Yusuf Yasin

Yusuf Yasin was born in Latakia, Syria, in 1888.{{cite web|author=Joseph A. Kechichian|author-link=Joseph A. Kéchichian|title=The Arab Nationalist Advisor|url=http://www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/middle_east_studies/KechichianNationalist.htm

|work=Sussex. Middle East Studies|access-date=29 November 2020}} His parents were Fatima bint Abdullah Jamal and Shaikh Mohammad Yasin, and his grandfather was Ali Al Masri, probably an Egyptian immigrant to Syria.

Following religious education in Latakia Yasin graduated from the University of Jerusalem in 1911. He was also educated in Cairo where one of his tutors was Rashid Rida.

Yasin worked as a teacher in Jerusalem in the Ottoman period and supported the pan-Arab views during World War I.{{cite news|title=Shaikh Yusuf Yasin|work=The Times|issue=55374|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS252142233/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=bb77d304|access-date=24 February 2023|date=25 April 1962}} He served in the court of Amir Faisal, son of Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz between 1917 and 1918. In 1920 Yasin began to work for Hussein bin Ali in Mecca who sent him to his another son Abdullah, Amir of Transjordan. However, he left Abdullah's service just six months after his appointment. Yasin cofounded a weekly nationalist newspaper in Jerusalem in 1921.{{cite thesis|author=Aida Ali Najjar|author-link=Aida Najjar|id={{ProQuest|288060869}}|title=The Arabic Press and Nationalism in Palestine, 1920-1948|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/288060869|location=Syracuse University|isbn=9781083851468|page=65|degree=PhD

|year=1975}} His business associate was Mohammad Kamil Al Budari, and their paper was entitled Al Sabah.

Yasin left Syria due to the French occupation of the region due to his strong adherence to the independence of Syria and was part of a group called the Istiqlali network which also included another journalist Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli.{{cite book|author=Adam Mestyan|year=2023|title=Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East|publisher=Princeton University Press|pages=176, 190|location=Princeton, NJ; Oxford|isbn=9780691249353|doi=10.1353/book.113384|s2cid=260307818 }} Yasin began to work for the House of Saud in 1923 or in 1924.{{cite book|author=D. van der Meulen|page=141

|title=Wells of Ibn Saud|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJMECwAAQBAJ&pg=PT141|location=Abingdon; New York|year=2018|isbn=978-1-317-84766-3|publisher=Routledge}} Shukri Al Quwatli, future president of Syria, was instrumental in Yasin's new career.{{cite journal|author=Yossi Olmert|title=A false Dilemma? Syria and Lebanon's independence during the mandatory period|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|volume=32|issue=3|year=1996|doi=10.1080/00263209608701118|page=43}}{{cite thesis|author=Sonoko Sunayama|title=Syria and Saudi Arabia, 1978–1990; A Study of the Role of Shared Identities in Alliance-Making|location=University of London|degree=PhD|year=2004

|url=http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2900/|page=29}} Yasin intended to work as a teacher for the sons of King Abdulaziz. He first became the head of the political section of the royal court and private secretary to the King.

Yasin contributed to the establishment of a weekly paper in Mecca, Umm Al Qura, in 1924 of which he became the first editor-in-chief.{{cite news|author=Joseph A. Kechichian|title=Nationalist adviser|access-date=29 November 2020|work=Gulf News|url=https://gulfnews.com/lifestyle/nationalist-adviser-1.748234|date=21 January 2011}}{{cite journal

|author=C. C. Lewis|title=Ibn Sa'ūd and the Future of Arabia|date=July 1933|journal=International Affairs

|volume=12|page=523|issue=4|doi=10.2307/2603605|jstor=2603605}} The paper soon functioned as the official gazette of the country.{{cite web|work=World Digital Library|title=Umm al-Qurá, Number 591, 3 April 1936|url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/16246/|date=3 April 1936|access-date=29 November 2020}} He was made the political secretary of King Abdulaziz in 1926 and then, appointed an adviser to him in the 1930s. He was also head of the press bureau and accompanied the king in his meeting with Amir Faisal, King of Iraq, in February 1930.{{cite news|title=Meeting of Arab Kings|issue=45415|location=Baghdad|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS186589748/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=bce6d53d|access-date=11 August 2023|work=The Times|date=20 January 1930}}

