Hassan
Hassan (El-Hassan bin Talal) (b. March 20, 1947). Crown prince of Jordan from 1965 to 1999. He was born on March 20, 1947, in Amman as the son of crown prince Talal (later king) and Zeini ash-Sharaf bint Jamil. In 1965, he was named crown prince of Jordan by King Hussein, thereby deposing his nephew, the then three year old Abdullah. The background for this change was that Hussein was exposed to a number of assassination attempts, and did not want to take the risk of leaving Jordan in the hands of an infant. In 1968, Hassan married Indian born Sarvath Ikramullah. In January 1999, Abdullah was appointed crown prince, deposing Hassan. During his tenure as crown prince, Hassan was one of King Hussein’s closest advisors. He was active in the work of bringing different religions together for interfaith dialogue, and was educated in Oriental studies from the Christ Church in Oxford.
Hassan is the son of King Talal and Queen Zein al-Sharaf. He is the brother of the late King Hussein, was Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999, and is uncle to the King Abdullah II of Jordan.
In 1968, Prince Hassan married Sarvath Ikramullah, daughter of Pakistani politician Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, whom he first met in London in 1958, when they were both youngsters. They have four children together:
Princess Rahma (born August 13, 1969)
Princess Sumaya (born May 14, 1971)
Princess Badiya (born March 28, 1974)
Prince Rashid (born May 20, 1979)
Prince Hassan was educated first in Amman. He then attended Summer Fields School, then Harrow School in England as well as Christ Church, Oxford University, where he received a bachelor's degree in Oriental Studies followed by an master's degree. Prince Hassan became fluent in Arabic, English, French and German; developed a working knowledge of Turkish and Spanish; and studied Hebrew in university.
From 1965 to 1999, he served as Crown Prince of Jordan.
In 2002 Prince Hassan was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York in recognition of his contribution to the field of post-war reconstruction and development.
In 2009, he joined the project "Soldiers of Peace", a movie against all wars and for a global peace.
El-Hassan bin Talal see Hassan
Hassan (El-Hassan bin Talal) (b. March 20, 1947). Crown prince of Jordan from 1965 to 1999. He was born on March 20, 1947, in Amman as the son of crown prince Talal (later king) and Zeini ash-Sharaf bint Jamil. In 1965, he was named crown prince of Jordan by King Hussein, thereby deposing his nephew, the then three year old Abdullah. The background for this change was that Hussein was exposed to a number of assassination attempts, and did not want to take the risk of leaving Jordan in the hands of an infant. In 1968, Hassan married Indian born Sarvath Ikramullah. In January 1999, Abdullah was appointed crown prince, deposing Hassan. During his tenure as crown prince, Hassan was one of King Hussein’s closest advisors. He was active in the work of bringing different religions together for interfaith dialogue, and was educated in Oriental studies from the Christ Church in Oxford.
Hassan is the son of King Talal and Queen Zein al-Sharaf. He is the brother of the late King Hussein, was Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999, and is uncle to the King Abdullah II of Jordan.
In 1968, Prince Hassan married Sarvath Ikramullah, daughter of Pakistani politician Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, whom he first met in London in 1958, when they were both youngsters. They have four children together:
Princess Rahma (born August 13, 1969)
Princess Sumaya (born May 14, 1971)
Princess Badiya (born March 28, 1974)
Prince Rashid (born May 20, 1979)
Prince Hassan was educated first in Amman. He then attended Summer Fields School, then Harrow School in England as well as Christ Church, Oxford University, where he received a bachelor's degree in Oriental Studies followed by an master's degree. Prince Hassan became fluent in Arabic, English, French and German; developed a working knowledge of Turkish and Spanish; and studied Hebrew in university.
From 1965 to 1999, he served as Crown Prince of Jordan.
In 2002 Prince Hassan was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of York in recognition of his contribution to the field of post-war reconstruction and development.
In 2009, he joined the project "Soldiers of Peace", a movie against all wars and for a global peace.
El-Hassan bin Talal see Hassan
Hassan II
Hassan II (Muhammad Hassan) (July 9, 1929-July 23, 1999). King who ruled Morocco for 38 years and played an important role as mediator between Israel and the Arab nations of the Middle East.
Hassan was born Moulay Hassan ben Mohammed Alaoui in Rabat on July 9, 1929, the eldest of six children of Muhammad V (Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef, 1913-1961). Most of Morocco was then a protectorate of France, except for sections governed by Spain in the northwest and on the southern coast and the city of Tangier, an international zone.
As World War II unfolded, resistance to colonial rule grew. After the fall of France, the Free French forces promised independence if Morocco would cooperate in the war against the Axis, a promise that Paris proved unwilling to keep.
After the war, tension rose between the Sultan and the French, but the young Prince Moulay Hassan was educated as befitted the heir of two traditions: He attended the Imperial College at Rabat, where instruction was in Arabic and French. Later he earned a law degree from the University of Bordeaux and served in the French Navy aboard the battleship Jeanne d'Arc.
Hassan started at the Qur’anic school at the Royal Palace in 1934 and finished his Qur’anic training in 1936, when he began modern school. In 1941, Hassan’s secondary training commenced at the Imperial College at the Royal College, where he was taught by the best Moroccan and foreign teachers.
In April of 1947,
Hassan accompanied his father to Tangier, where king Muhammad V, for the first time, officially announced a goal of Moroccan independence.
In 1948, Hassan received his Baccalaureate. Hassan then began studying at the Institute of Higher Juridical Studies in Rabat, an institute that was part of the College of Law of Bordeaux, France.
In 1951, Hassan received his bachelor of arts degree in law.
On August 20, 1953, Hassan, along with the rest of the royal family, was exiled to Corsica, France. This was done in reaction to the king’s unwillingness to cooperate with the French colonial powers and his agitation for Moroccan independence. In January 1954, the royal family was forced to leave Corsica for Madagascar.
In 1954 and 1955, as rioting and guerrilla warfare increased, Prince Moulay's father regained his title. In November 1955, the royal family returned to Morocco, with the promise of Moroccan independence. Prince Moulay worked with his father, now Mohammed V, to maintain the monarchy's authority during a time of social discontent and the conflicting expectations of those who fought for Moroccan independence.
In 1956, France granted Morocco independence. In May 1956, Hassan was appointed commander of the Royal Armed Forces.
On July 9, 1957, Hassan was invested as crown prince, and became the commander in chief of the Moroccan army. At the time, the army was splintered between officers who had been loyal to the French and the former rebels. Prince Moulay kept the military occupied with civilian projects, and led it to victory against rebel Berber tribesmen in the Rif mountains in 1958.
However, in the shantytowns of Rabat, Casablanca and other cities, opposition simmered against the royal house. Though the monarchy looked to Paris and Washington for financial support, it needed to placate the leftist opposition. Declaring neutrality in the cold war, the Prince made overtures to Moscow and accepted Soviet military aid.
In 1960, Hassan was appointed minister of defense, and deputy premier. Hassan led the negotiations with France, Spain and the United States which ensured the withdrawal of foreign troops from Morocco.
On February 26, 1961, immediately following the death of Muhammad V of heart failure following what was expected to be a minor operation, Prince Moulay, who had been named Prime Minister in 1960, moved quickly to establish his rule. Hassan became the new king of Morocco, and on March 3, he was officially crowned as the new king. His Constitution, which was ratified in 1962, guaranteed freedom of the press and of religion, and created an elected legislature. However, the new Parliament, fractured by bitter rivalries, proved ineffectual. The new king retained the power to name the Prime Minister, disband the legislature and control the army.
In the mid-1960's, student agitation led to a wave of rioting and arrests. In response, in 1965, Hassan began to exercise authoritarian rule because of fear of the strength of the opposition. Subsequently, opposition figures fled abroad or were imprisoned. Some were executed. Mehdi Ben Barka, a prominent nationalist and opposition leader, was kidnapped in Paris and never seen again. The King's right-hand man, the Minister of Interior, Mohammed Oufkir, was linked to the disappearance, but the case was never pressed.
In June of 1965, Hassan dissolved Parliament and instituted a state of emergency, wielding absolute power until a new Constitution was adopted in 1970. The Constitution restored limited parliamentary government, but discontent simmered amid continuing poverty and official corruption.
In 1971, Hassan survived an attempt on his life. On July 10, 1971, Hassan invited some 400 prominent Moroccans, diplomats and other guests to his seaside palace of Skhirat near Rabat to celebrate his 42nd birthday. The festivities ended in a burst of gunfire as more than 1,000 muntinous troops attacked the palace, hurling grenades and spraying the grounds with small arms fire. Nearly 100 guests were killed and more than 125 wounded. The King hid in a bathroom. When the firing died down, Hassan re-emerged to find himself face to face with one of the rebel commanders. Keeping eye contact, Hassan recited the opening verse of the Qur'an, and the rebel knelt and kissed his hand. Loyal troops crushed the revolt, killing more than 150 rebels and capturing 900 others, many of them young military cadets. A dozen high-ranking, conservative officers were executed. Mohammed Oufkir was named Minister of Defense.
Hassan survived another attempt in 1972. On August 16, 1972, the King was returning from Paris aboard his private Boeing 727 when it encountered an unscheduled escort of four Royal Moroccan Air Force F-5 fighters. As the Boeing approached Rabat's airport, the fighters fired on the plane, knocking out an engine and scoring other hits. The Boeing landed safely, but the renegade pilots continued to strafe the runway until Hassan radioed them, saying the King had been killed. The rebels broke off the attack. Within hours, key participants in the coup were arrested and shot. One of their leaders proved to be General Oufkir, who apparently had been secretly involved in the earlier attack on the palace. According to official reports, the general committed suicide, but his body was supposedly found with several wounds. His widow and six children were placed under house arrest and were not released until February 1991, in an amnesty marking the King's thirty (30) years in power.
A third coup attempt in 1973 was averted and avenged.
As the 1970's unfolded, the King took several steps to dampen domestic turmoil. In 1973, Hassan put through measures to increase Moroccan ownership and employment in companies doing business in Morocco and also redistributed farmland owned by foreigners to rural peasants.
In November of 1975, Hassan initiated the Green March, where 350,000 civilians marched into the former Spanish colony, later named Western Sahara, claiming that the territory was Moroccan. Morocco seized control over the northern two thirds of the territory and ignited a war with guerrillas of the Polisario Front, who had been fighting for independence from Spain. Libya and Algeria supported the guerrillas in their war against the Moroccan Army.
In 1976, the part of the Western Sahara occupied by Morocco the preceding year, was officially annexed. This act was not accepted by any foreign state.
In 1979, after the Mauritanian withdrawal from the southern part of the Western Sahara, Morocco annexed the rest, without taking control over the border town of La Gouera.
In 1984, the King signed an accord with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi that ended Libyan backing for the insurgents. Algeria, plagued by its own domestic problems, could give them only minimal support. Militarily, Morocco eventually triumphed, agreeing to a cease-fire with Polisario in 1991 that left the country in control of most of the region.
In 1991, Morocco was the only Maghrib country to send troops in support of the United Nations actions against Iraq in Kuwait.
King Hassan was adept at managing Arab-Israeli relations, and he liked to say he viewed Morocco's Jewish population, which numbered around 8,000, as a bridge between Israelis and Arabs. During World War II, his father, Mohammed V, had defied the Axis and protected his country's Jews. In 1956, the year of Moroccan independence, there were about 275,000 Jews in Morocco. Most were allowed to emigrate to Israel, Europe and elsewhere.
During the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, King Hassan contributed a nominal number of troops to support Egypt and Syria. Nevertheless, Hassan kept his channels open with Israel. In 1982, Hassan was the host of a meeting of Arab leaders in Fez where he pushed through agreement on a peace plan that called for the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital but implicitly recognized Israel's right to exist. The plan, though rejected by Israel, laid the groundwork for the King to meet with Prime Minister Peres in 1986, a meeting that caused the King to be criticized by Arab leaders. Hassan responded by saying they had neither the ability to make war on Israel nor the willingness to make peace.
In September 1993, Morocco gave de facto recognition to Israel by welcoming Prime Minister Rabin, marking the first official visit by an Israeli leader to an Arab nation other than Egypt.
Despite such bold gestures, he was careful to play both sides of a conflict when necessary. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, he sent 1,300 troops to Saudi Arabia. Morocco was the only Maghrib country to send troops in support of the United Nations actions, a gesture that pleased the West. However, at the time, Hassan also expressed sympathy for the plight of Iraqi suffering under United Nations sanctions and ordered members of the Moroccan royal family to supervise the collection of supplies to ease their plight.
On July 23, 1999, Hassan died in Rabat from a heart attack. He was survived by his two sons (Sidi Mohammed and Moulay Rashid); his wife, Lalla Latifa, a commoner who was officially described as the "Mother of the Royal Children;" and three daughters. He was buried on July 25, 1999, in the mausoleum next to his father. The funeral was attended by many prominent world leaders and members of royal families, in addition to enormous crowds of Moroccans.
