The Abdul Hadi family

The Abd al-Hadi family built its power in Arraba, a town southwest of Jenin overlooking the plain that bears its name — and built it, literally, in stone: some thirteen fortified palaces, ringed by a high wall with seven towers, raised against the family’s rivals, the Jarrars of Sanur and the Touqans of Nablus. Their moment came with Muhammad Ali’s Egypt. When Ibrahim Pasha occupied Syria in 1831, the Abd al-Hadis stayed loyal, and after the failed 1834 revolt crushed their rivals the Qasims, the family — assisted by the al-Nimrs — governed Nablus and much of the surrounding country until the Egyptian withdrawal in 1840. The restored Ottomans tolerated them for two decades, then moved decisively: Sheikh Hussein Abd al-Hadi’s palace was bombarded in 1858 and Arraba itself destroyed in 1859, the event Beshara Doumani treats as the central government’s reassertion over Jabal Nablus.

Broken as rulers, the family survived as landlords. Their wealth rested on vast holdings in the Jezreel and Dothan valleys and east of Nablus, and as Nablus eclipsed Arraba in importance, family members relocated to the city — Mahmoud Abd al-Hadi, later a regional governor, built the great Abdel Hadi Palace there in 1885. Alexander Schölch’s study of the period still speaks of the “seigneurial palaces” of the Abd al-Hadis in Arraba and Nablus, and of their running contest with the Touqans as the defining feud of the northern hills.

The twentieth century scattered the family across the political spectrum. Awni Abd al-Hadi (1889–1970), born in Nablus and educated at the Sorbonne, was a founder of the secret al-Fatat society in Paris in 1911, general secretary and first president of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party in 1932, and general secretary of the Arab Higher Committee — a lawyerly, moderate nationalist who ended his career as Jordan’s ambassador and minister in Cairo, where he died; his wife Tarab was a noted activist in the Palestinian women’s movement. In the revolt of 1936–39 the family’s name appeared on the opposite side as well: Fakhri Abd al-Hadi, recruited from exile in Syria, commanded one of the principal pro-British “peace bands” raised against the rebels. A note on names: the family is sometimes confused with the Abd al-Shafi family of Gaza — the family of the physician and PLO figure Haidar Abdul Shafi — which is a distinct lineage with a distinct surname, and is not treated here.

Notable members

• Sheikh Hussein Abd al-Hadi (19th century) — the family’s paramount sheikh in Arraba; his palace was bombarded by the Ottoman central government in 1858.
• Mahmoud Abd al-Hadi (19th century) — regional governor who built the Abdel Hadi Palace of Nablus in 1885.
• Awni Abd al-Hadi (1889–1970) — lawyer; founder of al-Fatat and of the Istiqlal Party, general secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, later Jordanian minister and ambassador.
• Tarab Abd al-Hadi (20th century) — Awni’s wife; a leading activist of the Palestinian women’s movement under the Mandate.
• Fakhri Abd al-Hadi (20th century) — commander of one of the main pro-British “peace bands” in the later phase of the 1936–39 revolt.

Sources

• Awni Abd al-Hadi — Wikipedia
• Abdel Hadi Palace, Nablus — Travel Palestine
• Abd al-Hadi Palaces, Arraba — Travel Palestine
• Moshe Ma’oz, Ottoman Reform in Syria and Palestine, 1840–1861 (PDF)
• Beshara Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900 — UC Press E-Books
• Matthew Hughes, “The Peace Bands and the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–9” — Brunel University Research Archive (PDF)