Yasin became a Saudi citizen on 29 December 1930. He suggested the addition of the phrase al-Sa’udiyyah to the name of the country, Al-Mamlakah al-'Arabiyyah al-Sa’udiyyah, known as Saudi Arabia, in 1932. In 1937 he was part of the Saudi delegation who visited London to attend the coronation of King George VI.{{cite thesis|degree=MA

|author=Jerald L. Thompson|title=H. St. John Philby, Ibn Saud and Palestine|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA111290|date=December 1981

|location=DTIC}} The same year while officially visiting Baghdad, Iraq, upon the request of King Abdulaziz Yasin attempted to contact with a German arms company owned by Otto Wolff to buy rifles.{{cite journal|author=Basheer M. Nafi|title=The Arabs and the Axis: 1933–1940

|journal=Arab Studies Quarterly|date=Spring 1997|volume=19|issue=2|page=7|jstor=41858205}} There Yasin also met with Fritz Grobba, Nazi Germany's ambassador to Iraq.{{cite journal|author=R. Melka|title=Nazi Germany and the Palestine Question|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|date=October 1969|volume=5|issue=3|jstor=4282292|page=225|doi=10.1080/00263206908700130}}

Yasin signed the extradition treaty between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on behalf of the latter that established the Saudi–Kuwaiti neutral zone in 1942.{{cite journal|author=Sayed M. Hosni|title=The Partition of the Neutral Zone|journal=American Journal of International Law|date=October 1966|volume=60|issue=4|pages=735–749|doi=10.2307/2196925|jstor=2196925|s2cid=147323918}} The same year Yasin was the Saudi Arabian representative at the Arab League meeting in Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt. He accompanied King Abdulaziz in his meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt on 14 February 1945.{{cite news|title=Charles Claftin sees History in the making

|page=7|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/acton-beacon-aug-17-1945-p-14/|access-date=3 January 2021|work=Acton Beacon|date=17 August 1945}} Yasin signed a treaty of amity on behalf of Saudi Arabia with the Republic of China on 15 November 1946.{{cite thesis|author=Norafidah Binti Ismail|title=The Political and Economic Relations of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), 1949-2010|url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10036/3504?show=full|location=University of Exeter|page=67

|degree=PhD|date=August 2011|hdl=10036/3504}}

Yasin replaced Fuad Hamza as deputy foreign minister in 1951 when Hamza died.{{cite journal|author=Michael Quentin Morton|title=The Buraimi affair: oil prospecting and drawing the frontiers of Saudi Arabia|journal=Asian Affairs|year=2015|volume=46|issue=1

|page=9|doi=10.1080/03068374.2014.994960|s2cid=159991702}} Between 1952 and 1955 Yasin was responsible for Saudi activities in the Buraimi Oasis and was a member of the Buraimi Arbitration Tribunal.{{cite web|author=Roderick Parkes|title=Notes on the Main Characters

|year=1966|url=https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/buraimi-the-struggle-for-power-influence-and-oil-in-arabia/notes-on-the-main-characters

|work=Bloomsbury Collections|access-date=2 January 2021}}{{cite journal|author=J. B. Kelly|title=Arabian Frontiers and Anglo-American Relations|journal=Government and Opposition|date=Summer 1992|volume=27|issue=3|pages=368–384|doi=10.1111/j.1477-7053.1992.tb00417.x

|s2cid=142203406}} Following the death of King Abdulaziz, Yasin served as the state minister and the advisor to King Saud, successor of the king.{{cite book|author=Hermann Eilts|editor=L. Carl Brown|title=Diplomacy in the Middle East: The International Relations of Regional and Outside Powers|year=2004|publisher=I.B. Tauris|location=New York City|isbn=1860648991|page=227|chapter=Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Policy

