Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali () (20 April 1903 – 24 May 1997) was an Iraqi statesman, educator, politician and diplomat, who held important posts in the government of Iraq, during the royal era. Most notably he served as Iraq's prime minister two times and foreign minister from 1946 to 1948 and was also the Director of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Arab Federation Council in 1958.
Born to a Shi'ite family in al-Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad, they were traditionally custodians of Al-Kadhimiya Mosque. He began his political career in 1943. During the 1945 United Nations conference, al-Jamali, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed the Charter of the United Nations on behalf of his country and continued to represent Iraq several times during the United Nations meetings. He played an important role in the independence of Tunisia. After the 14 July Revolution in 1958, al-Jamali was exile to Tunisia, where he served as an advisor to Habib Bourguiba.
He died on 24 May 1997, at the age of 94. Al-Jamali is considered one of the most prominent figures in politics and education in Iraq and the Arab World along with being one of the most notable and well-known prime ministers during the Royal era of Iraq, his academic excellence qualified him to obtain the most prestigious scientific degrees in the most prestigious universities in the world despite his upbringing in a conservative and religious environment. He was also the first Iraqi to hold a doctorate in education from Harvard.
Early life and education
Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali was born on 20 April 1903 in al-Kadhimiya, near Baghdad, the son of a Shi'a Muslim cleric, Sheikh Abbas al-Jamali. He belongs to a religious family that participates in the custodianship of the shrine of al-Kadhimiya Mosque and originally came from Bani Shaiba. The family have in their keeping a royal firman issued on the month of Muharram, 1020 AH (1611 AD) from the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph Ahmed I that grants the Jamal ed-Din bin Mullah Ali, an ancestor of the al-Jamali family whom the family gets its name from, full care of the mosque and shrine. Al-Jamali lived near the mosque in a strict and conservative environment and frequently went to the golden mosque for prayers and Quranic learning. Visitors coming to the mosque also used to consult his father. During World War I, the Arab Revolt, with Faisal I being in it, swept across the Middle East, and Faisal I would later become the first King of Iraq. Faisal's actions would personify Arab nationalism for al-Jamali's generation. His entourage to Iraq, the idea of liberation and Arab unity would inspire a young al-Jamali and leave a deep impression on him. Al-Jamali's mother, a well-known poet from Hillah, would die in 1938 with his father following in just three years.
Al-Jamali would later describe the habits and attitudes he learned in Childhood which he had to overcome later in life as he grew up, these included: "A negative attitude toward Sunni Muslims, believing that God would send them to Hell; the feeling that he had to go daily to Kadhimiya Mosque to pray; that he must not look at women's faces or even listen to their voices except for members of his own family; the obligation to pay respect to great religious personalities, kissing their right hands on meeting; a negative attitude toward government officials, believing that, since they were Sunnis, they could not be honest people."
His early education was a religious one, attending the religious seminary of Sheikh Mehdi Al-Khalissi. He used to go to the Alliance School every Friday to acquire French books and learn the French language.Political Signs in Modern Iraq - Mir Basri - Part Two - Dar Al-Hikma London - First Edition 2004 - Page 7, 8 He practiced the profession of teaching in Iraq which made him suitable for becoming a primary teacher. He then continued his studies at the American University of Beirut with a government scholarship. Then he returned to Baghdad for a short time and lectured at the university he graduated from, before moving to the United States. Although his conservative family refused to approve of his travels, the Sheikhs of al-Kadhimiya approved, even if he studied at a Christian university. After graduating from the American University in Beirut, and Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City, he taught for some time in Iraq before entering public life. He obtained the degree of Professor of Arts in education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1930, after which he obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1934, and the topic of the thesis he submitted for obtaining his doctorate was called "New Iraq", then Columbia University awarded him an honorary doctorate in law in 1954. Boston University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1956.
In 1944, he joined the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later he served as Director General of Education. Although he was a Shi'a Muslim, he promoted harmony and educational equality with Sunni Muslims when he was Director General of Education. He also undermined the power of the ancient Shi'a in the shrine cities of Kadhimiya, Najaf and Karbala. Due to being an Arab nationalist, he constantly urged Sunni Muslims and Shi'a Muslims to identify themselves with Iraq rather than with sectarian communities or tribes. However, it was noted that he appointed many more Shi'a teachers than Sunni teachers. Al-Jamali enjoyed great influence in directing education and student knowledge in Iraq from 1932 to 1942.
Political career In 1943, under the orders of Nuri al-Said, al-Jamali was appointed the Director General of Foreign Affairs because al-Said saw him as qualified for the role. This did not please al-Jamali at first but grew to the role. At the time, he was one of the only educated Iraqis with overseas experiences which further supported this career switch although there were rumors that al-Jamali had Axis leanings. Nevertheless, al-Jamali spared no opportunity to urge the need for the independence of Lebanon and Syria from the French mandates. Following the fall of Vichy France, Lebanon and Syria gained their independence.