Hassan conducted politics with relative conservatism, but with emphasis on the market economy. His relations with neighboring countries (Algeria and Mauritania) were at times tense, and inside Morocco strict efforts were sometimes used to uphold the king’s position and the stability of the country.
Hassan’s politics were the most Western friendly in North Africa, and in many cases Hassan played an important role in international affairs. He was recognized for being one of the most important participants in the peace process in the Middle East that went on for more than ten of the last years of his rule.
Much of Hassan’s success at home, especially confronting the Islamists, rested in his family’s claim on being sharifs, descendants of Muhammad, a claim that was widely accepted in Morocco as well as abroad. Also, Hassan was careful in taking care of Moroccan heritage and religion. The world’s highest mosque, completed in 1993, was constructed under his initiative and was named for him.
On the political scene, an effective secret police and heavy handed reactions against political opposition, provided for political stability, or more precisely, to an absence of political activity. Anyone involved in politics in Morocco was forced to swear loyalty to Hassan II. Hassan II was, at times, severely criticized by organizations in other countries for what was seen as violations of human rights, political oppression and cruel punishment of prisoners. At the same time, Hassan was widely respected for keeping together a country which always had been ruled by strong, freedom loving tribes all over, but especially in the mountains.
Despite strong efforts by Hassan, Morocco saw relatively little economic progress. Indeed, there were several elements which made economic growth difficult: a strong increase in population, isolation from neighboring countries (i.e., Algeria) which had conducted politics quite different from Hassan’s, Europe which imposed strong limitations on economic relations with Morocco, and all the countries in the south which are separated by the Sahara desert and no continuous roads or railways.
Morocco, at the time of Hassan’s death, suffered from high unemployment, an educational system that does not meet the needs of Moroccan society, an unresolved situation in Western Sahara, and strong tensions inside the population. On the brighter side, Morocco, during the last decades of Hassan’s rule, developed an excellent infrastructure, and in some sectors, the Moroccan economy saw very positive growth, such as in information technology and tourism.
Hassan became fairly popular among his own population, even though many Moroccans felt that they had gained little from Hassan’s policies.
Muhammad Hassan see Hassan II
Moulay Hassan ben Mohammed Alaoui see Hassan II
Alaoui, Moulay Hassan ben Mohammed see Hassan II
In 1948, Hassan received his Baccalaureate. Hassan then began studying at the Institute of Higher Juridical Studies in Rabat, an institute that was part of the College of Law of Bordeaux, France.
In 1951, Hassan received his bachelor of arts degree in law.
On August 20, 1953, Hassan, along with the rest of the royal family, was exiled to Corsica, France. This was done in reaction to the king’s unwillingness to cooperate with the French colonial powers and his agitation for Moroccan independence. In January 1954, the royal family was forced to leave Corsica for Madagascar.
In 1954 and 1955, as rioting and guerrilla warfare increased, Prince Moulay's father regained his title. In November 1955, the royal family returned to Morocco, with the promise of Moroccan independence. Prince Moulay worked with his father, now Mohammed V, to maintain the monarchy's authority during a time of social discontent and the conflicting expectations of those who fought for Moroccan independence.
In 1956, France granted Morocco independence. In May 1956, Hassan was appointed commander of the Royal Armed Forces.
On July 9, 1957, Hassan was invested as crown prince, and became the commander in chief of the Moroccan army. At the time, the army was splintered between officers who had been loyal to the French and the former rebels. Prince Moulay kept the military occupied with civilian projects, and led it to victory against rebel Berber tribesmen in the Rif mountains in 1958.
However, in the shantytowns of Rabat, Casablanca and other cities, opposition simmered against the royal house. Though the monarchy looked to Paris and Washington for financial support, it needed to placate the leftist opposition. Declaring neutrality in the cold war, the Prince made overtures to Moscow and accepted Soviet military aid.
In 1960, Hassan was appointed minister of defense, and deputy premier. Hassan led the negotiations with France, Spain and the United States which ensured the withdrawal of foreign troops from Morocco.
On February 26, 1961, immediately following the death of Muhammad V of heart failure following what was expected to be a minor operation, Prince Moulay, who had been named Prime Minister in 1960, moved quickly to establish his rule. Hassan became the new king of Morocco, and on March 3, he was officially crowned as the new king. His Constitution, which was ratified in 1962, guaranteed freedom of the press and of religion, and created an elected legislature. However, the new Parliament, fractured by bitter rivalries, proved ineffectual. The new king retained the power to name the Prime Minister, disband the legislature and control the army.
In the mid-1960's, student agitation led to a wave of rioting and arrests. In response, in 1965, Hassan began to exercise authoritarian rule because of fear of the strength of the opposition. Subsequently, opposition figures fled abroad or were imprisoned. Some were executed. Mehdi Ben Barka, a prominent nationalist and opposition leader, was kidnapped in Paris and never seen again. The King's right-hand man, the Minister of Interior, Mohammed Oufkir, was linked to the disappearance, but the case was never pressed.
In June of 1965, Hassan dissolved Parliament and instituted a state of emergency, wielding absolute power until a new Constitution was adopted in 1970. The Constitution restored limited parliamentary government, but discontent simmered amid continuing poverty and official corruption.
In 1971, Hassan survived an attempt on his life. On July 10, 1971, Hassan invited some 400 prominent Moroccans, diplomats and other guests to his seaside palace of Skhirat near Rabat to celebrate his 42nd birthday. The festivities ended in a burst of gunfire as more than 1,000 muntinous troops attacked the palace, hurling grenades and spraying the grounds with small arms fire. Nearly 100 guests were killed and more than 125 wounded. The King hid in a bathroom. When the firing died down, Hassan re-emerged to find himself face to face with one of the rebel commanders. Keeping eye contact, Hassan recited the opening verse of the Qur'an, and the rebel knelt and kissed his hand. Loyal troops crushed the revolt, killing more than 150 rebels and capturing 900 others, many of them young military cadets. A dozen high-ranking, conservative officers were executed. Mohammed Oufkir was named Minister of Defense.
Hassan survived another attempt in 1972. On August 16, 1972, the King was returning from Paris aboard his private Boeing 727 when it encountered an unscheduled escort of four Royal Moroccan Air Force F-5 fighters. As the Boeing approached Rabat's airport, the fighters fired on the plane, knocking out an engine and scoring other hits. The Boeing landed safely, but the renegade pilots continued to strafe the runway until Hassan radioed them, saying the King had been killed. The rebels broke off the attack. Within hours, key participants in the coup were arrested and shot. One of their leaders proved to be General Oufkir, who apparently had been secretly involved in the earlier attack on the palace. According to official reports, the general committed suicide, but his body was supposedly found with several wounds. His widow and six children were placed under house arrest and were not released until February 1991, in an amnesty marking the King's thirty (30) years in power.
A third coup attempt in 1973 was averted and avenged.
As the 1970's unfolded, the King took several steps to dampen domestic turmoil. In 1973, Hassan put through measures to increase Moroccan ownership and employment in companies doing business in Morocco and also redistributed farmland owned by foreigners to rural peasants.
In November of 1975, Hassan initiated the Green March, where 350,000 civilians marched into the former Spanish colony, later named Western Sahara, claiming that the territory was Moroccan. Morocco seized control over the northern two thirds of the territory and ignited a war with guerrillas of the Polisario Front, who had been fighting for independence from Spain. Libya and Algeria supported the guerrillas in their war against the Moroccan Army.
In 1976, the part of the Western Sahara occupied by Morocco the preceding year, was officially annexed. This act was not accepted by any foreign state.
In 1979, after the Mauritanian withdrawal from the southern part of the Western Sahara, Morocco annexed the rest, without taking control over the border town of La Gouera.
In 1984, the King signed an accord with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi that ended Libyan backing for the insurgents. Algeria, plagued by its own domestic problems, could give them only minimal support. Militarily, Morocco eventually triumphed, agreeing to a cease-fire with Polisario in 1991 that left the country in control of most of the region.
In 1991, Morocco was the only Maghrib country to send troops in support of the United Nations actions against Iraq in Kuwait.
King Hassan was adept at managing Arab-Israeli relations, and he liked to say he viewed Morocco's Jewish population, which numbered around 8,000, as a bridge between Israelis and Arabs. During World War II, his father, Mohammed V, had defied the Axis and protected his country's Jews. In 1956, the year of Moroccan independence, there were about 275,000 Jews in Morocco. Most were allowed to emigrate to Israel, Europe and elsewhere.
During the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, King Hassan contributed a nominal number of troops to support Egypt and Syria. Nevertheless, Hassan kept his channels open with Israel. In 1982, Hassan was the host of a meeting of Arab leaders in Fez where he pushed through agreement on a peace plan that called for the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital but implicitly recognized Israel's right to exist. The plan, though rejected by Israel, laid the groundwork for the King to meet with Prime Minister Peres in 1986, a meeting that caused the King to be criticized by Arab leaders. Hassan responded by saying they had neither the ability to make war on Israel nor the willingness to make peace.
In September 1993, Morocco gave de facto recognition to Israel by welcoming Prime Minister Rabin, marking the first official visit by an Israeli leader to an Arab nation other than Egypt.
Despite such bold gestures, he was careful to play both sides of a conflict when necessary. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, he sent 1,300 troops to Saudi Arabia. Morocco was the only Maghrib country to send troops in support of the United Nations actions, a gesture that pleased the West. However, at the time, Hassan also expressed sympathy for the plight of Iraqi suffering under United Nations sanctions and ordered members of the Moroccan royal family to supervise the collection of supplies to ease their plight.
On July 23, 1999, Hassan died in Rabat from a heart attack. He was survived by his two sons (Sidi Mohammed and Moulay Rashid); his wife, Lalla Latifa, a commoner who was officially described as the "Mother of the Royal Children;" and three daughters. He was buried on July 25, 1999, in the mausoleum next to his father. The funeral was attended by many prominent world leaders and members of royal families, in addition to enormous crowds of Moroccans.
Hassan conducted politics with relative conservatism, but with emphasis on the market economy. His relations with neighboring countries (Algeria and Mauritania) were at times tense, and inside Morocco strict efforts were sometimes used to uphold the king’s position and the stability of the country.
Hassan’s politics were the most Western friendly in North Africa, and in many cases Hassan played an important role in international affairs. He was recognized for being one of the most important participants in the peace process in the Middle East that went on for more than ten of the last years of his rule.
Much of Hassan’s success at home, especially confronting the Islamists, rested in his family’s claim on being sharifs, descendants of Muhammad, a claim that was widely accepted in Morocco as well as abroad. Also, Hassan was careful in taking care of Moroccan heritage and religion. The world’s highest mosque, completed in 1993, was constructed under his initiative and was named for him.
On the political scene, an effective secret police and heavy handed reactions against political opposition, provided for political stability, or more precisely, to an absence of political activity. Anyone involved in politics in Morocco was forced to swear loyalty to Hassan II. Hassan II was, at times, severely criticized by organizations in other countries for what was seen as violations of human rights, political oppression and cruel punishment of prisoners. At the same time, Hassan was widely respected for keeping together a country which always had been ruled by strong, freedom loving tribes all over, but especially in the mountains.
Despite strong efforts by Hassan, Morocco saw relatively little economic progress. Indeed, there were several elements which made economic growth difficult: a strong increase in population, isolation from neighboring countries (i.e., Algeria) which had conducted politics quite different from Hassan’s, Europe which imposed strong limitations on economic relations with Morocco, and all the countries in the south which are separated by the Sahara desert and no continuous roads or railways.
Morocco, at the time of Hassan’s death, suffered from high unemployment, an educational system that does not meet the needs of Moroccan society, an unresolved situation in Western Sahara, and strong tensions inside the population. On the brighter side, Morocco, during the last decades of Hassan’s rule, developed an excellent infrastructure, and in some sectors, the Moroccan economy saw very positive growth, such as in information technology and tourism.
Hassan became fairly popular among his own population, even though many Moroccans felt that they had gained little from Hassan’s policies.
Muhammad Hassan see Hassan II
Moulay Hassan ben Mohammed Alaoui see Hassan II
Alaoui, Moulay Hassan ben Mohammed see Hassan II
Hassan al-Askari
Hassan al-Askari (846-874). Eleventh imam of the Twelver Shi‘a (r.868-874). Hassan al-Askari lived almost his entire life under house arrest. He was 22 when he received the Imamate. During the six years of his tenure, he was severely restricted in his freedom and was often only able to speak to his followers through intermediaries. A controversy surrounded the birth of his son and successor, Muhammad al-Mahdi by a Byzantine slave, Narjis Khatun. Hasan Al-‘Askarī was 27, when martyred by Al-Mu'tamid (the Abbasid caliph) and was buried in Samarra.
Hasan al-Askari, whose ancestor was the Prophet Muhammad, was born in Medina to Ali al-Hadi and Saleel. His title al-Askari derives from the Arabic word Asker which means Army. Hasan's title was reflective of his living most of his life in a garrison town. He married a Byzantine princess who was the granddaughter of a Byzantine emperor, named Narjis.
