Yousef al-Khalidi

He was also a governor, translator, professor and prolific writer. He continuously referred to his homeland (watani) as Jerusalem.

• Name — Yusuf Dia Pasha al-Khalidi • Office — Mayor of Jerusalem • Term Start — 1870 • Term End — 1876 • Term Start2 — 1878 • Term End2 — 1879 • Term Start3 — 1899 • Term End3 — 1906 • Born — 1842 • Birthplace — Jerusalem • Died — 25 January 1906 • Alma Mater — Oriental Academy of Vienna • Occupation — Politician • Native Name — يوسف ضياء الدين باشا الخالدي

Al-Khalidi was born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine in 1842. His father, al-Sayyid Muhammad Ali al-Khalidi, served as deputy qadi and chief of the Jerusalem Sharia court secretariat in Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire for about fifty years. Members of the Khalidi family, one of the politically prominent old families of the local nobility (the others being the al-Husayni family and the Nashashibi family), continuously held the office through the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the Husayni family was larger and wealthier, the Khalidis were more united and noted for their intellect. As a teenager, al-Khalidi may have been influenced by the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. At the age of 17, he wrote of his thoughts about the state of the world, personal dignity and the individual's quest to become free, in the context of meditations on why the Ottoman Empire was being increasingly surrounded by European powers pilfering the region of its wealth and identified the cause of the situation to be the disparity in knowledge between the region and Europe. The interests of the country, he argued, could only be defended by dropping frivolous studies and acquiring scientific, historical and philosophical knowledge. Yousef's initial requests to receive an education in Egypt was turned down because he lacked an invitation from that country and his father rebuffed his proposal that he be educated in Europe. Afterward he and his cousin Husayn left Jerusalem without the family's permission and reached Malta where they were enrolled into the Protestant college through the mediation of the Anglican bishop Gobat of Jerusalem. There, he studied English and French. Yousef's brother Yasin persuaded him after two years in the Protestant college to attend the Imperial Medical School in Constantinople, capital of the Empire. Yousef was dissatisfied with his time at the medical school after a year, finding no "salvation, he enrolled in an American Protestant missionary school outside of the capital, Robert College." He remained there for a year and a half before returning to Jerusalem because of the death of his father. Later in life he taught Semitic languages in the Oriental Academy of Vienna, where he also wrote the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary.

Al-Khalidi served as mayor of Jerusalem from the years 1870 to 1876, 1878 to 1879, and 1899 to 1906. Al-Khalidi played a key role in the opposing political factions established to prohibit the Ottoman Empire's attempts to violate the constitution. Al-Khalidi was very familiar with Zionist thought, and the anti-Semitic environment in Europe out of which it emerged. He also perceived the danger Zionism could expose Jews to throughout the domains of the Ottoman Empire. Compelled by a "holy duty of conscience" to voice his concerns that Zionism would jeopardize the friendly associations between Muslims, Christians and Jews, he wrote a letter On 1 March 1899 to Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France, to prevail on Zionists, through Kahn's offices, to leave the area of Palestine in peace. According to Rashid Khalidi (al-Khalidi's great-great-great-nephew), Alexander Scholch and Dominique Perrin, Khalidi was prescient in predicting that, regardless of Jewish historic rights, given the geopolitical context, Zionism could stir an awakening of Arab nationalism uniting Christians and Muslims. On 19 March 1899 Herzl replied to al-Khalidi arguing that both the Ottoman Empire and the non-Jewish population of Palestine would benefit from Jewish immigration. As to al-Khalidi concerns about the non-Jewish majority population of Palestine, Herzl replied rhetorically: "who would think of sending them away?" and concluded ambiguously that "If he (the Ottoman Sultan) will not accept it, we will search and, believe me, we will find elsewhere what we need."

Al-Khalidi died on 25 January 1906.

The authorities additionally record the headings Yusuf Dia Pasha al-Khalidi, Yusuf Ziya el-Halidi, Yusuf Ziya ad-Din Pasha and Yusuf Ziyaeddin Pasha. His recorded languages were Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Turkish and Kurdish. His recorded confession was Islam. Recorded as statesperson, lexicographer, writer, beamter and local government officer.