Shukri al-Asali (Arabic: شكري العسلي, romanized: Shukrī al-ʿAsalī; 1868 – May 6, 1916) was a prominent Syrian politician, nationalist leader, and senior inspector in the Ottoman government, in addition to being a ranking member of the Council of Notables.

[9] During his term, he attempted but failed to prevent the sale of the village lands of al-Fula and Afula, amounting to 2,500 acres, by Elias Sursuq to a Zionist activist (see Sursock Purchase).

[10] Al-Asali resigned as qaimaqam to contest a seat in the Ottoman Parliament during a by-election precipitated by the death of Damascene parliamentarian Muhammad Ajlani.

[9][11] The constitution and parliament had been suspended by Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1877 but was reinstated by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) which seized power in 1908; this permitted political activists such as al-Asali an opportunity to express their grievances and nationalist views.

[14] He raised this matter backed by the aforementioned statistics in a parliamentary debate on 5 April 1911 and was lauded for it by activists in Damascus and Beirut and the Syrian community in Cairo.

[16] In August and December 1911, al-Asali renewed his criticism of the CUP, accusing it of wearing the foundations of the empire through its autocratic governance and dismissiveness towards non-Turks.

[17] He later called for some of its leaders and the pro-CUP ex-prime minister Hakki Pasha to face trial for allegedly neglecting their duties to protect Tripolitania province.

[20] Following his defeat, al-Asali founded and became the editor of the ardently Arabist Al Qabas newspaper which first appeared in 1913[21] and called for greater autonomy for the Arabic-speaking provinces of the empire.

[5] Though al-Asali supported the CUP’s secular and modernist reforms of Ottoman society, he opposed their vision of a Turkish-centric culture to be enforced upon the whole empire.

[23] The governor of Syria at the time, Jamal Pasha, stated his wish that al-Asali and other notables arrested “would one day repent”, he allowed the Damascus military tribunal to continue their proceeding despite the absence of any evidence.