In 1945, al-Jamali first became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, a position he held continuously for three years. As a representative of Iraq, he signed the Charter of the United Nations on behalf of his country. In 1949 he again became Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, from 1947 to 1958 he was the head of the Iraqi representation at the United Nations, and in 1950 he was also Iraq's ambassador to Egypt. Al-Jamali was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs twice more. The third in 1952 in the government of then-prime minister Mustafa al-Umari, and the fourth in the same year during the cabinet of Nureddin Mahmud.
United Nations Iraq was considered a developing country then and was invited as part of the 45 nations to start the United Nations. Al-Jamali's debut at a major world conference was at the organizational meetings of the United Nations in San Francisco in the late spring of 1945. As Director General of Foreign Affairs, he was outranked by the other members of the Iraqi delegation such as Foreign Minister Arshad al-Umari; who represented the United States at the time, Ali Jawdat al-Ayyubi, and Nasrat al-Farisi. Nevertheless, he took part in the committees drafting the portions of the UN Charter that dealt with trusteeship and with the UN Security Council. On the weekend of that week, the diplomats, including al-Jamali, visited Curry Village in Yosemite Valley and was noted in the news for his modest attitude and open-mindedness towards seeking multicultural understanding.Wilson, Richard (2011) Physics is Fun: Memoirs of a Life in Physics. Harvard University. chpt. 64 Al-Jamali also took part in Arab delegations that wanted to ensure the independence of Syria, and Lebanon, and the protection of Palestine from Zionism.
He was a member of both houses of the old Iraqi Parliament and was Minister of Foreign Affairs eight times in six ministries between 1946 and 1953. He was twice the president of the Chamber of Deputies between October 1950 and September 1953. The Iraqi government chose him to sign the United Nations Charter in the name of Iraq and became the representative of Iraq at the founding ceremony of the United Nations Organization in 1945. He also participated in the maintenance of the International Charter through his participation in two important committees of the conference, namely, the committee that drafted the Security Council.
Because of the communist threat from the Soviet Union along Iraq's northeastern border, he advocated for a strong affiliation with the United States and the United Kingdom, at a time when the United States of America seemed to be a good ally for the Arab world, but he later confessed his disappointment at the way America treated his country, the Arab world, and the problems in the middle east in general. Al-Jamali contributed to the development of modern national education in Iraq, as he prompted the Iraqi government to bring in the "Dabul Monroe Committee" from Columbia University to study the reality of education in Iraq. When the United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed aiding "Near East" countries, al-Jamali pointed out that Iraq has been feeling political and social danger for years due to the situations in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Eastern Europe, and welcomed Eisenhower economic and military aid to protect Iraq from communism and subversion.
Libya
In September 1946, al-Jamali represented Iraq at the Paris Peace Conference which was to decide the fate of the former Italian colony of Libya for which he asked for immediate independence from Italy. Despite his request, various countries at the conference had interests in Libya. The United Kingdom wanted Cyrenaica, Italy and the Soviet Union both wanted Tripoli, France wanted the Fezzan, and the United States wanted an air base in Libya. Al-Jamali urged that, if the conference did not grant immediate independence, trusteeship powers should be exercised either by the Arab League or by a League member.
Palestine
Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali was known for defending Palestine in his speeches, writing, articles, and international forums. Whenever he was at a United Nations conference, he would mention Palestinians and their struggles and spoke highly of their heritage. He urged for a multicultural Palestinian state. Al-Jamali warned of Zionism having "something in common with Hitlerite technique" as it combined religion, race, and state into a "fanatic and one-sided ideology."Al-Jamali had been following the question of Palestine very closely with deepening concern. Over time, the issue of Palestine became one of al-Jamali's most time-occupying matters. Under the pen name "Ibn al-Iraq", al-Jamali began in 1944 to write a series of newspaper articles to warn the public of Zionism which he saw as a threat. These were eventually collected in pamphlet form and printed in Cairo under the title "The Zionist Danger". Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, and Crown-Prince Abd al-Ilah, on behalf of King Faisal II, also wrote similar letters to US President Roosevelt arguing that Palestine legally belonged to its natives and reminded the president of Caliph Umar's taking of Palestine and the Crusades. Al-Jamali helped to translate Abd al-Ilah's letter into English.
In December 1944, al-Jamali helped establish Arab League Offices for Palestine in Britain and America under the direction of Musa al-'Alami. Musa headed the Information offices funded by Iraq from 1944 until 1948. This led to defiance by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who saw this as a threat to his position. He would later meet with al-Jamali in Cairo in 1947 in which he sought to improve relations with Iraq and express his innocence of encouraging Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's revolt in 1941.