Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
Information
Issam Naji Salem Sissalem was born in Gaza City on February 3, 1930. He is married and has two sons and two daughters. He studied primary school at Imam Al-Shafi'i Secondary School in Gaza and at Al-Amiriya School in Jaffa. He obtained his high school diploma in 1947, a bachelor's degree in law from Damascus University in 1955, a bachelor's degree in history from Beirut Arab University in Lebanon in 1973, a master's degree in Islamic history from Al-Azhar University in 1977, and a doctorate in history and civilization from the same university in 1982.
He worked as a history teacher at Al-Shafi’i School in Gaza, and as a teacher at (Mushtal Al-Hilu) High School in Latakia Governorate, then at (Uyun Al-Wadi) High School in Safita, then at the Khan Al-Sheikh Camp School for Palestinian refugees near Damascus. He contracted with Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and taught at Palestine High School in Gaza, becoming its principal. He worked at the Military College of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense in the field of translation and training between (1968-1989). He also worked as a lecturer in the History Department at Kuwait University, and worked at the Muslim World League (Islamic Cultural Center) in Madrid between (1991-1995). He then moved to work as a lecturer at the Islamic University, and as a lecturer in the postgraduate program at the Faculty of Education at Al-Aqsa University – Ain Shams University program, until he retired in 2003.
Sisalem was culturally active, establishing a weekly scientific and cultural council held every Wednesday afternoon at the Hashemite Library near the Saraya in Gaza. He also participated in the founding of the International University of Palestine in the Gaza Strip and became its chairman of the Board of Trustees in 2008. He has many publications, including books, studies, and historical research. His works include: The Forgotten Islands of Andalusia (The Islamic History of the Balearic Islands) (1984), Lectures on the History of Islamic States (joint, 1997), Jerusalem Through the Ages (1999), The Gaza District in the First Ottoman Era 922-1101 AH/ 1517-1690 AD (joint, 2004), and The History of Palestine in the Middle Ottoman Era (joint, 2010).
Sisalem became involved in national activism in his early youth, joining the National Liberation League in 1949. He was active among teachers and students, and founded the League’s secret student union in 1950. He and Khalil Saleh Awida, a member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, were tasked with traveling to Amman in early 1968 to represent the party abroad. He was elected as a member of the party’s Central Committee after the occupation of the Gaza Strip in 1967.
He was arrested in Mezzeh prison in Syria in 1959 for several months, then arrested again and imprisoned in Gaza Central Prison during the Egyptian rule of the sector.
He died on April 20, 2009.
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