The Nashashibi family

If the Husaynis were Jerusalem’s first family, the Nashashibis were its second — and spent a century refusing to accept the ranking. Historian Muhammad Muslih places the family’s establishment in Jerusalem in the fifteenth century: family tradition points to Nasser al-Din al-Nashashibi, who arrived from Egypt around 1469 and was appointed guardian of the Haram al-Sharif and of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron — a gate of the Haram esplanade still carries his name. Their origins are alleged to be Kurdish or Circassian; Muslih is careful to note this is an allegation, not a documented line. What is documented is their standing in late Ottoman Jerusalem: a wealthy landowning family whose member Uthman al-Nashashibi was elected to the Ottoman parliament in 1912, while Raghib al-Nashashibi, the district’s chief engineer, followed in 1914. One member, Ali Omar Nashashibi — “Bitar Ali,” a veterinary officer in the Ottoman army — went the other way entirely and was executed by Djemal Pasha in Beirut in 1917 as a founder of the pan-Arab Kahtani Society.

Under the Mandate, the rivalry became the stuff of Palestinian politics. When the British dismissed Musa Kazim al-Husayni as mayor in 1920, it was Raghib al-Nashashibi who took his place, and he held the mayoralty until 1934. The two clans did not disagree about ends — stopping Zionist colonization and achieving an Arab state — but about means: the Husaynis rejected the Mandate outright while the Nashashibis preferred to work within it, favoring participation in the proposed Legislative Council and showing openness to the 1937 partition proposal. Raghib founded the National Defence Party in 1934, briefly joined the Arab Higher Committee in 1936, then withdrew; during the revolt his nephew Fakhri organized the anti-rebel “peace bands,” and Raghib himself fled assassination attempts to Egypt. A 1920s editorial in the newspaper Filastin lamented that factionalism had so penetrated society that anyone asked his politics would answer proudly, “Husseini or Nashashibi.”

After 1948 the family made its peace with Amman: Raghib served Jordan as minister, member of the Senate, and the first governor-general of the West Bank before his death in Jerusalem in April 1951. Later generations carried the name into Palestinian public life — Mohammad Zuhdi al-Nashashibi became the Palestinian Authority’s first finance minister in 1994 — and the clan remains, with the Husaynis and Khalidis, one of the three Jerusalem families whose competition defined an era.

Notable members

• Nasser al-Din al-Nashashibi (15th century) — the family’s reputed founding figure in Jerusalem, guardian of the Haram al-Sharif and the Ibrahimi Mosque under the Mamluks.
• Uthman al-Nashashibi — landowner elected to the Ottoman parliament in 1912, the family’s senior notable of the late Ottoman period.
• Raghib al-Nashashibi (1881–1951) — mayor of Jerusalem (1920–34), founder of the National Defence Party, later Jordanian minister and first governor-general of the West Bank.
• Fakhri al-Nashashibi — Raghib’s nephew; organized the “peace bands” that fought the rebels during the 1936–39 revolt.
• Mohammad Zuhdi al-Nashashibi — first finance minister of the Palestinian Authority, 1994–2002.

Sources

• Nashashibi family — Wikipedia
• Raghib al-Nashashibi — PalQuest biography
• Raghib al-Nashashibi — Jerusalem Story biography
• Palestine Factionalism in the National Movement (1919–1939) — PASSIA (PDF)