The Damascus Seat of Power: Syria's Heads of State, 1918-1946

While recent scholarship has focused on wartime Syria, this book is dedicated to heads of state in the immediate post-Ottoman era until the end of the French Mandate in 1946.

Here, renowned Syrian historian, Sami Moubayed, examines Syria's first eleven heads of state who led the country between 1918 and 1946. With a chapter dedicated to each leader, Moubayed sheds light on the political culture of the time and traces the trajectory of how Syria was governed through colonialism, monarchism and federalism and republicanism. The study draws on numerous archives, political memoirs and first-hand interviews with key figures who were active between the 1930's and 1950's, providing a rich picture of Syrian political culture during this forgotten period.


About the Author
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian chairman of The Damascus History Foundation. He was previously a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is presently a Mohammad Ali Fellow at Durham University. He has written extensively on the modern history of Syria, including The Makers of Modern Syria (2018), Under the Black Flag (2015), and Syria and the USA (2012).