Hasan al-Askari lived almost his entire life under house arrest in Samarra and under supervision of Abbasid caliphs. Despite his confinement as a prisoner, he was occasionally allowed to go to Baghdad, although it was under guard.
He was very knowledgeable and despite being confined to house arrest for almost his entire life, Hasan al-Askari was able to teach others about Islam, and even compiled a commentary on the Qur'an that would be used by later scholars.
Hasan al-Askari had one son, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who was six at the time of Hasan al-Askari's death and disappeared. Twelver Shi’as believe him to be the Mahdi; a very important figure in Islamic teaching who is believed will reappear at the end of time to fill the world with justice, peace and to establish Islam as the global religion.
Hasan al-Askari was four years old, when he was exiled to Samarra along with his father. He was placed under the caliph's observation at a point, which was the center of the armed forces.
Following the death of his father, Al-Mu'tamid (Abbasid caliph) imprisoned him. The piety and chastity of Hasan al-Askari attracted the attention of all the prisoners towards him, and made them all enticed and enchanted. The officials and agents of the caliph daily reported to the caliph as to his condition. Eventually, Hasan al-Askari was killed.
Hasan al-Askari died at the age of 27 by poison. Hasan al-Askari’s funeral was attended by many people, including the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tamid who is accused of being secretly responsible for the poisoning of Hasan al-Askari.
At the funeral services for Hasan al-Askari, his brother Ja'far ibn Ali, who was counted as one of the helpers of the caliph, stood up to offer the funeral prayer upon the body of Hasan al-Askari. However, as he was about to start the prayers, the son of Hasan al-Askari, who was a minor, came forward and said to his uncle to step aside because only an Imam can lead the funeral prayer of another Imam. After the funeral prayer, Muhammad al-Mahdi went into the house and disappeared. This was the beginning of the Minor Occultation (ghaybat-e-sughra).
After the death of Hasan al-Askari, there was a sect of his followers who believed, as a result of shock and bewilderment, that he did not die, but had instead entered occultation and that he was the Mahdi. According to this sect, their beliefs were based upon the impossibility of the death of the Imam without an apparent known issue (this sect did not believe in the imamate or even existence of Muhammad al-Mahdi), since the earth can never be without an Imam according to their doctrine. This sect later separated into several other groups. Among them were those who admitted the death of Imam Hasan al-Askari, but added that he returned to life after a little while, in accordance with a tradition on the meaning of the word Qa’im, i.e. one who returns to life after his death. Also among them were those who claimed that he did die and did not return to life, but that he will return to life in the future. These groups incorporated some traditions (into their thought) from some early Waqifite Shiite movements.
Hasan al-Askari is buried in the mausoleum containing the remains of his father, Ali al-Hadi – The Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq. The site is considered a holy shrine for the Shi’a's, though a bomb blast on February 22, 2006 destroyed much of the structure, and another bomb blast on June 13, 2007 destroyed the two remaining minarets of the Al-Askariya Mosque.
Askari, Hassan al- see Hassan al-Askari
Hassan al-Askari (846-874). Eleventh imam of the Twelver Shi‘a (r.868-874). Hassan al-Askari lived almost his entire life under house arrest. He was 22 when he received the Imamate. During the six years of his tenure, he was severely restricted in his freedom and was often only able to speak to his followers through intermediaries. A controversy surrounded the birth of his son and successor, Muhammad al-Mahdi by a Byzantine slave, Narjis Khatun. Hasan Al-‘Askarī was 27, when martyred by Al-Mu'tamid (the Abbasid caliph) and was buried in Samarra.
Hasan al-Askari, whose ancestor was the Prophet Muhammad, was born in Medina to Ali al-Hadi and Saleel. His title al-Askari derives from the Arabic word Asker which means Army. Hasan's title was reflective of his living most of his life in a garrison town. He married a Byzantine princess who was the granddaughter of a Byzantine emperor, named Narjis.
Hasan al-Askari lived almost his entire life under house arrest in Samarra and under supervision of Abbasid caliphs. Despite his confinement as a prisoner, he was occasionally allowed to go to Baghdad, although it was under guard.
He was very knowledgeable and despite being confined to house arrest for almost his entire life, Hasan al-Askari was able to teach others about Islam, and even compiled a commentary on the Qur'an that would be used by later scholars.
Hasan al-Askari had one son, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who was six at the time of Hasan al-Askari's death and disappeared. Twelver Shi’as believe him to be the Mahdi; a very important figure in Islamic teaching who is believed will reappear at the end of time to fill the world with justice, peace and to establish Islam as the global religion.
Hasan al-Askari was four years old, when he was exiled to Samarra along with his father. He was placed under the caliph's observation at a point, which was the center of the armed forces.
Following the death of his father, Al-Mu'tamid (Abbasid caliph) imprisoned him. The piety and chastity of Hasan al-Askari attracted the attention of all the prisoners towards him, and made them all enticed and enchanted. The officials and agents of the caliph daily reported to the caliph as to his condition. Eventually, Hasan al-Askari was killed.
Hasan al-Askari died at the age of 27 by poison. Hasan al-Askari’s funeral was attended by many people, including the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tamid who is accused of being secretly responsible for the poisoning of Hasan al-Askari.
At the funeral services for Hasan al-Askari, his brother Ja'far ibn Ali, who was counted as one of the helpers of the caliph, stood up to offer the funeral prayer upon the body of Hasan al-Askari. However, as he was about to start the prayers, the son of Hasan al-Askari, who was a minor, came forward and said to his uncle to step aside because only an Imam can lead the funeral prayer of another Imam. After the funeral prayer, Muhammad al-Mahdi went into the house and disappeared. This was the beginning of the Minor Occultation (ghaybat-e-sughra).
After the death of Hasan al-Askari, there was a sect of his followers who believed, as a result of shock and bewilderment, that he did not die, but had instead entered occultation and that he was the Mahdi. According to this sect, their beliefs were based upon the impossibility of the death of the Imam without an apparent known issue (this sect did not believe in the imamate or even existence of Muhammad al-Mahdi), since the earth can never be without an Imam according to their doctrine. This sect later separated into several other groups. Among them were those who admitted the death of Imam Hasan al-Askari, but added that he returned to life after a little while, in accordance with a tradition on the meaning of the word Qa’im, i.e. one who returns to life after his death. Also among them were those who claimed that he did die and did not return to life, but that he will return to life in the future. These groups incorporated some traditions (into their thought) from some early Waqifite Shiite movements.
Hasan al-Askari is buried in the mausoleum containing the remains of his father, Ali al-Hadi – The Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq. The site is considered a holy shrine for the Shi’a's, though a bomb blast on February 22, 2006 destroyed much of the structure, and another bomb blast on June 13, 2007 destroyed the two remaining minarets of the Al-Askariya Mosque.
Askari, Hassan al- see Hassan al-Askari
Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man al-Ghassani
Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man al-Ghassani (Hasan ibn al-Nu'man<?I>) (d. 699). Umayyad general who played a decisive part in the consolidation of the conquest of Ifriqiya by storming Carthage.
The Battle of Carthage was fought in 698 between a Byzantine expeditionary force and the armies of the Umayyad Caliphate. Having lost Carthage to the Muslims, Emperor Leontius sent the navy under the command of John the Patrician and the droungarios Tiberius Apsimarus. They entered the harbor and successfully recaptured it, as well as the city, in a stunning surprise attack. The Arab forces fled to Kairouan.
The emir Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was in the midst of pacifying the lands of Tamazgh, but withdrew from campaigning in the field to confront the renewed Roman challenge to the emerging caliphate. At Kairouan, he began plans to retake Carthage the following spring. It is estimated that he headed a force of 40,000 men. The Romans sent out a call for help to their traditional allies, the native Amazigh, and even to their enemies the Visigoths and the Franks. Despite having retaken the city, the Romans were in disarray due to the bitter in-fighting that characterized medieval Romania and sapped much of its strength. The previous exarch Gennadius had been a traitor to the Christian cause, defecting to the Muslims and becoming their vassal. The king of the Visigoths, Witiza, sent a reputed force of 500 warriors in order to help defend Carthage, perhaps to help check the rising Muslim threat which was lopping off large chunks of the Roman Empire, so close to Visigothic Hispania.
Hasan ibn al-Nu'man, enraged at having to retake a city that had not resisted the Roman take over, offered no terms except to surrender or die. The emperor Leontius, infamous for his harsh reaction to failure, had also given his forces instructions of victory or death. The Romans did sally forth and engaged into battle with the Arabs directly, but were defeated. They later preferred to continue to incite revolt through the Amazigh princes. The Roman commander, John, decided to wait out the siege behind the walls of Carthage and let the Arabs exhaust themselves, since he could continue to be resupplied from the sea. however, the defenders were faced with Hasan's overwhelming force. Hasan's forces were deployed in ferocious attacks as his men continuously tried to scale the walls with ladders. The Arabs combined their land assault with an attack from the sea that caused John and Apsimarus to fear being trapped within the city. In the end, the determination of the defenders only resulted in the second and final great destruction of Carthage. The Romans retreated to the islands of Corsica, Sicily and Crete to further resist Muslim expansion and await the emperor's wrath.
John the Patrician was later murdered after a conspiracy at the hands of his co-commander, Tiberius Apsimarus. Tiberius Apsimarus then, instead of taking the step of returning to Africa to fight the Muslims, sailed instead to Constantinople. After a successful rebellion he rose to the throne as Tiberius III, and was later deposed by former emperor Justinian II, now known as the Rhinotmetus.
The conquest of North Africa by the forces of Islam was now nearly complete. Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was triumphant. Hasan met with trouble from the Zenata tribe of Berbers under al-Kahina. They inflicted a serious defeat on him and drove him back to Barqa. However, in 702 Caliph Abd al-Malik strongly reinforced him. Now with a large army and the support of the settled population of North Africa, Hasan pushed forward. He decisively defeated al-Kahina in the Battle of Tabarka, 85 miles (136 km) west of Carthage. He then developed the village of Tunis, ten miles from the destroyed Carthage. Around 705, Musa ibn Nusayr replaced Hasan. He pacified much of North Africa.
Hasan ibn al-Nu'man see Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man al-Ghassani
Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man al-Ghassani (Hasan ibn al-Nu'man<?I>) (d. 699). Umayyad general who played a decisive part in the consolidation of the conquest of Ifriqiya by storming Carthage.
The Battle of Carthage was fought in 698 between a Byzantine expeditionary force and the armies of the Umayyad Caliphate. Having lost Carthage to the Muslims, Emperor Leontius sent the navy under the command of John the Patrician and the droungarios Tiberius Apsimarus. They entered the harbor and successfully recaptured it, as well as the city, in a stunning surprise attack. The Arab forces fled to Kairouan.
The emir Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was in the midst of pacifying the lands of Tamazgh, but withdrew from campaigning in the field to confront the renewed Roman challenge to the emerging caliphate. At Kairouan, he began plans to retake Carthage the following spring. It is estimated that he headed a force of 40,000 men. The Romans sent out a call for help to their traditional allies, the native Amazigh, and even to their enemies the Visigoths and the Franks. Despite having retaken the city, the Romans were in disarray due to the bitter in-fighting that characterized medieval Romania and sapped much of its strength. The previous exarch Gennadius had been a traitor to the Christian cause, defecting to the Muslims and becoming their vassal. The king of the Visigoths, Witiza, sent a reputed force of 500 warriors in order to help defend Carthage, perhaps to help check the rising Muslim threat which was lopping off large chunks of the Roman Empire, so close to Visigothic Hispania.
Hasan ibn al-Nu'man, enraged at having to retake a city that had not resisted the Roman take over, offered no terms except to surrender or die. The emperor Leontius, infamous for his harsh reaction to failure, had also given his forces instructions of victory or death. The Romans did sally forth and engaged into battle with the Arabs directly, but were defeated. They later preferred to continue to incite revolt through the Amazigh princes. The Roman commander, John, decided to wait out the siege behind the walls of Carthage and let the Arabs exhaust themselves, since he could continue to be resupplied from the sea. however, the defenders were faced with Hasan's overwhelming force. Hasan's forces were deployed in ferocious attacks as his men continuously tried to scale the walls with ladders. The Arabs combined their land assault with an attack from the sea that caused John and Apsimarus to fear being trapped within the city. In the end, the determination of the defenders only resulted in the second and final great destruction of Carthage. The Romans retreated to the islands of Corsica, Sicily and Crete to further resist Muslim expansion and await the emperor's wrath.
John the Patrician was later murdered after a conspiracy at the hands of his co-commander, Tiberius Apsimarus. Tiberius Apsimarus then, instead of taking the step of returning to Africa to fight the Muslims, sailed instead to Constantinople. After a successful rebellion he rose to the throne as Tiberius III, and was later deposed by former emperor Justinian II, now known as the Rhinotmetus.
