Abd al-Rahman al-Kayyali

Born in Aleppo, al-Kayyali studied medicine at the Lebanese American University and graduated in 1914.[1] Upon the emergence of WWI, he served as a medic in the Ottoman Army in Al-Hamraa, Hama Governorate.

In 1919, al-Kayyali was among the founders of the Arab Club of Aleppo, a political salon and society that promoted Aleppine regionalism and Arab nationalism in Syria against the French rule during the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.[2]

Later on, he joined the National Bloc, in which he became a member of Parliament in 1928, 1936 and 1943. In the meantime, he served as the Minister of Justice during the premiership of Jamil Mardam Bey, Saadallah al-Jabiri and Faris al-Khoury,[3] from 1936 to 1939 and from 1943 to 1945.

Al-Kayyali also served as a diplomat for Syria. After the formal independence of Syria following the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence in September 1936, he was appointed non-resident ambassador to the League of Nations by president Hashim al-Atassi, a position he quit after his nomination as a cabinet member in December 1936. From 1947 to 1949 he represented the Syrian Republic as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.[4]

Al-Kayyali died on 13 September 1969.

As a representative of the Aleppan bourgeoisie and a nationalist activist, al-Kayyali built strong ties with leaders of Syria's first independence movement, including Ibrahim Hananu, leader of the so-called Hananu Revolt against French rule. Kayyali can be considered one of the most prestigious citizens of Aleppo of his time and a Western educated proponent of anti-colonial nationalist ideology.[5]

One of al-Kayyali's grandsons, the dentist Mustafa Kayali (or Al-Kayyali), emerged as a prominent civil society activist during the Syrian uprising and was, according to media reports, among the authors of a document known as the "Code of Conduct for Syrian Coexistence" in 2017, endorsed by various Syrian community leaders.[6]