Abdelrazak al-Restom al-Dandachi

Who was Abdelrazak al-Restom al-Dandachi?

Abdelrazak al-Restom al-Dandachi Arabic: عبدالرزاق الرستم الدندشي‎ was a Syrian politician. He was a notable figure of nationalism during the 1930s.

He was born in 1899 in Syria to a large feudal family. He enrolled at the University of Damascus in 1927, after high school in Homs. He studied Arabic law before leaving for Belgium where he preparing a doctorate at the University of Brussels. In Europe, he became an active member of the Arab Students Association, a partisan political organization of Arab nationalism.

After his return to Syria in 1933, he founded the "al-Osbet'amal al-Qawmi (عصبة العمل القومي) an Arab nationalist party in which he became the first secretary general. The aim of the party was to terminate the mandate granted to France in Lebanon and Syria by the League of Nations (SDN) following the First World War. He organized the movement of general strikes and called for a boycott of French administration.

On July 5, 1935, at age 35 he found mysteriously killed in Damascus in a streetcar accident.