The conquest of North Africa by the forces of Islam was now nearly complete. Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was triumphant. Hasan met with trouble from the Zenata tribe of Berbers under al-Kahina. They inflicted a serious defeat on him and drove him back to Barqa. However, in 702 Caliph Abd al-Malik strongly reinforced him. Now with a large army and the support of the settled population of North Africa, Hasan pushed forward. He decisively defeated al-Kahina in the Battle of Tabarka, 85 miles (136 km) west of Carthage. He then developed the village of Tunis, ten miles from the destroyed Carthage. Around 705, Musa ibn Nusayr replaced Hasan. He pacified much of North Africa.
Hasan ibn al-Nu'man see Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man al-Ghassani
Hassan ibn Thabit
Hassan ibn Thabit (d. 674). Traditionally known as the “poet laureate” of the Prophet, he is the most prominent of several poets who were associated with the rise of Islam.
Hassan ibn Thabit was an Arabian poet and one of the Sahaba, or companions of Muhammad. He was born in Yathrib (Medina), and was a member of the Banu Khazraj tribe.
In his youth, he traveled to Al-Hirah and Damascus, then settled in Medina, where, after the advent of Muhammad, he accepted Islam and wrote poems in defense of him. He was one of the best poets of the time, who would often win poetry competitions and the like. He was a prime example of how the early Muslims were able to use their pre-Islam talents for the cause of Islam.
Muhammad gave Hassan his slave Sirin, the sister of Muhammad's wife Maria al-Qibtiyya. The sisters were Egyptian Coptic Christians sent as gifts to Muhammad by Muqawqis, a ruler of Egypt, in around 628. Sirin bore Hassan a son, 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hassan.
Hassan ibn Thabit (d. 674). Traditionally known as the “poet laureate” of the Prophet, he is the most prominent of several poets who were associated with the rise of Islam.
Hassan ibn Thabit was an Arabian poet and one of the Sahaba, or companions of Muhammad. He was born in Yathrib (Medina), and was a member of the Banu Khazraj tribe.
In his youth, he traveled to Al-Hirah and Damascus, then settled in Medina, where, after the advent of Muhammad, he accepted Islam and wrote poems in defense of him. He was one of the best poets of the time, who would often win poetry competitions and the like. He was a prime example of how the early Muslims were able to use their pre-Islam talents for the cause of Islam.
Muhammad gave Hassan his slave Sirin, the sister of Muhammad's wife Maria al-Qibtiyya. The sisters were Egyptian Coptic Christians sent as gifts to Muhammad by Muqawqis, a ruler of Egypt, in around 628. Sirin bore Hassan a son, 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hassan.
Hatem
Hatem (George Hatem) (Shafick George Hatem) (Ma Haide) (Ma Hai-te) (1910-1988). Medical adviser in Communist China. Hatem was a Lebanese-American born in New York. Hatem went to Shanghai in 1933 after completing medical studies in Switzerland. Shaken by the turmoil and health conditions around him, he was persuaded by Agnes Smedley to visit Communist led guerrilla units in northwest China. Hatem made the trip with Edgar Snow in 1936 and never returned. In Yan’an, he married a Chinese actress, joined the Chinese Communist Party, and became the backbone of a new health care system in guerrilla-held areas during World War II. After the Communists came to power in 1949, Hatem helped to design health policies for the entire nation. He is noted in particular for leading a successful campaign to wipe out venereal disease in the 1950s. In later years, his chief focus has been on the eradication of leprosy. In 1986, Hatem received the Lasker Award in recognition of his efforts to conquer these diseases in China.
Ma Haide, born Shafick George Hatem, was a doctor and public health official in China from 1933 until his death.
Shafick George Hatem was born into a family of Syrian Jewish extraction, living in Buffalo, New York in 1910. His parents immigrated to the United States from the village of Hamana in the Metn mountains of Lebanon. He attended pre-med classes at the University of North Carolina and medicine at the American University in Beirut and the University of Geneva. While in Geneva, he, called by friends Shag, became acquainted with students from East Asia, and learned much about China. With financial help from the parents of one of his friends, he and several others set off to Shanghai to establish a medical practice to concentrate on venereal diseases, as well as basic health care for the needy. On August 3, 1933, he with colleagues, Lazar Katz and Robert Levinson, boarded a ship in Triest that took him to several ports in Asia, including Singapore and Hong Kong. On September 5, the three young American doctors landed in Shanghai.
Shafick George Hatem set up a practice in Shanghai, and changed his name to Ma Hai-te (Ma Haide). It was in Shanghai that he met the well known journalist, Agnes Smedley, who introduced him to Liu Ting, a member of the Communist Party of China. Disgusted by the corruption of Shanghai and the Chinese Nationalists, he closed his practice there three years later, and, with the help of the earlier established Communist contacts, was smuggled across Kuomintang lines to provide medical service to Mao Zedong's Communist troops in Xi'an (Sian).
In the summer of 1936, Ma travelled to the Communist headquarters at Yan'an, the capital of the Communist-controlled Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. He was accompanied by the pioneering American journalist Edgar Snow. At Hatem's request, he was not explicitly mentioned in the first edition of Snow's famous book, Red Star Over China. He is there anonymously as a western-trained doctor who had examined Mao and determined he was not dying of some mysterious disease, which was the rumor at the time. He also became the first foreign member of the Chinese Communist Party.
As the war with Japan in started for real in 1937, Ma Haide sent requests to Soong Ching-ling, Agnes Smedley, and other notables to organize recruitment of foreign medical personnel for the communists' troops fighting the Japanese armies in northern China. He was among those meeting Norman Bethune when Bethune arrived in Yan'an in late March 1938, and was instrumental in helping Bethune get started at his task of organizing medical services for the front and the region.
Ma Haide was present at Yan'an, when the Dixie Mission, an American civilian and military group, arrived in July 1944. Ma was a source of surprise and comfort for many of the Americans when they met the American born physician. Many accounts of the mission make reference to Haide. Known commonly to the group as "Doc Ma," Ma periodically assisted Major Melvin Casberg in studies of the state of medical treatment in the Communist territories.
He remained a doctor with the Communists until their victory in 1949, and then became a public health official. He is credited with helping to eliminate leprosy and many venereal diseases in post-war China for which he received the Lasker Medical Award for his efforts in 1986. He was one of the few non-Chinese persons to hold a position of trust and authority in the People's Republic of China. His Chinese name can be loosely translated to mean,"Horse" and "Virtue From the Sea".
He died in China in 1988 and was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.
During his life, Ma Haide was honored in his city Hammana in Lebanon, where the main square of the city is named after him.
Tere is an extensive interview with him in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's groundbreaking ninety minute documentary by Patrick Watson, The Seven Hundred Million (1964)
A film about him, showing an American doctor affirming Communist ideology is broadcast frequently in the People's Republic of China. Consequently, his story is familiar to all PRC Chinese.
George Hatem see Hatem
Ma Haide see Hatem
Haide, Ma see Hatem
Hatem, George see Hatem
Shafick George Hatem see Hatem
Hatem, Shafick George see Hatem
Hatem (George Hatem) (Shafick George Hatem) (Ma Haide) (Ma Hai-te) (1910-1988). Medical adviser in Communist China. Hatem was a Lebanese-American born in New York. Hatem went to Shanghai in 1933 after completing medical studies in Switzerland. Shaken by the turmoil and health conditions around him, he was persuaded by Agnes Smedley to visit Communist led guerrilla units in northwest China. Hatem made the trip with Edgar Snow in 1936 and never returned. In Yan’an, he married a Chinese actress, joined the Chinese Communist Party, and became the backbone of a new health care system in guerrilla-held areas during World War II. After the Communists came to power in 1949, Hatem helped to design health policies for the entire nation. He is noted in particular for leading a successful campaign to wipe out venereal disease in the 1950s. In later years, his chief focus has been on the eradication of leprosy. In 1986, Hatem received the Lasker Award in recognition of his efforts to conquer these diseases in China.
Ma Haide, born Shafick George Hatem, was a doctor and public health official in China from 1933 until his death.
Shafick George Hatem was born into a family of Syrian Jewish extraction, living in Buffalo, New York in 1910. His parents immigrated to the United States from the village of Hamana in the Metn mountains of Lebanon. He attended pre-med classes at the University of North Carolina and medicine at the American University in Beirut and the University of Geneva. While in Geneva, he, called by friends Shag, became acquainted with students from East Asia, and learned much about China. With financial help from the parents of one of his friends, he and several others set off to Shanghai to establish a medical practice to concentrate on venereal diseases, as well as basic health care for the needy. On August 3, 1933, he with colleagues, Lazar Katz and Robert Levinson, boarded a ship in Triest that took him to several ports in Asia, including Singapore and Hong Kong. On September 5, the three young American doctors landed in Shanghai.
Shafick George Hatem set up a practice in Shanghai, and changed his name to Ma Hai-te (Ma Haide). It was in Shanghai that he met the well known journalist, Agnes Smedley, who introduced him to Liu Ting, a member of the Communist Party of China. Disgusted by the corruption of Shanghai and the Chinese Nationalists, he closed his practice there three years later, and, with the help of the earlier established Communist contacts, was smuggled across Kuomintang lines to provide medical service to Mao Zedong's Communist troops in Xi'an (Sian).
In the summer of 1936, Ma travelled to the Communist headquarters at Yan'an, the capital of the Communist-controlled Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. He was accompanied by the pioneering American journalist Edgar Snow. At Hatem's request, he was not explicitly mentioned in the first edition of Snow's famous book, Red Star Over China. He is there anonymously as a western-trained doctor who had examined Mao and determined he was not dying of some mysterious disease, which was the rumor at the time. He also became the first foreign member of the Chinese Communist Party.
As the war with Japan in started for real in 1937, Ma Haide sent requests to Soong Ching-ling, Agnes Smedley, and other notables to organize recruitment of foreign medical personnel for the communists' troops fighting the Japanese armies in northern China. He was among those meeting Norman Bethune when Bethune arrived in Yan'an in late March 1938, and was instrumental in helping Bethune get started at his task of organizing medical services for the front and the region.
Ma Haide was present at Yan'an, when the Dixie Mission, an American civilian and military group, arrived in July 1944. Ma was a source of surprise and comfort for many of the Americans when they met the American born physician. Many accounts of the mission make reference to Haide. Known commonly to the group as "Doc Ma," Ma periodically assisted Major Melvin Casberg in studies of the state of medical treatment in the Communist territories.
He remained a doctor with the Communists until their victory in 1949, and then became a public health official. He is credited with helping to eliminate leprosy and many venereal diseases in post-war China for which he received the Lasker Medical Award for his efforts in 1986. He was one of the few non-Chinese persons to hold a position of trust and authority in the People's Republic of China. His Chinese name can be loosely translated to mean,"Horse" and "Virtue From the Sea".
He died in China in 1988 and was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.
During his life, Ma Haide was honored in his city Hammana in Lebanon, where the main square of the city is named after him.
Tere is an extensive interview with him in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's groundbreaking ninety minute documentary by Patrick Watson, The Seven Hundred Million (1964)
A film about him, showing an American doctor affirming Communist ideology is broadcast frequently in the People's Republic of China. Consequently, his story is familiar to all PRC Chinese.
George Hatem see Hatem
Ma Haide see Hatem
Haide, Ma see Hatem
Hatem, George see Hatem
Shafick George Hatem see Hatem
Hatem, Shafick George see Hatem
Hathout, Maher
Maher Hathout (January 1, 1936 – January 3, 2015) was a leading American-Muslim community leader of Egyptian origin, and widely regarded as the Father of the American Muslim identity. Hathout helped to found the Muslim Public Affairs Council and spoke extensively against Islamic radicalism.
Maher Hathout (January 1, 1936 – January 3, 2015) was a leading American-Muslim community leader of Egyptian origin, and widely regarded as the Father of the American Muslim identity. Hathout helped to found the Muslim Public Affairs Council and spoke extensively against Islamic radicalism.
Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1936, Hathout eventually moved to Buffalo, New York, and then to Los Angeles. He immersed himself in volunteering at the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC) as Chairman and Spokesperson. One of the most progressive mosques in the country – the ICSC had a woman on its board of directors in 1952 – the Islamic Center became a vehicle for a vision of Islam in America that is rooted in what Hathout called the definition of home: "Home is not where my grandparents are buried, but where my grandchildren will be raised."
Hathout stressed throughout his life that being a faithful Muslim was entirely compatible with being a proud American, and that Islam is a religion of coexistence, reason and moderation.
He was also among the pioneers of interfaith engagement within the American Muslim community, helping found the Religious Coalition Against War in the Middle East with Reverend George Regas and Rabbi Leonard Beerman in 1991. Hathout was a charter member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the western partner of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served on the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Alliance and Claremont Lincoln University.
Over the years, Hathout was invited repeatedly to Capitol Hill and the State Department to address a variety of topics, such as "Islam and U.S. Policy," "Islamic Democracy," "Emerging Trends in Islamic Movements," and "The Future of the Middle East." He was also the first Muslim invited to give the invocation prayer at the Democratic National Convention in 2000.
