[3] Abd al-Rahman Azzam's father, Hassan Bey, was born into an upper-class Arab family which became prominent during the first half of the nineteenth century in Shubak al-Gharbi, a village near Helwan (south of Cairo).

[5] According to biographer Ralph Coury, scholars and others have concluded that Azzam's "Peninsular" origins explain his later assumption of Arab identity.

[7] The Azzam household was frequently home to gatherings of the village elite, and he developed an interest in politics at an early age.

[8] In 1903, the Azzam family moved to Helwan to facilitate Hassan Bey's attendance at government meetings in the city.

[12] Unsure of the form that contribution would take, Azzam decided to leave London for the Balkans and spent considerable time in Istanbul, Albania, and Anatolia.

[14] While studying in Cairo, Azzam became disaffected with the British occupation; this revived his desire to leave the country and join the Ottomans.

In December 1915, he left Egypt to join Nuri Bey and a group of Ottoman officers who were leading a Senussi army against the British.

[16] After fighting ceased and Sayyid Idris and the British signed a peace treaty in 1917, Nuri Bey and Azzam moved to Tripolitania in the hope of developing a centralized authority.

Because members of the Azhar and Sidqi ministry were strongly opposed to two of the conference's major agenda items–the creation of a new Islamic university in Jerusalem and restoration of the caliphate–the Egyptian government refused to send an official delegate to the meeting.

Taking an active part in the proceedings, he was elected to the congress' executive committee and discussed Arab nationalism at length.

[22] Azzam's reputation for knowledge of Arab affairs was valued, and he soon became a member of the palace entourage surrounding King Faruq.

One of his first acts as Secretary-General was to condemn the 2–3 November 1945 anti-Jewish rioting in Egypt in which Jewish- and other non-Muslim-owned shops were destroyed and the Ashkenazi synagogue in Cairo's Muski quarter was set ablaze.

He later returned to Egypt where he met J. Rives Childs, and informed him of the Arab decision to discuss Palestine with the United Kingdom which controlled the ground.

[28] However, Azzam visited Paris twice in 1946 and 1951, where he discussed Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco issues which brought him criticism from the French journals.

[29] On 11 May 1948, Azzam warned the Egyptian government that because of public pressure and strategic issues, it would be difficult for Arab leaders to avoid intervention in the Palestine War and Egypt might find itself isolated if it did not act in concert with its neighbours.

"[31] One day after the Israeli Declaration of Independence (14 May 1948), troops and volunteers from Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Transjordan entered Palestine and joined several thousand Palestinians.

[33] In 1961, an Egyptian writer called the quotation "completely out of context": "Azzam actually said that he feared that if the people of Palestine were to be forcibly and against all right dispossessed, a tragedy comparable to the Mongol invasions and the Crusades might not be avoidable ...

[40] Over the next few years, the same partial quotation appeared (with its correct 1947 source) in several books;[41] however, by 1952 many publications (including one by the Israeli government) had moved its date to 1948.

[37] According to historians Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski, Azzam denied that the Egyptian nation was a continuation of Pharaonic Egypt.

Instead, he believed that "modern Egypt had been shaped primarily by 'Arab religion, customs, language, and culture'"[43] and asserted a linguistic basis for Egyptian identification with the Arabs.

[29] In his introduction to The Eternal Message of Muhammad (published by Azzam in Arabic in 1938 as The Hero of Heroes or the most Prominent Attribute of the Prophet Muhammad), Vincent Sheean writes: "In Damascus as well as in Djakarta, Istanbul and Baghdad, this man is known for valour of spirit and elevation of mind ... he combines in the best Islamic mode, the aspects of thought and action, like the Muslim warriors of another time who are typified for us Westerners by the figure of Saladin."

In the book Azzam extols Muhammad's virtues of bravery, love, the ability to forgive, and eloquence in pursuit of the diplomatic resolution of conflict, calling Islam incompatible with racism or fanatical attachment to "tribe, nation, color, language, or culture".