Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Muhammad Ali Al-Taher was born in 1896 in Nablus, and received his initial education in its schools. He worked as a correspondent for the Beirut Fata Al-Arab newspaper in Jaffa.
At the beginning of World War I, he sought refuge in Cairo to escape the injustices of Gamal Pasha, but the British authorities imprisoned him for two years, 1915-1917, in Giza Prison.
When the war ended, he returned to Palestine and participated in editing the Southern Suriya newspaper, which was published in Jerusalem, but persecution by the British forced him to emigrate to Egypt.
He worked in Cairo to form the Palestinian Committee in 1920, assumed its presidency, and wrote about Palestine in several Arab newspapers, warning of the dangers of Zionism and Britain’s efforts to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. He established close relationships with a number of Egyptian nationalists.
In 1924, he published Al-Shura newspaper, which included bulletins from the Palestinian Arab Information Bureau about colonial crimes in Syria and Palestine. It was banned from entering most Arab countries. He was forced to close it and reissue it under different names, including: Al-Raqib, Al-Minhaj, Al-Nas, Al-Jadeed, Al-Shabab, and Al-Alam Al-Masry.
He faced great hardships in Cairo from the British occupation authorities and their agents. He was arrested in 1925 and threatened with expulsion from Egypt. He was arrested again in 1940, and fell ill, so he was transferred to a hospital, where he was able to escape. He remained a wanderer, moving between the regions of Egypt, changing his name and work. He lived for a period in Mansoura under the name Muhammad al-Taji, and for a period in Samanoud under the name of Yaqoub al-Bukhari. When his friend Mustafa al-Nahhas assumed the ministry in 1942, he ordered that he not be pursued. He recorded what he suffered in prison and homelessness in his book, The Darkness of Prison.
He was arrested for the third time in 1949 for a month in Hakstep detention center in Cairo. He left Cairo in 1955 for Beirut.
Muhammad Ali Al-Taher died on August 31, 1972 in Beirut and was buried there.
His name was awarded the Jerusalem Medal for Culture and Arts from the Palestine Liberation Organization, in January 1990.
Publications:
1- Shura’s Views: Thoughts and Articles - Cairo - 1932.
2-The countries of Najd and Hijaz support Palestine, Salafi Press, Cairo, 1937.
3- Memory of Prince Shakib Arslan, Cairo, 1947.
4-Collected papers, Palestinian Information Office, Cairo, 1948.
5- Huckstep Prison: (Memoirs and Notebooks) International Press, Cairo, 1950.
6- The Darkness of Prison (Memoirs and Notebooks of an Escaped Prisoner), Dar Revival of Arabic Books, Cairo, 1951.
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