Hathout was the recipient of many awards, including the George Regas Courageous Peacemaker Award, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California’s Lifetime Service Award, the South Coast Interfaith Council Award for his life-long commitment to interfaith work and the Los Angeles County John Allen Buggs Award for excellence in human relations. He died of cancer in Duarte, California on January 3, 2015.
Hatta
Hatta (Mohammad Hatta) (August 12, 1902 - March 14, 1980). Vice-president of Indonesia (1945-1956). A Minangkabau born in Bukittinggi (West Sumatra) and educated in Dutch primary and secondary schools in Padang and Batavia, Hatta gained his early political experience as treasurer of the Jong Sumatranen Bond in Padang and Batavia. In 1922, he proceeded to tertiary studies in Rotterdam, where he remained for ten years. He was involved in converting the Indische Vereeninging, the Indies students’ society in the Netherlands, from a social club into the politically active Perhimpunan Indonesia (Indonesian Union). He became chairman in 1926 and contributed to the planning of a new nationalist party in the Indies, became involved with the League against Imperialism, was arrested in 1927, tried for subversive activities, and acquitted. He returned to Batavia in 1932.
In 1931, Hatta was instrumental in founding the Club Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia (National Education Club), arguing that educating nationalist cadres was more important than forming mass parties, such as the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), that could be easily suppressed by the authorities. Arrested in 1935, Hatta was exiled first to Boven Digul and then to Banda Naira. He was brought back to Java just before the Japanese invasion and served during the occupation regime as vice-chairman of its mass organizations. In August 1945, he, together with Sukarno, signed Indonesia’s Proclamation of Independence, and he became vice-president. In 1948, during a period of acute factional rivalry, Sukarno commissioned him to form a government, and as prime minister Hatta presided over negotiations with the Dutch and the transfer of sovereignty to the republic. Increasingly disturbed by political trends in the early fifties, he resigned as vice-president in December 1956.
A social democrat in political outlook, Hatta was a devout Muslim who believed in the possibility of a synthesis of Islam and socialism. He advocated the development of cooperatives as a solution to Indonesia’s economic problems. As vice-president, Hatta was seen as balancing Sukarno in a two-in-one unity (dwi-tunngal): Java-Sumatra, Javanism-Islam, passion-intellect, nation builder-administrator. After his resignation, Hatta remained a respected elder statesman until his death.
Mohammad Hatta see Hatta
Hatta (Mohammad Hatta) (August 12, 1902 - March 14, 1980). Vice-president of Indonesia (1945-1956). A Minangkabau born in Bukittinggi (West Sumatra) and educated in Dutch primary and secondary schools in Padang and Batavia, Hatta gained his early political experience as treasurer of the Jong Sumatranen Bond in Padang and Batavia. In 1922, he proceeded to tertiary studies in Rotterdam, where he remained for ten years. He was involved in converting the Indische Vereeninging, the Indies students’ society in the Netherlands, from a social club into the politically active Perhimpunan Indonesia (Indonesian Union). He became chairman in 1926 and contributed to the planning of a new nationalist party in the Indies, became involved with the League against Imperialism, was arrested in 1927, tried for subversive activities, and acquitted. He returned to Batavia in 1932.
In 1931, Hatta was instrumental in founding the Club Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia (National Education Club), arguing that educating nationalist cadres was more important than forming mass parties, such as the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), that could be easily suppressed by the authorities. Arrested in 1935, Hatta was exiled first to Boven Digul and then to Banda Naira. He was brought back to Java just before the Japanese invasion and served during the occupation regime as vice-chairman of its mass organizations. In August 1945, he, together with Sukarno, signed Indonesia’s Proclamation of Independence, and he became vice-president. In 1948, during a period of acute factional rivalry, Sukarno commissioned him to form a government, and as prime minister Hatta presided over negotiations with the Dutch and the transfer of sovereignty to the republic. Increasingly disturbed by political trends in the early fifties, he resigned as vice-president in December 1956.
A social democrat in political outlook, Hatta was a devout Muslim who believed in the possibility of a synthesis of Islam and socialism. He advocated the development of cooperatives as a solution to Indonesia’s economic problems. As vice-president, Hatta was seen as balancing Sukarno in a two-in-one unity (dwi-tunngal): Java-Sumatra, Javanism-Islam, passion-intellect, nation builder-administrator. After his resignation, Hatta remained a respected elder statesman until his death.
Mohammad Hatta see Hatta
Hausa
Hausa. The Hausa are a large and diverse West African group, collectively the most numerous Muslim people south of the Sahara. Although Hausa speakers are to be found throughout West Africa, most Hausa live in the northern states of Nigeria and, to a lesser extent, in the southern parts of the Niger republic.
A large part of the Hausa identity involves being Muslim. Nowhere in Hausaland is the impress of Islam absent. Prior to European conquest, the Hausa lived in walled city-states with a sharply hierarchical social organization reminiscent of the European feudal era. Sunni Islam first came to the region in the thirteenth century, brought by western Sudanic and Arab merchants. The Maliki school of law, still followed by the Hausa, dates from this early period. Almost as old as the Ajemic script -- a form of medieval Arabic writing -- which made the Hausa a literate people long before Europeans arrived. Thus, Islamic influence has a long history among the Hausa, particularly in the cities and among the ruling aristocracy.
The purity of that Islam, however, was questioned by a Fulani-speaking scholar and religious leader, Uthman dan Fodio, who in 1802 declared jihad against the traditional Hausa rulers. Ultimately, most of the Hausa aristocracy were replaced by followers of Uthman, and Islam was extended far to the south. The old Hausa states became emirates linked to a central caliphate in the new city of Sokoto, which today remains a center of Muslim learning and orthodoxy.
Many Fulani remain pastoral nomads, culturally distinct from Hausa, while many Hausa trace their origins to other, non-Fulani groups. Hausa-Fulani places undue emphasis on a single one of the streams whose modern confluence has created the Hausa. Actually, Hausa often have the same sort of hyphenated ethnic identity common in North America. Just as there are Italian-Americans and Irish-Canadians, so are there Fulani-Hausa, Gbari-Hausa and Kanuri-Hausa. At times, entire communities have, for various reasons, become Hausa (e.g., Gbari, Koro), adopting Hausa language and dress and certain of the most widespread Hausa customs, as well as the Muslim religion. Some Hausa like to distinguish between the seven traditional city states of the Hausa -- the Hausa Seven or Hausa Bakwai -- and all other Hausa, termed the “useless Hausa” or Hausa Banza. The historical truthfulness of this distinction is unclear.
Hausa itself is a term which refers to an ethnic group and language in West Africa (especially Niger and Nigeria). The Hausa people are now predominantly Muslim, dwelling mainly in the northern region of Nigeria. Islamic rites of slaughter and prayer were introduced in Kano by Mandingo missionaries in the fourteenth century. A further stage in the establishment of Islam was the arrival of the North African divine. Abd al-Karim al-Maghili in the fifteenth century Islamic literature, written in Hausa, is almost entirely in verse and religious in character. The Hausa language is second to Swahili as the language with the most speakers in Black Africa.
The Hausa are a racially diverse, but culturally fairly homogeneous, tribe numbering about 10 to 15 million people. Historically, organized into a group of feudal city-states, the Hausa were conquered from the 14th century on by a succession of West African kingdoms, among them, Mali, Songhai, Bornu, and Fula. They occasionally attained enough power and unity, however, to throw off foreign domination and to engage in local conquest and slave raiding themselves. In the opening years of the 20th century, with the Hausa on the verge of overthrowing the Fula, the British invaded northern Nigeria and instituted their policy of indirect rule. Under the British and Fula, the Hausa were supported in their political supremacy, and the Hausa-Fula ruling coalition, still dominant in northern Nigeria, was confirmed. The beginnings of this coalition were, however, much earlier, because the Fula governed by simply assuming the highest hereditary positions in the well-organized Hausa political system. Many of the ruling Fula have now become culturally and linguistically Hausa.
Although the earliest Hausas were animists, Islam is now the dominant organized religion among all but several thousand Hausa, called Maguzawa. Hausa culture manifest a greater degree of specialization and diversification than that of most of the surrounding peoples. Subsistence agriculture is the primary occupation of most, but other skills such as tanning, dyeing, weaving, and metalworking are also highly developed. Hausas have long been famous for wide-ranging itinerant trading, and wealthy merchants share the highest social positions with the politically powerful and the learned.
The Hausa language is the largest and best-known member of the Chadic sub-family of the Afro-Asiatic family of languagtes. Hausa has borrowed freely from other languages, especially Arabic, and is adapting well to the demands of contemporary cultural change. It has become a common language for millions of non-Hausa West Africans, and sizable Hausa-speaking communites exist in each major city of West or North Africa as well as along the trans-Saharan trade and pilgrimage routes. An extensive literature and several periodicals in Romanized script have been produced since the beginning of British rule. An Arabic based writing system, developed before the British conquest, is still in limited use.
Hausa. The Hausa are a large and diverse West African group, collectively the most numerous Muslim people south of the Sahara. Although Hausa speakers are to be found throughout West Africa, most Hausa live in the northern states of Nigeria and, to a lesser extent, in the southern parts of the Niger republic.
A large part of the Hausa identity involves being Muslim. Nowhere in Hausaland is the impress of Islam absent. Prior to European conquest, the Hausa lived in walled city-states with a sharply hierarchical social organization reminiscent of the European feudal era. Sunni Islam first came to the region in the thirteenth century, brought by western Sudanic and Arab merchants. The Maliki school of law, still followed by the Hausa, dates from this early period. Almost as old as the Ajemic script -- a form of medieval Arabic writing -- which made the Hausa a literate people long before Europeans arrived. Thus, Islamic influence has a long history among the Hausa, particularly in the cities and among the ruling aristocracy.
The purity of that Islam, however, was questioned by a Fulani-speaking scholar and religious leader, Uthman dan Fodio, who in 1802 declared jihad against the traditional Hausa rulers. Ultimately, most of the Hausa aristocracy were replaced by followers of Uthman, and Islam was extended far to the south. The old Hausa states became emirates linked to a central caliphate in the new city of Sokoto, which today remains a center of Muslim learning and orthodoxy.
Many Fulani remain pastoral nomads, culturally distinct from Hausa, while many Hausa trace their origins to other, non-Fulani groups. Hausa-Fulani places undue emphasis on a single one of the streams whose modern confluence has created the Hausa. Actually, Hausa often have the same sort of hyphenated ethnic identity common in North America. Just as there are Italian-Americans and Irish-Canadians, so are there Fulani-Hausa, Gbari-Hausa and Kanuri-Hausa. At times, entire communities have, for various reasons, become Hausa (e.g., Gbari, Koro), adopting Hausa language and dress and certain of the most widespread Hausa customs, as well as the Muslim religion. Some Hausa like to distinguish between the seven traditional city states of the Hausa -- the Hausa Seven or Hausa Bakwai -- and all other Hausa, termed the “useless Hausa” or Hausa Banza. The historical truthfulness of this distinction is unclear.
Hausa itself is a term which refers to an ethnic group and language in West Africa (especially Niger and Nigeria). The Hausa people are now predominantly Muslim, dwelling mainly in the northern region of Nigeria. Islamic rites of slaughter and prayer were introduced in Kano by Mandingo missionaries in the fourteenth century. A further stage in the establishment of Islam was the arrival of the North African divine. Abd al-Karim al-Maghili in the fifteenth century Islamic literature, written in Hausa, is almost entirely in verse and religious in character. The Hausa language is second to Swahili as the language with the most speakers in Black Africa.
The Hausa are a racially diverse, but culturally fairly homogeneous, tribe numbering about 10 to 15 million people. Historically, organized into a group of feudal city-states, the Hausa were conquered from the 14th century on by a succession of West African kingdoms, among them, Mali, Songhai, Bornu, and Fula. They occasionally attained enough power and unity, however, to throw off foreign domination and to engage in local conquest and slave raiding themselves. In the opening years of the 20th century, with the Hausa on the verge of overthrowing the Fula, the British invaded northern Nigeria and instituted their policy of indirect rule. Under the British and Fula, the Hausa were supported in their political supremacy, and the Hausa-Fula ruling coalition, still dominant in northern Nigeria, was confirmed. The beginnings of this coalition were, however, much earlier, because the Fula governed by simply assuming the highest hereditary positions in the well-organized Hausa political system. Many of the ruling Fula have now become culturally and linguistically Hausa.
Although the earliest Hausas were animists, Islam is now the dominant organized religion among all but several thousand Hausa, called Maguzawa. Hausa culture manifest a greater degree of specialization and diversification than that of most of the surrounding peoples. Subsistence agriculture is the primary occupation of most, but other skills such as tanning, dyeing, weaving, and metalworking are also highly developed. Hausas have long been famous for wide-ranging itinerant trading, and wealthy merchants share the highest social positions with the politically powerful and the learned.
