The organization maintained contacts with the reform movement in the Ottoman Empire and included many radicals and revolutionaries, such as Abd al-Mirzai.

[1] They were closely linked to the Al-Ahd, or Covenant Society, who had members in positions within the military, most were quickly dismissed after Enver Pasha gained control in Turkey.

The three Arab students were Ahmad Qadri of Damascus, Awni Abd al-Hadi of Nablus and Rustam Haidar of Baalbek.

The trio decided to form an underground organization based on the Young Turks' model but with the purpose of protecting Arab rights.

[3] The Administrative Committee, in effect the supreme body of al-Fatat's hierarchy, was established in Paris in 1911 by the organization's original members with the addition of Sabri al-Khawja of Iraq.

Al-Fatat continued to expand and by early 1913, the Administrative Committee was joined by Sayf al-Din al-Khatib, Subhi al-Hasibi, Jamil Mardam, Mustafa al-Shihabi of Damascus, Ibrahim Haidar and Yusuf Mukhaibar Haidar of Baalbek, Rafiq Rizq Sallum, a Greek Orthodox Christian from Homs, and Tawfiq Fa'id and Abd al-Ghani al-Uraysi of Beirut.

The latter owned and edited the Al-Mufid newspaper and provided al-Fatat with a mode for public expression, while Sayf al-Din, Yusuf Mukhaibar and Rafiq Rizq were members of the Istanbul-based Literary Society.

[5] Most delegates to the congress, who were roughly divided between Muslims and Christians mostly from Ottoman Syria, came from the Decentralization Party, one of whose members, Abd al-Karim al-Zahrawi, chaired the summit.

[7] Following the 1913 congress, most of al-Fatat's student founders returned to their homes in Ottoman Syria and the headquarters of the organization was moved to Beirut, with a branch in Damascus.

The movement expanded further with the addition of Shukri al-Quwatli and Muslim scholar and secondary school teacher Kamal al-Qassab of Damascus, and as a result of the merger between al-Fatat and al-Ikhwan al-Ashara (Ten Brothers Society).

In March 1914, the Beirut headquarters decided to adopt a flag for al-Fatat consisting of the colors white, black and green which symbolized the Arab-led caliphates of the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the Fatimids, respectively.

[8] In August 1914, al-Mihmisani and Muhibb al-Din met in Cairo where they agreed that al-Fatat and the Decentralization Party would from then on would coordinate with the Arab Sharifs of the Hejaz.

[10] According to Israeli historian, "apparently the lack of response on the part of the British and perhaps also the relative freedom the Arabs still enjoyed in Syria at that time, before Jamal Pasha's regime, led the society to finally cooperate with the Ottomans.

Nonetheless, al-Fatat's covert political activism escalated and in January 1915, the organization sought the support of Emir Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, to launch a revolt against the Ottomans.

[15] Al-Fatat vocally made clear its opposition to European political influence, asserting in a resolution that Syria "adheres to its absolute independence and unity according to the principles on which the great Arab revolt of [Sharif] Husayn was based".

[21] Prior to the party's formation, many senior Syrian leaders and personalities were sworn in as founders, including War Minister Yusuf al-'Azma, Syrian National Congress chairman Rashid Rida, congressmen Wasfi al-Atassi, Adil Arslan, Subhi al-Tawil and Sa'id al-Tali'a, and Sami al-Sarraj, the editor-in-chief of the Aleppo-based newspaper Al-Arab.

According to Darwaza, one faction, known as "the dissenters" (al-rafidun), rejected European control in Syria per the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement and a Jewish homeland in Palestine per the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

As a result, powerful members such as al-Rikabi and President of the War Council Yasin al-Hashimi regularly ignored the central committee's resolutions and used their influence to impose their own agendas on Emir Faisal's administration.

[23] Prior to the establishment of King Faisal's rule in Damascus, al-Fatat consisted of roughly 70 members, the vast majority of whom were scholars, journalists and professionals.

Its youth are therefore obliged to dedicate their lives to awakening it from this backwardness, and they must consider what will lead to its progress, so that it will attain the meaning of life and preserve its natural rights".