Abdul Hamid al-Zahrawi

A journalist with the Arab newspaper Al Qabas he supported the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a Young Turks movement that carried out a successful coup in 1908.

He attended the Ottoman Law Academy in Istanbul and afterwards wrote for Arab newspapers in Damascus, particularly Al Qabas.

Zahrawi supported the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a group of the Young Turks movement that carried out a successful coup in 1908, introducing democratic reforms and curbing the power of the sultan.

With fellow deputies Shafiq Mu'ayyad al-Azm and Shukri al-Asali he led the opposition to the CUP in parliament.

He chaired the conference and appointed Jamil Mardam Bey, a Syrian student in France, as director of public relations.

[1] Around this time Ottoman general Mahmut Nedim Hendek, a leading Young Turk, cautioned Zahrawi not to agitate too much for reform.

[2] After the First World War began in 1914 Zahrawi unsuccessfully tried to persuade Sultan Mehmed V to stay out of the conflict.