Fuad Hamza

Fuad Hamza, also known as Fuad Bey Hamza, (1899–1951) was a Palestinian who served as Saudi ambassador to France and the United States and as King Abdulaziz's adviser and representative. Hafiz Wahba and he were the first ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, the former in the United Kingdom and the latter in France.[1]

Fuad Hamza
Personal details
Born1899
Died1951 (aged 51–52)
NationalitySaudi Arabian
Alma materAmerican College of Beirut
Jerusalem Law School

Biography

Fuad Hamza was born in 1899.[2] He was from Palestine.[3] Clive Leatherdale argues that he was a Druze from Lebanon.[4] He was a graduate of the American College of Beirut and the Jerusalem Law School.[5]

Hamza was one of the personal advisers of King Abdulaziz[6] and first served him as a translator.[2] He was appointed deputy foreign minister in 1930 replacing Abdullah Al Damluji in the post, an Iraqi adviser of King Abdulaziz.[7] Following the announcement of the constitution of the council of deputies (Majlis al Wukala) in December 1931 Hamza was made one of four members of the council as the deputy for foreign affairs.[8] In this capacity Hamza signed an amity treaty on behalf of Saudi Arabia with Egypt in Cairo on 7 May 1936.[9][10] Through the treaty Egypt recognized Saudi Arabia as an independent and sovereign state, and diplomatic relations between two countries were started.[10] The same year King Abdulaziz named Hamza as his emissary to the Palestine issue, but Hamza could not attend the meetings due to his illness.[11] However, Hamza met with David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Zionist and Jewish Agency Executive, at his Beirut home on 13 April 1937.[5] In this unofficial meeting Ben Gurion attempted to get information about King Abdulaziz's views on the formation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, and Hamza suggested him to meet with Ibn Saud as well as Crown Prince Saud and Yusuf Yasin during the latter's visit to London for the coronation of King George VI.[5]

Hamza served as the Saudi ambassador to France during the late 1930s.[1] He represented Saudi Arabia in the Vichy Conference and the Ankara Conference which was held during World War II.[3] Hamza attempted to coordinate a correspondence between King Abdulaziz and Adolf Hitler in the same period.[7] In November 1941 the King sent a telegram to Hamza stating that his attempts to make a connection with Nazi Germany would be harmful for Saudi Arabia, and ordered him to terminate all his relations with Nazi officials.[12]

Following World War II Hamza was made Saudi ambassador to the United States.[13] He worked at the Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia as deputy minister until his death in 1951.[7][14] Yusuf Yasin replaced him in the post.[14]

Hamza published several books on Saudi Arabia.[8]

References
  1. Bernard Lewis; Buntzie Ellis Churchill (10 May 2012). Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-101-57523-9.
  2. Khalid Abdullah Krairi (October 2016). "John Philby and his political roles in the Arabian Peninsula, 1917-1953" (PhD Thesis). University of Birmingham. p. 351. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  3. Mohamed Zayyan Al Jazairi (1968). "Diplomatic history of Saudi Arabia, 1903-1960's" (PDF). University of Arizona. p. 45. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  4. Clive Leatherdale (1983). Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: The Imperial Oasis. Psychology Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-7146-3220-9.
  5. Jerald L. Thompson (December 1981). "H. St. John Philby, Ibn Saud and Palestine" (MA Thesis). DTIC. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  6. "The diplomat who said 'No' to Saudi oil". BBC. 8 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  7. Alexei Vassiliev (1 September 2013). The History of Saudi Arabia. Saqi. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-86356-779-7.
  8. Charles W. Harrington (Winter 1958). "The Saudi Arabian Council of Ministers" (PDF). The Middle East Journal. 12 (1): 1–19.
  9. Ashraf Saleh Mohamed Sayed (June 2014). "Friendship & Cooperation Treaty Between The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia And The Kingdom of Egypt May-November 1936" (PDF). Liwa. 6 (11): 27–52.
  10. "Amity Treaty Signed by Egypt and Arabia". The New York Times. Cairo. 11 May 1936. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  11. M. J. Cohen (April 1983). "Origins of the Arab States' Involvement in Palestine" (PDF). Middle Eastern Studies. 19 (2): 244–252.
  12. Matthew Fallon Hinds (July 2012). "Anglo-American Relations in Saudi Arabia, 1941-1945: A Study of a Trying Relationship" (PhD Thesis). London School of Economics and Political Science. p. 83. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  13. "Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)". Office of the Historian. 17 January 1947. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  14. Michael Quentin Morton (2015). "The Buraimi affair: oil prospecting and drawing the frontiers of Saudi Arabia". Asian Affairs. 46 (1): 9.
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