Fuad Hamza

Fuad Hamza (Arabic: فؤاد حمزة), also known as Fuad Bey Hamza, (1899–1951) was a Palestinian who served as Saudi ambassador to France and as King Abdulaziz's adviser and representative. Hafiz Wahba and he were the first ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, the former in the United Kingdom and the latter in France. In addition, they were among the advisers whom King Abdulaziz employed to improve the decision-making process of the state.^[1]

Fuad Hamza
Personal details
Born	Fuad Amin Hamza 1899 Abey, Ottoman Empire
Died	1951 (aged 51–52)
Nationality	Saudi Arabian
Alma mater	American College of Beirut Jerusalem Law School

Early life, origin and education

Fuad Hamza was born in Abey, Lebanon, in 1899.^[2][3] He was from Palestine,^[4][5][6][7] and The Times reported on 1 September 1936 that his family were from Ramallah.^[8] Clive Leatherdale argues that he was a Druze from Lebanon.^[9] Isadore Jay Gold also states that he was a Druze, but from Syria.^[10] Hamza was a graduate of the American College of Beirut and the Jerusalem Law School.^[11]

Career and activities

Hamza worked as a teacher of English in Lebanon, Damascus and Jerusalem in the early 1920s.^[12] He joined the court of King Abdulaziz in Hejaz in December 1926.^[12] He was one of his personal advisers^[13] and first served him as a translator.^[3] Next he was made a member of the political executive committee of Hejaz at the Saudi royal court in 1928.^[12][14] He was appointed deputy foreign minister in 1930 replacing Abdullah Al Damluji in the post, an Iraqi adviser of King Abdulaziz.^[15] The same year Hamza also became a member of the permanent committee attached to the royal diwan.^[12] During this period he worked closely with Yusuf Yasin, another close adviser of the king.^[12] They both accompanied King Abdulaziz in his meeting with Amir Faisal, King of Iraq, in February 1930.^[16]

Following the establishment of the council of deputies (Arabic: Majlis al Wukala) in December 1931 Hamza was made one of its four members as the undersecretary of foreign affairs.^[17] Hamza had connections with the supporters of the Palestinian cause in Jerusalem and Transjordan during this period. Giovanni Persico, Fascist Italy's consul in Jeddah, transferred £5,000 to him to financially aid these groups.^[18] As the undersecretary of foreign affairs Hamza signed an amity treaty on behalf of Saudi Arabia with Egypt in Cairo on 7 May 1936.^[19] Through the treaty Egypt recognized Saudi Arabia as an independent and sovereign state, and diplomatic relations between two countries began.^[19] The same year King Abdulaziz named Hamza as his emissary to the Palestine issue, but Hamza could not attend the meetings due to his illness.^[20] However, Hamza met with David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Zionist and Jewish Agency Executive, at his Beirut home on 13 April 1937.^[11] In this unofficial meeting Ben Gurion attempted to get information about King Abdulaziz's views on the formation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, and Hamza suggested him to meet with Ibn Saud as well as Crown Prince Saud and Yusuf Yasin during the latter's visit to London for the coronation of King George VI.^[11] Hamza visited Germany to negotiate arms sales and met with the Nazi officials in the period 23–27 August 1938.^[21][22]

Hamza was named as the Saudi ambassador to France in 1939.^[10][23] He represented Saudi Arabia in the Vichy Conference and the Ankara Conference held during World War II.^[4] Hamza attempted to coordinate a correspondence between King Abdulaziz and Adolf Hitler in the same period.^[15] In November 1941 the King sent him a telegram stating that his attempts would be harmful for Saudi Arabia, and ordered him to terminate all his relations with Nazi officials.^[24]

Following World War II Hamza was appointed Saudi envoy to the United States.^[25] In 1947 he was named as the minister of development.^[26] He worked at the Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia as deputy minister until his death in 1951.^[15][27] Yusuf Yasin replaced him in the post.^[27]

Personal life, death and work

His brother, Tawfik, also worked at the Saudi royal court.^[28] Hamza died in 1951.^[15][22]

Hamza was fluent in English, Turkish and French.^[29] He wrote several books on Saudi Arabia first of which was published in 1933.^[17] One of his books is about the Arab tribes which was an authentic work on the topic.^[30]

