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The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement, by Zvi Elpeleg. London: Frank Cass, 1993. xvi + 181 pages. Notes to p. 200. Appends to p. 214. Chron. to p. 217. Bibl. to p. 230. Index to p. 239. $35.
Zvi Elpeleg, a former military governor in the occupied territories, has attempted to write an objective and original biography of Hajj Amin al-Husseini's entire political career, but, while his tone is non-polemical, his account is seriously flawed. His book covers two distinct periods of the Mufti's life, before and after 1948. The first half covers al-Husseini's family background and his appointments as Mufti and as President of the Supreme Muslim Council. There is very little that is new in the first half, largely because nearly all Elpeleg's sources are secondary works and newspapers. The second half of the book is original and more detailed. Here, he discusses Hajj Amin's relations with Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser, Jordan's King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which, Elpeleg claims, owes its political doctrine to the Mufti.
Elpeleg is correct in crediting the Mufti with bringing the Palestine problem to the attention of the Islamic world, making it a central issue of neighboring Arab countries, and unifying the Palestinians around nationalist objectives. But most of his other conclusions are untenable.
An underlying thesis of The Grand Mufti is found in its subtitle, "Founder of the Palestinian National Movement." Elpeleg concludes that because the Mufti is a symbol of defeat, Palestinian historiography has yet to recognize his place in Palestinian history. Elpeleg is quoted on the book's jacket as stating that the Mufti "is the Weizmann, the Ben-Gurion, even the Herzl of the Palestinian national movement." Most Palestinians would probably wish that he had played just one of these roles.
Theodor Herzl established the World Zionist Congress. The Mufti did...