While formally non-political, the organisation acted as an incubator for the growing Arab nationalist movement.

The organization was founded in 1905 mainly by Abdul Karim al-Khalil, a Shiite from Chyah (present-day Lebanon) who acted as the head of the organisation.

It was an immediate success, swiftly reaching a membership of several thousand, mostly students, with branches in Syria and Iraq.

The 1908 Committee of Union and Progress, Young Turk, revolution promised to implement political reforms and the establishment of a constitutional government across the Ottoman Empire.

In practice the new regime sought to increase central control from Constantinople and to impose Ottoman Turkish as the language of government across the empire.