References

1. Joseph Kostiner (July 1985). "On Instruments and Their Designers: The Ikhwan of Najd and the Emergence of the Saudi State". Middle Eastern Studies. 21 (3): 315. doi:10.1080/00263208508700631.
2. Abdullah F. Alrebh (2014). The public presentation of authority in Saudi Arabia during the 20th century: A discursive analysis of The London Times and The New York Times (PhD thesis). Michigan State University. ProQuest 1641132379.
3. Khalid Abdullah Krairi (October 2016). John Philby and his political roles in the Arabian Peninsula, 1917-1953 (PhD thesis). University of Birmingham. p. 351.
4. Mohamed Zayyan Al Jazairi (1968). Diplomatic history of Saudi Arabia, 1903-1960's (MA thesis). University of Arizona. p. 45. hdl:10150/318068.
5. Laurent Murawiec (2005). Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-7425-4278-5.
6. . Asharq Al-Awsat (in Arabic). 6 February 2001. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
7. . Arabi 21 (in Arabic). 15 August 2018. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
8. "Expectancy in Palestine. Varied Feelings". The Times. Jerusalem. 1 September 1936. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
9. Clive Leatherdale (1983). Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: The Imperial Oasis. Abingdon; New York: Frank Cass. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-7146-3220-9.
10. Isadore Jay Gold (1984). The United States and Saudi Arabia, 1933-1953: Post-Imperial Diplomacy and the Legacy of British Power (PhD thesis). Columbia University. p. 22. ProQuest 303285941.
11. Jerald L. Thompson (December 1981). H. St. John Philby, Ibn Saud and Palestine (MA thesis). DTIC. pp. 47–48.
12. Adam Mestyan (2023). Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 191. doi:10.1353/book.113384. ISBN 9780691249353. S2CID 260307818.
13. "The diplomat who said 'No' to Saudi oil". BBC. 8 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
14. Madawi Al Rasheed (2010). A History of Saudi Arabia (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 83. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511993510. ISBN 978-0-5217-4754-7.
15. Alexei Vassiliev (2013). The History of Saudi Arabia. London: Saqi. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-86356-779-7.
16. "Meeting of Arab Kings". The Times. No. 45415. Baghdad. 20 January 1930. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
17. Charles W. Harrington (Winter 1958). "The Saudi Arabian Council of Ministers". The Middle East Journal. 12 (1): 1–19. JSTOR 4322975.
18. Nir Arielli (2008). "Italian Involvement in the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–1939". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 35 (2): 189. doi:10.1080/13530190802180597. S2CID 145144088.
19. "Amity Treaty Signed by Egypt and Arabia". The New York Times. Cairo. 11 May 1936. ProQuest 101898157.
20. M. J. Cohen (April 1983). "Origins of the Arab States' Involvement in Palestine". Middle Eastern Studies. 19 (2): 244–252. doi:10.1080/00263208308700545. JSTOR 4282938.
21. Basheer Nafi (Spring 1997). "The Arabs and the Axis: 1933-1940". Arab Studies Quarterly. 19 (2): 7. JSTOR 41858205.
22. U. Ryad (2006). "From an officer in the Ottoman army to a Muslim publicist and armament agent in Berlin: Zekî Hishmat Kirâm (1886–1946)". Bibliotheca Orientalis. 63 (3–4): 251. doi:10.2143/BIOR.63.3.2017973. hdl:1874/292753.
23. Bernard Lewis; Buntzie Ellis Churchill (2012). Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian. New York: Penguin Group. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-101-57523-9.
24. Matthew Fallon Hinds (July 2012). Anglo-American Relations in Saudi Arabia, 1941-1945: A Study of a Trying Relationship (PhD thesis). London School of Economics. p. 83.
25. "Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)". Office of the Historian. 17 January 1947. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
26. Clifton Daniel (28 July 1947). "Ibn Saud Plans 270 Million Outlay, Financed by U.S. Oil Royalties". The New York Times. ProQuest 196403. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
27. Michael Quentin Morton (2015). "The Buraimi affair: oil prospecting and drawing the frontiers of Saudi Arabia". Asian Affairs. 46 (1): 9. doi:10.1080/03068374.2014.994960. S2CID 159991702.
28. Mohammad A. Al-Harthi (2000). The political economy of labor in Saudi Arabia: The causes of labor shortage (PhD thesis). Binghamton University. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-493-00991-9. ProQuest 304665978.
29. "File 11/44 Leading Personalities in Iraq, Iran & Saudi Arabia' [40v] (81/96), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers". Qatar Digital Library. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
30. Kamran M. Dadkhah (February 1991). "Book review". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 23 (1): 121. JSTOR 163947.