|author-link=Hermann Eilts|chapter-url=http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/55465/1/161.pdf.pdf}}{{cite thesis

|author=Summer Scott Huyette|title=Political Adaptation in Saudi Arabia: A Study of the Council of Ministers|page=135|degree=PhD|year=1984

|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303285259|id={{ProQuest|303285259}}|location=Columbia University|isbn=979-8-205-88566-9}} It was Yusuf Yasin who made an inauguration speech at the meeting of the council of ministers in the Murabba Palace on 7 March 1954. Yasin was removed from the post of deputy foreign minister by Crown Prince Faisal on 15 May 1958.{{cite thesis|author=Gary Samuel Samore|page=120|year=1984|degree=PhD|title=Royal Family Politics in Saudi Arabia (1953-1982)|isbn=9798641924397|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303295482|location=Harvard University|id={{ProQuest|303295482}}}} Yasin's role as an aide to King Saud continued until his death in April 1962.

Yasin had a pan-Arab stance,{{cite book|author=Joseph Kostiner|editor1=Michael J. Cohen|editor2=Martin Kolinsky|location=London

|title=Britain and the Middle East in the 1930s|year=1992|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-53514-1|pages=137–138|chapter=Britain and the Challenge of the Axis Powers in Arabia: The Decline of British-Saudi Cooperation in the 1930s|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-11880-9_8|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11880-9_8}} and one of his close companions was Rashid Rida, founder and editor of an influential conservative Egyptian publication, Al Manar.{{cite book|author=David Commins|editor1=Bernard Haykel|year=2015

|editor2=Thomas Hegghammer|editor3=Stéphane Lacroix|title=Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change|page=159|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=9781139047586|chapter=From Wahhabi to Salafi|s2cid=126609426

|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139047586|author-link=David Commins|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047586}} As mentioned above Rida was one of Yasin's teachers.{{cite journal|author=U. Ryad|title=From an officer in the Ottoman army to a Muslim publicist and armament agent in Berlin: Zekî Hishmat Kirâm (1886–1946)|journal=Bibliotheca Orientalis|volume=63|issue=3–4|page=251|doi=10.2143/BIOR.63.3.2017973|hdl=1874/292753

|year=2006}} Yasin was a major opponent of the close relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States,{{cite thesis|author=Bruce R. Nardulli|degree=PhD|url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=osu1486549482669078&disposition=inline|title=Dance of Swords: U.S. Military Assistance to Saudi Arabia, 1942–1964|location=Ohio State University|year=2002}} and also, had an anti-British approaches.

Yasin married twice and had eight children, five sons and three daughters. One of his sons, Anas Yasin, was Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, India, and Turkey. His other son, Hassan Yasin, was the advisor to the former Saudi foreign minister Saud bin Faisal Al Saud.

Yusuf Yasin died of cardiac arrest in Dhahran on 19 April 1962.{{cite book|author=Robert Vitalis|page=23|year=2007

|title=America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZW4iR67-3U4C&pg=PR23|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-5446-0|location=Stanford, CA}} However, an Egyptian newspaper Al Akhbar reported that Yasin was badly injured in an assassination attempt and died one day after the incident.{{cite news|title=Death of Adviser to King Saud|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS135488152/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=f3945c2f|access-date=2 November 2023|work=The Times|issue=55373|date=24 April 1962|location=Cairo}}

Joseph A. Kechichian wrote a book about Yusuf Yasin: The Arab Nationalist Advisor. Shaykh Yusuf Yassin of Sa’udi Arabia, which was released in December 2021.

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Category:20th-century newspaper founders

Category:20th-century Saudi Arabian politicians

Category:1888 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:State ministers of Saudi Arabia

Category:Naturalised citizens of Saudi Arabia

Category:People from Latakia

Category:Saudi Arabian newspaper editors

Category:Saudi Arabian people of Syrian descent

Category:Syrian expatriates in Saudi Arabia

Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni