A new book tells the story of anti-French occupation revolutionist sheikh Yusuf Al-Saadoun

The Arab Writers Union  recently issued  a new book entitled  “My Memoirs about  Revolution and  Battles”   by the researcher  Dr. Farouk Aslim. The book reviewed  the memoirs and biography of  Sheikh Yusuf Al-Saadoun,  who was one of the most prominent leaders of the  revolution against the French in northern Syria.

The new book revealed  that the France occupation relied a lot on their traitors, who were conveying  everything that happened  in the areas of the revolution which led to fierce clashes between revolutionaries and French occupation which was experienced to great loses.

Al- Saadoun’s memories in the book showed the difficulty of the dilemmas he was exposed to in return for not giving up and his companions, preferring to die over horseback  and in the fields of honor, in addition to what men pledged that none of them would flee to any party until death.

The  prominent  struggler   Al-Saadoun  reviewed  many of the battlefields that took place against the French, such as the Battle of Calans, the Battle of  Al-Abeed  (Slaves), the Battle of Abyan, and others.

The Researcher Aslim shed light on the beginning of the revolution in Jabal al-Arab led by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, then Hassan al-Kharrat , who revolted in Damascus and Muhammad Ezz Eddin  al-Halabi and Muhammad Saeed al-Aas  when they  took over the leadership of Ghouta and the outskirts of Damascus.

He  pointed  out that the Turkish government at that time fortified its borders and established outposts along the Syrian-Turkish border and prevented The Syrian  revolutionaries  from residing near the Syrian border and started chasing everyone who crossed its borders.

The book  also  revealed  the extension of the revolution against  the French colonialist to focus on the battles that took place such as  the battle of Jericho, the battles of Jabal al-Zawiya as well as the harsh conditions that the towns  faced where the revolution intensified.

In the book, the researcher drew attention to the awareness of the popular national leaderships that fought the French mandate, such as Sheikh Saleh Al-Ali, Sheikh Youssef Al-Saadoun, Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash and Hassan Al-Kharrat, in addition to other tracks  that Idlib experienced during the French colonial confrontations.

The author of the 345-page book is  a member of the Executive Office  at the Arab Writers Union  and has many research and  literary works . he is a professor of pre-Islamic literature at the University of Aleppo.

Rawaa Ghanam