Hajj Sa'id al-Shawwa ( ar, الحـاج سعيد الشوا) (1868–October 1930) was a

Palestinian Arab Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

politician and the first mayor of Gaza, serving from 1906 to 1917. He was also one of the most influential members of the

Supreme Muslim Council The Supreme Muslim Council (SMC; ar, المجلس الإسلامي الاعلى) was the highest body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandatory Palestine under British control. It was established to create an advisory body composed of ...

from 1921 until his death. He was an opponent of British mandatory rule in Palestine, supporting the Ottomans during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and later the nationalist

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem's Islamic holy places, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The position was created by the British military government led by Ronald Storrs in 1918.See Islamic Leadership i ...

Amin al-Husayni Mohammed Amin al-Husseini ( ar, محمد أمين الحسيني 1897 – 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. Al-Husseini was the scion of the al-Husayni family of Jerusalemite Arab notab ...

Political career

Mayor of Gaza

Al-Shawwa was born into the prominent Shawwa family of Gaza, and his father Mohammed Khalil Al-Shawwa served as the chairman of the Municipality of Gaza when it was founded in 1893. Before entering politics, Sa'id was involved in a career as a grain exporter.Palestinian Personalities - S

Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) was founded in Jerusalem in March 1987 by Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi and a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals. PASSIA is a member of the Palestinian NGOs N ...

(PASSIA). In 1904, he was appointed a member of the municipal council and in 1906, he became the city's first mayor. During his reign as mayor he built a hospital, several mosques and schools in Gaza, and is credited with introducing the modern plow to the city in 1911.Said al-Shawa, 1906
Gaza Municipality. Al-Shawa developed close relationships with the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

during

and was awarded honorary decorations by the Ottoman authorities. His sympathy with the Ottomans during the war caused the victorious

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

to depose him in 1917.

Activity with Supreme Muslim Council

Al-Shawwa represented Gaza at the 1st, 4th and 5th Palestinian National Congress held in 1919, 1920 and 1922. In 1921, shortly after the founding of the

, al-Shawwa was elected as one of the four members of the council's electoral college—the highest-ranking body. He was chosen to represent the Gaza, southern Palestine, and the District of Jerusalem from 1922 to 1929. By then, al-Shawwa was a major landowner in Gaza, as well as

Beersheba Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...

, owning a total of roughly 50,000

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s. In 1926–27, he took charge in the restoration of the

Great Mosque of Gaza The Great Mosque of Gaza ( ar, المسجد غزة الكبير, transliteration: ''al-Masjid Ghazza al-Kabīr''), also known as the Great Omari Mosque ( ar, المسجد العمري الكبير, transliteration: ''al-Masjid al-ʿUmarī al-Kab� ...

after it was mostly destroyed by British bombardment during the World War. Al-Shawwa died in 1930 and was replaced Muhi ad-Din 'Abd al-Shafi, a Muslim scholar and opponent of

al-Husayni Husayni ( ar, الحسيني also spelled Husseini) is the name of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem, which claims descent from Husayn ibn Ali (the son of Ali). The Husaynis follow the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam ...

.Kupferschmidt, 1987, p. 34.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shawwa Effendi, Sa'id Al- 1868 births 1930 deaths Arab people in Mandatory Palestine Mayors of Gaza City Arabs in Ottoman Palestine