Ata Bey al-Ayyubi عطا الأيوبي
President of Syria
In office 25 March 1943 – 17 August 1943
Preceded by	Jamil al-Ulshi
Succeeded by	Shukri al-Quwwatli
Prime Minister of Syria
In office 22 February 1936 – 21 December 1936
President	Muhammad Ali Bey al-Abid
Preceded by	Taj al-Din al-Hasani
Succeeded by	Jamil Mardam Bey
In office 25 March 1943 – 19 August 1943
Preceded by	Jamil al-Ulshi
Succeeded by	Saadallah al-Jabiri
Personal details
Born	(1877-03-25)25 March 1877 Damascus,Syria Vilayet,Ottoman Empire
Died	21 December 1951(1951-12-21) (aged 74) Damascus,Syria

AtaBey al-Ayyubi (Arabic:عطا الأيوبي,romanized: ʿAtā al-Ayyūbī; 25 March 1877 – 21 December 1951) was anOttomancivil servant who served as president and prime minister of Syria. Born to a prominentpolitical family ofAl-Ayoubi in Damascus, Syria, he studiedpublic administration in Istanbul, and began his professional career in theOttomancivil service.

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In 1908, he became Governor ofLatakia, a city on the Syrian coast. He took no part in the Ottoman-Arab conflict during the years 1916–1918, but returned to live in Damascus when the Ottoman Empire was defeated in October 1918. In the four-day interlude between the departure of theTurks and the arrival of the Arab army, he created a preliminary government with a group of Syrian notables in Damascus, headed by PrinceMuhammad Said al-Jazairi, an Algerian notable who was living in Damascus.

In July 1920,Prime Minister Ala al-Din Droubi appointed himMinister of the interior. This was during the rule of KingFeisal I of Syria.Al-Ayyubi held office in the wake of theFrench occupation of Syria. He established links with localnationalists andsmuggled arms and funds toSaleh al-Ali, leader of the revolt in the Syrian coast, andIbrahim Hananu, leader of the "Aleppo Revolt". InLatakia, he turned a blind eye to the activities of Omar al-Bitar, refusing, in his capacity as Minister of the Interior, to arrest the rebels, and facilitating their ambushes on French garrisons. He was also minister during the famousBattle of Maysalun where the Syrian army was defeated by the French army of GeneralHenri Gouraud. Ayyubi's colleague GeneralYusuf al-Azmah, the Minister of War, was killed in combat.

In August 1920, a group of armed men tried to kill AtaBey in the province ofHawran in southern Syria. They accused him oftreason for accepting office under the "French Mandate". Theassassination attempt, however, failed at convincing him to step down, and he remained at his post until 1922, after which he became Minister of Justice in the pro-Frenchcabinet of Prime Minister Subhi Barakat, keeping his post until a national uprising took place against the French Mandate in 1925.

In 1928, Ayyubi allied himself with the "National Bloc", the leading anti-French movement in Syria, but did not become an official member. The Bloc called for theliberation of Syria throughdiplomatic means rather than armed resistance. Meanwhile, Ayyubi remained on cordial relations with French authorities. During the 1930s, he served as an intermediary between both sides. In March 1934, he became Minister of Justice in the pro-French cabinet of Prime MinisterTaj al-Din al-Hasani.

Relations between the Bloc and the French deteriorated sharply in 1936, and Bloc leaders called on the nation to go onstrike. The strike crippled commercial life, while hundreds of Syrians were arrested or beaten by theFrench Army. The ordeal, which lasted for sixty days, embarrassed France before the international community. Fearing that the 60-day strike would spread toFrench colonies inNorth Africa, the French government promised to address Syrian grievances, and invited a senior Blocdelegation forindependence talks in Paris, France.

While the Bloc discussed Syria's future, the pro-French cabinet of Prime Minister Taj al-Din al-Hasani was dissolved, and the FrenchHigh Commissioner,Damien de Martel, asked Al-Ayyubi to form an independent transition government to supervise state affairs. The new prime minister managed to form acoalition cabinet that included elements from the National Bloc and the pro-French movement.^[1] When the Bloc returned from France in September 1936, Al-Ayyubi resigned from office, having served for 10-months as prime minister. With the Bloc PresidentHashim al-Atassi, Al-Ayyubi declared an end to the 60-day strike and announced the Bloc's victory in reaching an agreement with France that guaranteed independence for Syria over a 25-year period. This agreemend was ratified by the Syrians but later refused by the French, who feared losing an important colony in the Arab world if World War II broke out in Europe. In March 1943, during World War II, the French GeneralCharles de Gaulle led an Allied offensive in Syria to defeat the Vichy forces stationed in Damascus. Al-Ayyubi became prime minister for another transition period and also appointed himself Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Interior. He supervised presidential elections and left office in August 1943 when PresidentShukri al-Quwatli came to power. He resigned from political life but was honored by the National Bloc when independence was achieved in April 1946. He was hailed as a moderate and a dedicated nationalist.

He is most remembered in Damascus today because of his great palace in the Afif neighborhood and a street named in his honor.

• Itri, Abd al-Ghani. Hadeeth al-Abqariyyat (2000)
• Khoury, Philip. Syria and the French Mandate (1987)
• Moubayed, Sami. The Politics of Damascus 1920–1946 (1999)

• 1877 births
• 1951 deaths
• Arab people from the Ottoman Empire
• Prime ministers of Syria
• Presidents of Syria
• Ministers of justice of Syria
• Foreign ministers of Syria
• Ministers of interior of Syria
• Ministers of defense of Syria
• Mekteb-i Mülkiye alumni
• Al-Ayoubi family
• 20th-century Syrian politicians

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