Erdogan surprises Nawaf Salam with a gift bearing the family legacy... the Turkish translation of Salim Ali Salam’s memoirs

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam with a copy of the Turkish translation of the memoirs of his late grandfather, Salim Ali Salam, one of the leading pioneers of the reform movement in Beirut and a prominent political figure in the final years of the Ottoman era, during Salam’s official visit to Turkey.

The prime minister commented on the gift in a post, expressing deep emotion over the gesture and saying it reflected appreciation for the intellectual and political legacy left by his grandfather. He noted that Salim Ali Salam, known as “Abu Ali,” was elected deputy for Beirut to the Ottoman Parliament in 1908 and 1914, and was among the foremost advocates of reform and modernization.

Salam explained that his grandfather played a pivotal role in founding the “Reform Movement in Beirut,” and was also a member of the executive committee of the First Arab Congress, held in Paris in 1913, where he took part in drafting Arab demands calling for administrative decentralization and reform of Ottoman state institutions.

Salim Ali Salam is regarded as one of the figures who left a prominent mark on political and intellectual life in the Levant. He led the “Beirut Reform Society,” which called for granting the Arab provinces broader powers to manage their internal affairs, before the Ottoman authorities moved to shut it down after rejecting those demands.

The late statesman also forged political ties with a large number of Arab and Ottoman figures, including King Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein, Prince Shakib Arslan, Riad Al Solh, Amin al-Husseini, and Shukri al-Quwatli, alongside other Lebanese and Arab personalities who played influential roles during that period.

Salim Ali Salam’s memoirs are of exceptional importance as a direct testimony to the political transformations the region witnessed between the proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution in 1908 and the end of World War I in 1918. They document in precise detail the Ottoman Parliament, the First Arab Congress, and the Reform Society in Beirut, in addition to the behind-the-scenes dynamics of relations with a number of Ottoman leaders and officials.

Today, these memoirs are considered an important historical and political reference, given the information and documents they contain that shed light on a pivotal period in the history of Beirut, Lebanon, and the region, and reveal many facts that have remained of interest to researchers and historians to this day.

Erdogan surprises Nawaf Salam with a gift bearing the family legacy... the Turkish translation of Salim Ali Salam’s memoirs

Erdogan surprises Nawaf Salam with a gift bearing the family legacy... the Turkish translation of Salim Ali Salam’s memoirs

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