The Hausa language is the largest and best-known member of the Chadic sub-family of the Afro-Asiatic family of languagtes. Hausa has borrowed freely from other languages, especially Arabic, and is adapting well to the demands of contemporary cultural change. It has become a common language for millions of non-Hausa West Africans, and sizable Hausa-speaking communites exist in each major city of West or North Africa as well as along the trans-Saharan trade and pilgrimage routes. An extensive literature and several periodicals in Romanized script have been produced since the beginning of British rule. An Arabic based writing system, developed before the British conquest, is still in limited use.
Hausa slaves
Hausa slaves. The Hausa Kingdom was an ancient black kingdom in northern Nigeria which converted to Islam in the thirteenth century (c. 1203). It flourished throughout the Middle Ages and, in about 1500, emerged as a powerful military state in West Africa. It was conquered by the Fula in 1870. At one time, the Hausa language was spoken throughout the western Sudan. In Brazil and elsewhere in tropical America, "Hausa" became a generic term applied to a large number of black slaves brought from northern Nigeria. They were distinguished by a stubby beard. The Hausa slaves led rigorous and even austere lives, refusing to mix with the other slaves. These blacks, members of Islam, were largely responsible for the slave uprisings in the Brazilian province of Bahia in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Hausas had powerful secret societies such as the Obgoni which generally followed the same lines as those in West Africa. Their language was spoken in Bahia during the entire nineteenth century and perhaps even in the eighteenth century. Though relatively few in number, their influence was considerable. After abolition in 1888, many Hausas were repatriated to the city of Ardra.
Hausa slaves. The Hausa Kingdom was an ancient black kingdom in northern Nigeria which converted to Islam in the thirteenth century (c. 1203). It flourished throughout the Middle Ages and, in about 1500, emerged as a powerful military state in West Africa. It was conquered by the Fula in 1870. At one time, the Hausa language was spoken throughout the western Sudan. In Brazil and elsewhere in tropical America, "Hausa" became a generic term applied to a large number of black slaves brought from northern Nigeria. They were distinguished by a stubby beard. The Hausa slaves led rigorous and even austere lives, refusing to mix with the other slaves. These blacks, members of Islam, were largely responsible for the slave uprisings in the Brazilian province of Bahia in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Hausas had powerful secret societies such as the Obgoni which generally followed the same lines as those in West Africa. Their language was spoken in Bahia during the entire nineteenth century and perhaps even in the eighteenth century. Though relatively few in number, their influence was considerable. After abolition in 1888, many Hausas were repatriated to the city of Ardra.
Haut Conseil de Securite
Haut Conseil de Securite (HCE). Temporary body that governed Algeria from January 12, 1992 until the end of 1993. HCE was established after the elections of 1991, where the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) was close to winning. HCE was made up of five members, who in 1992 were: Khalid Nezzar, Ali Kafi, Ali Haroun, Tijani Heddam (the religious leader of the Great Mosque in Paris) and its chairman Muhammad Boudiaf. At first HCE declared that they should govern Algeria until the presidency of Chadly had finished towards the end of 1993. Boudiaf was shot in Annaba while giving a lecture, on June 29, by one of his security guards. Ali Kafi became the new leader after him. When the mandate of HCE ran out in 1993, Liamine Zeroual became president, and had the authority of HCE transferred to himself.
HCE see Haut Conseil de Securite
Haut Conseil de Securite (HCE). Temporary body that governed Algeria from January 12, 1992 until the end of 1993. HCE was established after the elections of 1991, where the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) was close to winning. HCE was made up of five members, who in 1992 were: Khalid Nezzar, Ali Kafi, Ali Haroun, Tijani Heddam (the religious leader of the Great Mosque in Paris) and its chairman Muhammad Boudiaf. At first HCE declared that they should govern Algeria until the presidency of Chadly had finished towards the end of 1993. Boudiaf was shot in Annaba while giving a lecture, on June 29, by one of his security guards. Ali Kafi became the new leader after him. When the mandate of HCE ran out in 1993, Liamine Zeroual became president, and had the authority of HCE transferred to himself.
HCE see Haut Conseil de Securite
Hawwara
Hawwara. Name of a Berber people, who spread from Tripolitania to Fazzan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, Sicily, Egypt and the Sudan.
Hawwara. Name of a Berber people, who spread from Tripolitania to Fazzan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, Sicily, Egypt and the Sudan.
Hayatu ibn Sa’id
Hayatu ibn Sa’id (c.1840-1898). Mahdist figure in the Central Sudanic region of Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. Hayatu ibn Sa’id was a great-grandson of the Fula Islamic revolutionary leader ‘Uthman dan Fodio. He was born in the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria.
After his early ambitions for high political office in Sokoto were frustrated, Hayatu ibn Sa’id left for Adamawa in the southeastern part of the empire. In 1881, when Muhammed ‘Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi in Sudan, Hayatu became his protégé in the central Sudan. Hayatu attracted many adherents to the town of Balda and maintained a large following throughout Adamawa.
The Sokoto empire, however, did not recognize Muhammed ‘Ahmad. By 1892, Zubeiru, the governor of Adamawa, felt he could no longer tolerate the presence of the Mahdists. Zubeiru challenged Hayatu on the battlefield. In the resulting battle, Hayatu was victorious. However, the victory only made the rulers of Sokoto’s other emirates more fearful of him.
Hayatu decided to throw in his lot with Rabeh Zubair, another Mahdist leader. Their combined forces conquered Bornu in 1893. Rabeh became the ruler of Bornu. Hayatu, frustrated with his subordinate role, attempted to break away.
In 1898, the forces of Hayatu and Rabeh met on the battlefield. Hayatu’s forces were defeated and Hayatu was killed.
Hayatu left a legacy of consciousness and concern over the coming of the Mahdi in Sokoto at a time when these had been on the verge of fading away. The Mahdist movement grew and became a rallying point for anti-British sentiment after Hayatu’s death.
Hayatu ibn Sa’id (c.1840-1898). Mahdist figure in the Central Sudanic region of Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. Hayatu ibn Sa’id was a great-grandson of the Fula Islamic revolutionary leader ‘Uthman dan Fodio. He was born in the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria.
After his early ambitions for high political office in Sokoto were frustrated, Hayatu ibn Sa’id left for Adamawa in the southeastern part of the empire. In 1881, when Muhammed ‘Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi in Sudan, Hayatu became his protégé in the central Sudan. Hayatu attracted many adherents to the town of Balda and maintained a large following throughout Adamawa.
The Sokoto empire, however, did not recognize Muhammed ‘Ahmad. By 1892, Zubeiru, the governor of Adamawa, felt he could no longer tolerate the presence of the Mahdists. Zubeiru challenged Hayatu on the battlefield. In the resulting battle, Hayatu was victorious. However, the victory only made the rulers of Sokoto’s other emirates more fearful of him.
Hayatu decided to throw in his lot with Rabeh Zubair, another Mahdist leader. Their combined forces conquered Bornu in 1893. Rabeh became the ruler of Bornu. Hayatu, frustrated with his subordinate role, attempted to break away.
In 1898, the forces of Hayatu and Rabeh met on the battlefield. Hayatu’s forces were defeated and Hayatu was killed.
Hayatu left a legacy of consciousness and concern over the coming of the Mahdi in Sokoto at a time when these had been on the verge of fading away. The Mahdist movement grew and became a rallying point for anti-British sentiment after Hayatu’s death.
Haydar-i Amuli
Haydar-i Amuli (1320-after 1385). Early representative of Persian theosophy and a commentator of Ibn al-‘Arabi.
Haydar-i Amuli (1320-after 1385). Early representative of Persian theosophy and a commentator of Ibn al-‘Arabi.
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
Hayy ibn Yaqzan. Name of the principal character of two philosophical allegories, one by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and the other by Ibn Tufayl.
Hayy ibn Yaqzan. Name of the principal character of two philosophical allegories, one by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and the other by Ibn Tufayl.
Hazaras
Hazaras. One of Afghanistan’s most impoverished ethnic groups, yet most resistant to central government domination, is the Hazaras. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, they became virtually independent of government control.
Hazara origins are obscure. They appear to be descendants of two types of people: the “original” Indo-Iranian inhabitants of the Hindu Kush region, and the Mongol and Turkic groups who came to dominate it in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The term hazara itself suggests a Mongol-Persian blend. It means “thousand” in Farsi, but it is believed to be a Persianized equivalent for the Mongol word for “thousand,” minggan. The Mongols, at one time, designated a fighting unit by this term; as this unit consisted of a kinship unit providing a thousand horsemen, it meant, in fact, “tribe.” Presumably as the Hindu Kush Mongols acquired Farsi, the Farsi equivalent replaced the Mongol word. By the fifteenth century, hazara meant “mountain tribe,” and somewhat later on it came to mean specifically the group now called Hazara.
This shift in meaning corresponded with a retreat of the Mongol tribes into the mountainous area now known as the Hazarajat. They were gradually pushed out of the more desirable lowlands neighboring the Hindu Kush by competing tribal groups. From the south and west they were pressed by the Pushtun tribes; from the north by Turkmen tribes who liked to raid them for slaves. Eventually, the Hazaras rebelled in 1891; after two years of war they were totally crushed. Many were forced out of their homelands; most fled to Mashad and Quetta. Later the expatriate Hazaras were offered amnesty to return and were given land.
An important consequence of the war was the opening of the Hazarajat to Pushtun nomads, who grazed their flocks there during the summer. By loaning money and selling products from India, the nomads gained economic advantage over many Hazaras and acquired ownership of some of their lands. Impoverished Hazaras migrated to the cities, mainly Ghazni, Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, to work as hired laborers in winter, returning in spring to farm their lands.
After 1978, when the Khalq Party took over the Afghanistan government, the Hazaras in diverse areas, without coordination, revolted, the earliest to revolt being those in the northern and eastern provinces. After the Soviet invasion in December 1979, the entire Hazarajat with the exception of a landing strip in Bamian, remained virtually independent of government control. Interest in tribal ties based on patrilineal descent appears to have been rekindled in this context. Subgroups within the Hazarajat, however, remained autonomous, each managing its own judicial and administrative affairs. An attempt in 1979 to unite the Hazaras, in which a prominent Sayyid was elected to be first of several rotating supreme commanders, failed.
The active resistance units among the Hazaras are called “fronts.” Those fronts that have seen the most military action against Afghan and Soviet military forces, because they lie along the routes of access into the Hazarajat, are Behsud (which controls the Unai Pass) and Sheikh Ali, Turkmen and Surkh-o-Parsa (because they controlled access to the Shibar Pass) and the Hazara communities of Turkestan, especially Chararkint and Dare-Suf.
Hazaras. One of Afghanistan’s most impoverished ethnic groups, yet most resistant to central government domination, is the Hazaras. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, they became virtually independent of government control.
Hazara origins are obscure. They appear to be descendants of two types of people: the “original” Indo-Iranian inhabitants of the Hindu Kush region, and the Mongol and Turkic groups who came to dominate it in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The term hazara itself suggests a Mongol-Persian blend. It means “thousand” in Farsi, but it is believed to be a Persianized equivalent for the Mongol word for “thousand,” minggan. The Mongols, at one time, designated a fighting unit by this term; as this unit consisted of a kinship unit providing a thousand horsemen, it meant, in fact, “tribe.” Presumably as the Hindu Kush Mongols acquired Farsi, the Farsi equivalent replaced the Mongol word. By the fifteenth century, hazara meant “mountain tribe,” and somewhat later on it came to mean specifically the group now called Hazara.
This shift in meaning corresponded with a retreat of the Mongol tribes into the mountainous area now known as the Hazarajat. They were gradually pushed out of the more desirable lowlands neighboring the Hindu Kush by competing tribal groups. From the south and west they were pressed by the Pushtun tribes; from the north by Turkmen tribes who liked to raid them for slaves. Eventually, the Hazaras rebelled in 1891; after two years of war they were totally crushed. Many were forced out of their homelands; most fled to Mashad and Quetta. Later the expatriate Hazaras were offered amnesty to return and were given land.
An important consequence of the war was the opening of the Hazarajat to Pushtun nomads, who grazed their flocks there during the summer. By loaning money and selling products from India, the nomads gained economic advantage over many Hazaras and acquired ownership of some of their lands. Impoverished Hazaras migrated to the cities, mainly Ghazni, Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, to work as hired laborers in winter, returning in spring to farm their lands.
After 1978, when the Khalq Party took over the Afghanistan government, the Hazaras in diverse areas, without coordination, revolted, the earliest to revolt being those in the northern and eastern provinces. After the Soviet invasion in December 1979, the entire Hazarajat with the exception of a landing strip in Bamian, remained virtually independent of government control. Interest in tribal ties based on patrilineal descent appears to have been rekindled in this context. Subgroups within the Hazarajat, however, remained autonomous, each managing its own judicial and administrative affairs. An attempt in 1979 to unite the Hazaras, in which a prominent Sayyid was elected to be first of several rotating supreme commanders, failed.
