He is a descendant of the Ottoman general, statesman and Grand Vizier Lala Mustafa Pasha and the penultimate Mamluk ruler Qansuh al Ghuri.

Mardam Bey helped organise the Arab Congress of 1913 in Paris, bringing together reformist groups keen to work towards decentralisation and reform in the Ottoman territories.

Not wishing to create a permanent break up with authorities in Constantinople, the founders did not initially call for complete Arab liberation, but tried to sort out relations with the Ottomans.

Compromises agreed to by the Ottomans were ignored and the CUP appointed governor general of Syria, Camel Pasha made it his mission to clamp down on Arabists and maintain order in Syria[2] The public hanging in Beirut and Damascus on 21 August 1915 and May 6, 1916, of 32 people who had affiliations with Arabist organisations, ended any hope al-Fatat and other reformist organisations may have had to remain within the Ottoman framework.

By May 1916 the British and the French had already made a secret agreement, Sykes-Picot, carving out for themselves their spheres of influence after the anticipated demise of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent loss of territories.

In spite of having ratified the agreement, the British continued to encourage Arabs to revolt against the Ottoman Empire and in exchange, promised them independence at the end of the war.

Backed by the British, Prince Faisal entered Damascus on October 3 and was made head of an Arab military administration which comprised the interior of Syria from Aqaba to Aleppo.

The concluding report that was communicated to the King–Crane Commission in June 1919, pleaded “there be no separation of the southern part of Syria, known as Palestine, nor of the littoral western zone, which includes Lebanon, from the Syrian country."

The San Remo conference in April of that year publicly spelled out the future of the region, and the decimation of lands that for centuries were referred to as Bilad al Sham.

Martial law denied Syrians the right of organized political association[5] so along with other nationalists, Mardam Bey became a member of the Iron Hand Society, an underground movement initiated by Abdelrahman Shahbandar.

On April 5, 1922, Charles Crane (of the King–Crane Commission) came to Damascus and stayed as a guest of Shahbandar for two days, during which time he had meetings with a number of notables, intellectuals, religious leaders, merchants etc.

[8] The People's Party did not charge membership dues so it relied on contributions from its wealthier members such as the landowners and the merchants as well as professional associations such as the Lawyers's Union.

[9] The party leadership was composed of 12 men: Shahbandar (President), Fares el Khouri, Lutfi al-Haffar, Abd el Majid Tabbakh, Abul Khayr al Mawqi, Fawzi al Ghazzi, Ihhsan al- Sharif, Said Haydar, Jamil Mardam Bey, Tawfik Shamiyya and Adib a- Safadi and Hassan al-Hakim..

They were well regarded by the public as being dedicated nationalists ready to pay a price for their political beliefs and membership rapidly grew to over a thousand by the time of the official launch in June 1925.

After spending a few days in a Beirut prison, Mardam Bey was exiled to the Island of Arwad off the coast of Latakia, where he spent a year before being released under a general amnesty.

The two year uprising left at least 6000 Syrians dead and a 100,000 displaced in addition to the destruction of numerous villages and cities, including parts of the capital, bombarded by the French.

In exchange for independence and recognition as a member of the League of Nations (to be granted within 3 years of treaty ratification) France was given economic, and military privileges in Syria .

The objective of the mission was to discuss Alexandretta, speed up ratification of the treaty and to obtain full amnesty for Syrians condemned in the past by French court martial.

Shahbandar had gone to great lengths to secure British support for a plan of a loose confederation of Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Palestine under the Kingship of Amir Abdullah.

In October of that year, Shahbandar's family brought a civil case against Jamil Mardam Bey, Saadallah al-Jabri and Lutfi al-Haffar.

In the course of it the leader of the assassins, Assassa, made a complete confession : their motive in deciding to kill Dr. Shahbandar had been religious, since they regarded him as one of those responsible for the decay of Islam.

The trial ended at the beginning of January, with the condemnation of six persons to death and several others to imprisonment, and the complete exoneration of Jamil Mardam Bey, Lutfi al-Haffar and Saadullah al-Jabiri.

Lebanon was the first to test French proclamations of independence and on November 8, 1943, the Lebanese parliament voted unanimously to amend the constitution by removing all articles that made mention of the mandatory power.

In order to strengthen their hand, Mardam Bey's government had already acquired unconditional recognition of Syrian independence from the United States and the Soviet Union.

Syrian leaders relations with other Arab countries had been strengthened over the years and the Saudi, Iraqi and Egyptian governments watched closely as events unfolded in Syria.

Mardam Bey and al- Jabri were hunted down by the French troops and when they did not find them in parliament, they shelled the Orient Hotel where al-Jabri stayed, and killed a number of foreigners as well as two British officers.

Protest at French action reverberated as the Syrian delegation in San Francisco for the opening of the United Nations and the newly formed Arab league sounded the alarm.

On May 28, 1948, defence minister, Ahmed al Sharabati, resigned three weeks into the 1948 Arab–Israeli War that started when the armies of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon invaded the former territory of the British Mandate of Palestine following the May 15 Israeli declaration of statehood.

Mardam Bey became defence minister and held this position until he resigned from office in December of that year, following the defeat of the Arab armies in Palestine.

In 1954, President Gamal Abdel Nasser delegated Anwar al-Sadat and diplomat Amin Shaker to persuade Mardam Bey to return to Syria and stand for presidential elections.