Husni al-Za'im

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Husni al-Za'im
حسني الزعيم
9th President of Syria
In office 11 April 1949 – 14 August 1949
Preceded by	Shukri al-Quwatli
Succeeded by	Hashim al-Atassi
23rd Prime Minister of Syria
In office 17 April 1949 – 26 June 1949
Preceded by	Khalid al-Azm
Succeeded by	Muhsin al-Barazi
Personal details
Born	11 May 1897 Aleppo, Aleppo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	14 August 1949 (aged 52) Damascus, Syria
Profession	Statesman, soldier
Military service
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire French Mandate of Syria First Syrian Republic
Branch/service	Ottoman Army  French Army  Syrian Arab Army
Years of service	1917–1949
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	First World War Middle Eastern theatre Great Syrian Revolt 1948 Arab–Israeli War

Husni al-Za'im (Arabic: حسني الزعيم Ḥusnī az-Za’īm; 11 May 1897 – 14 August 1949) was a Syrian Kurdish military officer and who was head of state of Syria in 1949. He had been an officer in the Ottoman Army.^[1] After France instituted its colonial mandate over Syria after the First World War, he became an officer in the French Army. After Syria's independence in 1946 he was made Chief of Staff, and was ordered to lead the Syrian Army into war with the Israeli Army in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The defeat of the Arab league forces in that war shook Syria and undermined confidence in the country's chaotic parliamentary democracy, allowing him to seize power in 1949. However, his reign as head of state was brief, he was tried and executed in August 1949 by his former coup co-conspirators. Al-Za'im infamously executed Lebanese intellectual Antoun Saadeh in July 1949.