The active resistance units among the Hazaras are called “fronts.” Those fronts that have seen the most military action against Afghan and Soviet military forces, because they lie along the routes of access into the Hazarajat, are Behsud (which controls the Unai Pass) and Sheikh Ali, Turkmen and Surkh-o-Parsa (because they controlled access to the Shibar Pass) and the Hazara communities of Turkestan, especially Chararkint and Dare-Suf.
Hazaraspids
Hazaraspids. Local dynasty in Persia with its capital at Idhaj. They ruled over parts of Luristan from 1148 to 1424, when the Timurids put an end to the dynasty.
Hazaraspid (1148-1424) was a local Kurdish dynasty that ruled the Zagros mountains region of southwestern Persia, essentially in Lorestān and the adjacent parts of Fārs which flourished in the later Saljuq, Ilkhanid, Muzaffarids, and Timurid periods. The founder of the dynasty Abu Tahir bin Muhammad was initially a commander of the Salghurid Atabaks of Fars and was appointed as the governor of Kuhgiluya, but eventually gained independence in Luristan and extended his realm as far as Isfahan and assumed the prestigious title of Atabak. His son, Malek Hazarasp fought a successful campaign against Salghurids and assisted Jalal-al-din Khwarezmshah in his struggle against the Mongols. Another Hazaraspid ruler Takla, accompanied Hulagu on his march to Baghdad, but deserted because of the murder of the last caliph. He was eventually caught and executed on Hulagu's order. Yusuf Shah I received Ilkhan Abaqa's confirmation of his rule and added Khuzestan, Kuhgiluya, Firuzan (near Isfahan) and Golpayegan to his domain. Afrasiab I attempted to extend his control to the coast of Persian Gulf but faced stiff opposition from the Mongols who defeated his army at Kuhrud near Kashan. He was reinstated by Ilkhan Gaykhatu but was executed by Gazan in October 1296.
The capital of the Hazaraspids was located at Idaj located in present-day northern Khuzestan. Yusuf Shah II annexed the cities of Shushtar, Hoveizeh and Basra in the first half of the fourteenth century. During the reign of Shams-al-din Pashang, the dynasty faced attacks from the Muzaffarids and the capital Idaj temporarily fell into their hands, until the occupiers had to retreat due to their own internecine fighting. In 1424, the Timurid King Shahrokh deposed the last Hazaraspid ruler Ghias-al-din thereby ended the dynasty.
A listing of the Hazaraspid rulers reads as follows:
1. Abu Tahir bin Muhammad (r. 1148-1203)
2. Malek Hazarasp (r. 1204-1248 )
3. Emad-al-din (r. 1248-1251)
4. Nosrat-al-din (r. 1252-1257)
5. Takla (r. 1258- )
6. Shams-al-din Alp Arghun
7. Yusuf Shah I (r. 1274-1288)
8. Afrasiab I (r. 1288-1296)
9. Nosrat-al-din Ahmad (r.1296- 1330)
10. Rokn-al-din Yusuf Shah II (r.1330-1340)
11. Mozaffar-al-din Afrasiab II (r.1340-1355)
12. Shams-al-din Pashang (r.1355-1378)
13. Malek Pir Ahmad (r.1378-1408)
14. Abu Saeed (r. 1408- 1417)
15. Shah Hussein (r.1417-1424)
16. Ghias-al-din (r.1424)
Hazaraspids. Local dynasty in Persia with its capital at Idhaj. They ruled over parts of Luristan from 1148 to 1424, when the Timurids put an end to the dynasty.
Hazaraspid (1148-1424) was a local Kurdish dynasty that ruled the Zagros mountains region of southwestern Persia, essentially in Lorestān and the adjacent parts of Fārs which flourished in the later Saljuq, Ilkhanid, Muzaffarids, and Timurid periods. The founder of the dynasty Abu Tahir bin Muhammad was initially a commander of the Salghurid Atabaks of Fars and was appointed as the governor of Kuhgiluya, but eventually gained independence in Luristan and extended his realm as far as Isfahan and assumed the prestigious title of Atabak. His son, Malek Hazarasp fought a successful campaign against Salghurids and assisted Jalal-al-din Khwarezmshah in his struggle against the Mongols. Another Hazaraspid ruler Takla, accompanied Hulagu on his march to Baghdad, but deserted because of the murder of the last caliph. He was eventually caught and executed on Hulagu's order. Yusuf Shah I received Ilkhan Abaqa's confirmation of his rule and added Khuzestan, Kuhgiluya, Firuzan (near Isfahan) and Golpayegan to his domain. Afrasiab I attempted to extend his control to the coast of Persian Gulf but faced stiff opposition from the Mongols who defeated his army at Kuhrud near Kashan. He was reinstated by Ilkhan Gaykhatu but was executed by Gazan in October 1296.
The capital of the Hazaraspids was located at Idaj located in present-day northern Khuzestan. Yusuf Shah II annexed the cities of Shushtar, Hoveizeh and Basra in the first half of the fourteenth century. During the reign of Shams-al-din Pashang, the dynasty faced attacks from the Muzaffarids and the capital Idaj temporarily fell into their hands, until the occupiers had to retreat due to their own internecine fighting. In 1424, the Timurid King Shahrokh deposed the last Hazaraspid ruler Ghias-al-din thereby ended the dynasty.
A listing of the Hazaraspid rulers reads as follows:
1. Abu Tahir bin Muhammad (r. 1148-1203)
2. Malek Hazarasp (r. 1204-1248 )
3. Emad-al-din (r. 1248-1251)
4. Nosrat-al-din (r. 1252-1257)
5. Takla (r. 1258- )
6. Shams-al-din Alp Arghun
7. Yusuf Shah I (r. 1274-1288)
8. Afrasiab I (r. 1288-1296)
9. Nosrat-al-din Ahmad (r.1296- 1330)
10. Rokn-al-din Yusuf Shah II (r.1330-1340)
11. Mozaffar-al-din Afrasiab II (r.1340-1355)
12. Shams-al-din Pashang (r.1355-1378)
13. Malek Pir Ahmad (r.1378-1408)
14. Abu Saeed (r. 1408- 1417)
15. Shah Hussein (r.1417-1424)
16. Ghias-al-din (r.1424)
Hazarfen Ahmed Celebi
Hazarfen Ahmed Celebi (Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi) was a legendary Ottoman aviator of 17th-century Constantinople (present day Istanbul), purported in the writings of traveller Evliya Çelebi to have achieved sustained unpowered flight.
The title "Hazarfen" was given by Evliya Celebi to Ahmed Celebi. The title means "a thousand sciences.The 17th century writings of Evliyâ Çelebi relate this story of Hazarfen Ahmed Çelebi, circa 1630-1632:
"First he practiced by flying over the pulpit of Okmeydanı eight or nine times with eagle wings, using the force of the wind. Then, as Sultan Murad Khan (Murad IV) was watching from the Sinan Pasha mansion at Sarayburnu, he flew from the very top of the Galata Tower and landed in the Doğancılar Square in Üsküdar, with the help of the south-west wind. Then Murad Khan granted him a sack of golden coins, and said: 'This is a scary man. He is capable of doing anything he wishes. It is not right to keep such people,' and thus sent him to Algeria on exile. He died there".—Evliyâ Çelebi
Hazmiriyyun
Hazmiriyyun. Moroccan religious brotherhood of the fourteenth through fifteenth centuries. Its main object was to Islamicize the Berbers who were inclined to form their own local brand of Islam. The Hazmiriyyun were a religious brotherhood Moroccan brothers founded by Abu Zayd Abd ar-Rahman (d. 1306 or 1308) and Abu Muhammad Abd Allah lah (d. 1280), son of 'Abd al-Karim al-Hazmirí.
HCE
HCE. See Haut Conseil de Securite.
HCE. See Haut Conseil de Securite.
Hekmatyar
Hekmatyar (Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) (b. 1947?). Leader of the Hizb-i Islami Afghanistan, one of the major Islamic political parties in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar was a Pushtun from a branch of the Kharoti tribe that resettled n the northern province of Kunduz. While a student in the College of Engineering at Kabul University in the late 1960s, Hekmatyar became one of the founders of the Organization of Muslim Youth (Sazman-i Javanan-i Musulman). Inspired by the writings of Sayyid Qutb and other Islamic political theorists to whom they were introduced by professors at the university, Hekmatyar and the other members of the Muslim Youth were actively involved in campus politics, particularly in response to the increasing activism of Marxist political parties that were also seeking members from the student population.
In 1972, Hekmatyar was arrested and imprisoned for his involvement in a campus demonstration in which a leftist student was killed. Released at the end of his sentence in 1973, Hekmatyar and other leaders of the Muslim Youth went into exile in Peshawar, Pakistan, where they began planning the violent overthrow of the government of President Muhammad Da’ud. In 1975 Hekmatyar became the secretary (munshi) and head of military operations for the party. In this capacity, he was one of the principal proponents and organizers of a controversial plan to stage a coup d’etat with sympathetic members of the military while simultaneously mounting rural insurrections in a number of provincial centers. The plan, which was carried out in July 1975, collapsed when the expected surge of popular support failed to materialize, and most of the top leaders of the Muslim Youth were captured and executed, either by the Da’ud government or later after the Marxist takeover in 1978. Following the failure of this operation, Hekmatyar became the dominant figure in the Organization of Muslim Youth, which was reconstituted as Hizb-I Islami Afghanistan in this same period. As leader of Hizb-i Islami during the thirteen year guerrilla war against the Marxist government in Afghanistan (1978-1992), Hekmatyar proved to be a controversial figure. He was respected for his organizational skills and energy and held in some awe for his oratorical powers and charismatic presence, but he nevertheless inspired much hostility.
Ruthless in his suppression of dissidents within the party and as energetic in fighting rival parties as in attacking enemy forces, Hekmatyar was frequently accused of undermining the unity of resistance efforts in his search for power. Although he was recognized personally as one of the least corrupt of the major party leaders and one of the most successful at gaining international diplomatic and financial support for the resistance, he was also resented by many traditional Afghans for interjecting a divisive brand of revolutionary Islamic ideology into the jihad.
After the overthrow of the Marxists in April 1992, Hekmatyar stayed on the fringes of the coalition government that was established in Kabul from among the former resistance parties. He accused the new regime of opportunistically conspiring with Marxists and former militia leaders and of playing on Pushtun fear of Persian and Uzbek dominance in the new government. He set up a base of operations in Logar Province south of Kabul, where he sometimes shelled the capital and sometimes negotiated with the coalition leaders. In March 1993, an accord negotiated in Islamabad made him prime minister, but as his main rival, Ahmad Shah Mas‘ud, was made defense minister, the shelling did not stop and Hekmatyar’s national authority was only nominal.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1993 to 1994 and again briefly in 1996. One of the most controversial of the Mujahideen leaders, he was accused of spending "more time fighting other Mujahideen than killing Soviets" and wantonly killing civilians.
The Pakistani military had supported Hekmatyar until then in the hope of installing a Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul, which would be friendly to their interests. By 1994, it had become clear that Hekmatyar would never achieve this, and that his extremism had antagonized most Pashtuns, so the Pakistanis began turning to new allies: the fundamentalist and predominantly Pashtun Taliban. After capturing Kandahar in November 1994, the Taliban made rapid progress towards Kabul, making inroads into Hezb-i Islami positions. They captured Wardak on February 2 1995, and moved on to Maidan Shahr on February 10 and Mohammed Agha the next day. Very soon, Hekmatyar found himself caught between the advancing Taliban and the government forces, and the morale of his men collapsed. On February 14, 1995, he was forced to abandon his heaquarters at Charasiab, from where rockets were fired at Kabul, and flee in disorder to Surobi.
Nonetheless, in May 1996, Rabbani and Hekmatyar finally formed a power-sharing government in which Hekmatyar was made prime minister. Rabbani was anxious to enhance the legitimacy of his government by enlisting the support of Pashtun leaders. However, the Mahipar agreement did not bring any such benefits to him as Hekmatyar had little grassroots support, but did have many adverse effects. It caused outrage among Jamiat supporters, and among the population of Kabul, who had endured Hekmatyar's attacks for the last four years. Moreover, the agreement was clearly not what the Pakistanis wanted, and convinced them of Hekmatyar's weakness, and that they should shift their aid entirely over to the Taliban. Hekmatyar took office on June 26, and immediately started issuing severe decrees on women's dress, that struck a sharp contrast with the relatively liberal policy that Massoud had followed until then. The Taliban responded to the agreement with a further spate of rocket attacks on the capital.
The Rabbani/Hekmatyar regime lasted only a few months before the Taliban took control of Kabul in September 1996. Many of the Hizb-i Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) local commanders joined the Taliban both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity. Those that did not were expelled by the Taliban. In Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami training camps were taken over by the Taliban and handed over to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).
Hekmatyar then fled to Iran in 1997 where he resided for almost six years. Isolated from Afghanistan he is reported to have lost his power base back home to defections or inactivity of former members.
