Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi

Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, who lived from July 8, 1854 to June 22, 1902, was a Syrian political and social reformer born in Aleppo who died in Cairo, remembered for his critique of despotism, political corruption and the abuse of religion by unjust governments. He became editor of Aleppo's official newspaper at age twenty two and later founded his own journal, al-Sahba, which criticized Ottoman despotism until authorities shut it down after fifteen issues, and he served as mayor of Aleppo in 1892 before relocating to Egypt in 1899. His most influential works, Taba'i al-Istibdad wa Masari al-Isti'bad, or The Nature of Tyranny, and Umm al-Qura, or Mother of All Villages, are counted among the important texts of Arab reformist thought, advocating separation of state and religion, Islamic constitutionalism, and Arab independence and solidarity, and identifying tyranny as the central malady behind societal backwardness with constitutional democracy as its remedy.