. No. 44259. Beirut. 30 April 1926. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kurt Franz (2011). "The Bedouin History or Bedouin History?". Nomadic Peoples. 15 (1): 36. JSTOR 43123884.
^ Bidwell 2012, pp. 378–379.
^ Jan de Maere. "Diplo Wo 64 Saudi Arab Identity". ResearchGate. p. December 2020.
^ "News in Brief". The Times. No. 45531. Lahore. 5 June 1930. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b Dawn Chatty (2009). "Study of an Old 'Mandatory' Quarter in Full Transformation: Sha'laan, Damascus". Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant. 4 (1): 78. doi:10.1179/175272609X12495572514772.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gary Samuel Samore (1984). Royal Family Politics in Saudi Arabia (1953-1982) (PhD thesis). Harvard University. p. 93. ProQuest 303295482.
^ Touvia Ashkenazi (1948). "The 'Anazah Tribes". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 4 (2): 232. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.4.2.3628713. JSTOR 3628713. S2CID 163387847.

Sources

Bidwell, Robin (2012). Dictionary of Modern Arab History – An A to Z of over 2,000 entries from 1798 to the present day. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 9781136162916.