After September 11, 2001 Hekmatyar, who had worked closely with bin Laden in the early 1990s, declared his opposition to the United States campaign in Afghanistan and criticized Pakistan for assisting the United States. After the United States entry into the anti-Taliban alliance and the fall of the Taliban, Hekmatyar rejected the United Nations-brokered accord of December 5, 2001 negotiated in Germany as a post-Taliban interim government for Afghanistan.
As a result of pressure by the United States and the Karzai administration, on February 10, 2002 all the offices of Hezb-e-Islami were closed in Iran and Hekmatyar was expelled by his Iranian hosts.
On May 6, 2002 the CIA fired on a Hekmatyar vehicle convoy using a Lockheed Martin manufactured AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator aircraft. The missile missed its target.
The United States accused Hekmatyar of urging Taliban fighters to re-form and fight against Coalition troops in Afghanistan. He is also accused of offering bounties for those who killed United States troops. He was labeled a war criminal by members of the United States-backed President Hamid Karzai's government. He also became a suspect behind the September 5, 2002 assassination attempt on Karzai that killed more than a dozen people.
In September 2002, Hekmatyar released a taped message calling for jihad against the United States.
On December 25, 2002 news broke that American spy organizations had discovered Hekmatyar attempting to join al-Qaeda. According to the news, he had said that he was available to aid them. However, in a video released by Hekmatyar on September 1, 2003, he denied forming alliances with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but praised attacks against United States and international forces.
On February 19, 2003 the United States State Department and the United States Treasury Department jointly designated Hekmatyar a "global terrorist". This designation meant that any assets Hekmatyar held in the United States, or held through companies based in the United States, would be frozen. The United States also requested the United Nations Committee on Terrorism to follow suit, and designate Hekmatyar an associate of Osama bin Laden.
In October 2003, Hekmatyar declared a ceasefire with local commanders in Jalalabad, Kunar, Logar and Sarobi, and stated that they should only fight foreigners.
In May 2006, he released a video to Al Jazeera in which he accused Iran of backing the United States in the Afghan conflict and said he was ready to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and blamed the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan on the United States interference.
In September 2006, he was reported as captured, but the report was later retracted.
In December 2006, a video was released in Pakistan, where Gulbuddin Hekmatyar claimed that the fate the Soviet Union faced was awaiting America as well.
In January 2007 CNN reported that Hekmatyar claimed that his fighters helped Osama bin Laden escape from the mountains of Tora Bora five years ago.
In May 2008, the Jamestown Foundation reported that after being sidelined from Afghan politics since the mid-1990s, Gulbuddin's HIG group had recently re-emerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces and the administration of President Hamid Karzai. The re-emergence of this experienced guerrilla strategist came at a propitious time for insurgency, following the killing of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, when some elements of the Taliban were becoming disorganized and frustrated.
HIG claimed responsibility for and is thought to have at least assisted in the April 27, 2008 attempt on the life of President Karzai in Kabul that killed three Afghan citizens, including a member of parliament. Other attacks HIG is thought to be responsible for include the January 2, 2008 shooting down of a helicopter containing foreign troops in the Laghman province; the shooting and forcing down a United States military helicopter in the Sarubi district of Kabul on January 22; and the blowing up of a Kabul police vehicle in March 2008, killing 10 soldiers.
In interviews he demanded all foreign forces leave immediately without any condition. Offers by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with opponents of the government and hints that they would be offered official posts such as deputy minister or head of department, were thought to be directed at Hekmatyar.
In January 2010, Hekmatyar was still considered as one of the three main leaders of the Afghan insurgency. By then, he held out the possibility of negotiations with President Karzai and outlined a roadmap for political reconciliation. In contrast to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and allied insurgent chief Sirajuddin Haqqani, who refused any talks with Kabul as long as foreign troops remained in the country, Hekmatyar appeared less reluctant.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar see Hekmatyar
Hekmatyar (Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) (b. 1947?). Leader of the Hizb-i Islami Afghanistan, one of the major Islamic political parties in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar was a Pushtun from a branch of the Kharoti tribe that resettled n the northern province of Kunduz. While a student in the College of Engineering at Kabul University in the late 1960s, Hekmatyar became one of the founders of the Organization of Muslim Youth (Sazman-i Javanan-i Musulman). Inspired by the writings of Sayyid Qutb and other Islamic political theorists to whom they were introduced by professors at the university, Hekmatyar and the other members of the Muslim Youth were actively involved in campus politics, particularly in response to the increasing activism of Marxist political parties that were also seeking members from the student population.
In 1972, Hekmatyar was arrested and imprisoned for his involvement in a campus demonstration in which a leftist student was killed. Released at the end of his sentence in 1973, Hekmatyar and other leaders of the Muslim Youth went into exile in Peshawar, Pakistan, where they began planning the violent overthrow of the government of President Muhammad Da’ud. In 1975 Hekmatyar became the secretary (munshi) and head of military operations for the party. In this capacity, he was one of the principal proponents and organizers of a controversial plan to stage a coup d’etat with sympathetic members of the military while simultaneously mounting rural insurrections in a number of provincial centers. The plan, which was carried out in July 1975, collapsed when the expected surge of popular support failed to materialize, and most of the top leaders of the Muslim Youth were captured and executed, either by the Da’ud government or later after the Marxist takeover in 1978. Following the failure of this operation, Hekmatyar became the dominant figure in the Organization of Muslim Youth, which was reconstituted as Hizb-I Islami Afghanistan in this same period. As leader of Hizb-i Islami during the thirteen year guerrilla war against the Marxist government in Afghanistan (1978-1992), Hekmatyar proved to be a controversial figure. He was respected for his organizational skills and energy and held in some awe for his oratorical powers and charismatic presence, but he nevertheless inspired much hostility.
Ruthless in his suppression of dissidents within the party and as energetic in fighting rival parties as in attacking enemy forces, Hekmatyar was frequently accused of undermining the unity of resistance efforts in his search for power. Although he was recognized personally as one of the least corrupt of the major party leaders and one of the most successful at gaining international diplomatic and financial support for the resistance, he was also resented by many traditional Afghans for interjecting a divisive brand of revolutionary Islamic ideology into the jihad.
After the overthrow of the Marxists in April 1992, Hekmatyar stayed on the fringes of the coalition government that was established in Kabul from among the former resistance parties. He accused the new regime of opportunistically conspiring with Marxists and former militia leaders and of playing on Pushtun fear of Persian and Uzbek dominance in the new government. He set up a base of operations in Logar Province south of Kabul, where he sometimes shelled the capital and sometimes negotiated with the coalition leaders. In March 1993, an accord negotiated in Islamabad made him prime minister, but as his main rival, Ahmad Shah Mas‘ud, was made defense minister, the shelling did not stop and Hekmatyar’s national authority was only nominal.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1993 to 1994 and again briefly in 1996. One of the most controversial of the Mujahideen leaders, he was accused of spending "more time fighting other Mujahideen than killing Soviets" and wantonly killing civilians.
The Pakistani military had supported Hekmatyar until then in the hope of installing a Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul, which would be friendly to their interests. By 1994, it had become clear that Hekmatyar would never achieve this, and that his extremism had antagonized most Pashtuns, so the Pakistanis began turning to new allies: the fundamentalist and predominantly Pashtun Taliban. After capturing Kandahar in November 1994, the Taliban made rapid progress towards Kabul, making inroads into Hezb-i Islami positions. They captured Wardak on February 2 1995, and moved on to Maidan Shahr on February 10 and Mohammed Agha the next day. Very soon, Hekmatyar found himself caught between the advancing Taliban and the government forces, and the morale of his men collapsed. On February 14, 1995, he was forced to abandon his heaquarters at Charasiab, from where rockets were fired at Kabul, and flee in disorder to Surobi.
Nonetheless, in May 1996, Rabbani and Hekmatyar finally formed a power-sharing government in which Hekmatyar was made prime minister. Rabbani was anxious to enhance the legitimacy of his government by enlisting the support of Pashtun leaders. However, the Mahipar agreement did not bring any such benefits to him as Hekmatyar had little grassroots support, but did have many adverse effects. It caused outrage among Jamiat supporters, and among the population of Kabul, who had endured Hekmatyar's attacks for the last four years. Moreover, the agreement was clearly not what the Pakistanis wanted, and convinced them of Hekmatyar's weakness, and that they should shift their aid entirely over to the Taliban. Hekmatyar took office on June 26, and immediately started issuing severe decrees on women's dress, that struck a sharp contrast with the relatively liberal policy that Massoud had followed until then. The Taliban responded to the agreement with a further spate of rocket attacks on the capital.
The Rabbani/Hekmatyar regime lasted only a few months before the Taliban took control of Kabul in September 1996. Many of the Hizb-i Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) local commanders joined the Taliban both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity. Those that did not were expelled by the Taliban. In Pakistan Hezb-e-Islami training camps were taken over by the Taliban and handed over to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) groups such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).
Hekmatyar then fled to Iran in 1997 where he resided for almost six years. Isolated from Afghanistan he is reported to have lost his power base back home to defections or inactivity of former members.
After September 11, 2001 Hekmatyar, who had worked closely with bin Laden in the early 1990s, declared his opposition to the United States campaign in Afghanistan and criticized Pakistan for assisting the United States. After the United States entry into the anti-Taliban alliance and the fall of the Taliban, Hekmatyar rejected the United Nations-brokered accord of December 5, 2001 negotiated in Germany as a post-Taliban interim government for Afghanistan.
As a result of pressure by the United States and the Karzai administration, on February 10, 2002 all the offices of Hezb-e-Islami were closed in Iran and Hekmatyar was expelled by his Iranian hosts.
On May 6, 2002 the CIA fired on a Hekmatyar vehicle convoy using a Lockheed Martin manufactured AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator aircraft. The missile missed its target.
The United States accused Hekmatyar of urging Taliban fighters to re-form and fight against Coalition troops in Afghanistan. He is also accused of offering bounties for those who killed United States troops. He was labeled a war criminal by members of the United States-backed President Hamid Karzai's government. He also became a suspect behind the September 5, 2002 assassination attempt on Karzai that killed more than a dozen people.
In September 2002, Hekmatyar released a taped message calling for jihad against the United States.
On December 25, 2002 news broke that American spy organizations had discovered Hekmatyar attempting to join al-Qaeda. According to the news, he had said that he was available to aid them. However, in a video released by Hekmatyar on September 1, 2003, he denied forming alliances with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, but praised attacks against United States and international forces.
On February 19, 2003 the United States State Department and the United States Treasury Department jointly designated Hekmatyar a "global terrorist". This designation meant that any assets Hekmatyar held in the United States, or held through companies based in the United States, would be frozen. The United States also requested the United Nations Committee on Terrorism to follow suit, and designate Hekmatyar an associate of Osama bin Laden.
In October 2003, Hekmatyar declared a ceasefire with local commanders in Jalalabad, Kunar, Logar and Sarobi, and stated that they should only fight foreigners.
In May 2006, he released a video to Al Jazeera in which he accused Iran of backing the United States in the Afghan conflict and said he was ready to fight alongside Osama bin Laden and blamed the ongoing conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan on the United States interference.
In September 2006, he was reported as captured, but the report was later retracted.
In December 2006, a video was released in Pakistan, where Gulbuddin Hekmatyar claimed that the fate the Soviet Union faced was awaiting America as well.
In January 2007 CNN reported that Hekmatyar claimed that his fighters helped Osama bin Laden escape from the mountains of Tora Bora five years ago.
In May 2008, the Jamestown Foundation reported that after being sidelined from Afghan politics since the mid-1990s, Gulbuddin's HIG group had recently re-emerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces and the administration of President Hamid Karzai. The re-emergence of this experienced guerrilla strategist came at a propitious time for insurgency, following the killing of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, when some elements of the Taliban were becoming disorganized and frustrated.
HIG claimed responsibility for and is thought to have at least assisted in the April 27, 2008 attempt on the life of President Karzai in Kabul that killed three Afghan citizens, including a member of parliament. Other attacks HIG is thought to be responsible for include the January 2, 2008 shooting down of a helicopter containing foreign troops in the Laghman province; the shooting and forcing down a United States military helicopter in the Sarubi district of Kabul on January 22; and the blowing up of a Kabul police vehicle in March 2008, killing 10 soldiers.
In interviews he demanded all foreign forces leave immediately without any condition. Offers by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with opponents of the government and hints that they would be offered official posts such as deputy minister or head of department, were thought to be directed at Hekmatyar.
In January 2010, Hekmatyar was still considered as one of the three main leaders of the Afghan insurgency. By then, he held out the possibility of negotiations with President Karzai and outlined a roadmap for political reconciliation. In contrast to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and allied insurgent chief Sirajuddin Haqqani, who refused any talks with Kabul as long as foreign troops remained in the country, Hekmatyar appeared less reluctant.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar see Hekmatyar
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