Appendix (1): Autobiography

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Autobiography of Professor Dr. AbdulWahab Homad

A. Early Life

He was born in the city of Aleppo, in the Bab al-Nayrab quarter, in 1915.

His father was Mahmoud Homad (1875-1943), and his mother was Asoum al-Nabulsi (died 1962).

His father owned pistachio and olive groves in the southern outskirts of Aleppo, and worked in the wool trade. These lands later became residential properties, known today as the Homad Quarter.

His father sent him to the neighborhood Quranic school, at one of the mosques, as was customary in those days, where he studied the Quran and writing, then transferred him to the (al-Ansariyya) primary school. This transfer was not an easy one, for the "notables of the neighborhood" viewed the official schools with suspicion and wariness, since they taught French, geography, and certain modern sciences they had never heard of, alongside Quranic studies and the Arabic language.

After obtaining his primary certificate, he enrolled as a student at "al-Maktab al-Sultani," the only official secondary school for boys in the city and its surroundings, and completed his studies there, obtaining the Primary Teachers' College certificate in 1936, the Syrian baccalaureate in 1935, and the second baccalaureate (philosophy) in 1936.

He was appointed a primary school teacher, but enrolled at the Institute of Law in Damascus in 1937, completing his first year there, out of a three-year course of study, and left it in 1938 for the University of Paris, to study literature, having secured a government scholarship.

In Paris, he enrolled at the Faculty of Arts (the Sorbonne) and the Faculty of Law. In September 1939, the fires of the Second World War broke out, forcing him to remain in Paris, where he continued his advanced studies until he obtained a licence in Arts and a licence in Law, the diploma of the Institute of Criminal Sciences, and a diploma of advanced studies in criminal law, before earning his doctorate in criminal law in 1944, for his thesis "The Punishment of Political Crime in Comparative Legislation." The Institute of Criminal Sciences undertook to publish this thesis in its own well-known series. He also obtained the University of Paris's approval to write a study of "the poet Hafez Ibrahim and his era," and the thesis was registered under his name toward a doctorate in Arts, though he did not complete it, forced as he was to return home in August 1945, once the raging war had ended and sea travel had become possible again.

Upon his return to Aleppo, he was appointed a teacher of Arabic literature at the secondary school from which he had himself graduated, known today as al-Ma'moun Secondary School, and at the Teachers' College as well, remaining in this post for a single year, before leaving his own city for Damascus at the start of the 1946 school year, as a teacher of criminal law, having succeeded in a general competition for the post.

He was later appointed to the subject's own chair, teaching general criminal law and criminal procedure, and wrote two well-known textbooks in these fields.

Upon his return from Paris, he immediately joined the Aleppo Bar Association, and, after a two-year training period, earned the title of practicing attorney.

In Aleppo, he married Mrs. Amal, daughter of the late Ahmad Sobhi al-Kourani, who had served as an official in Sultan Abdul Hamid's own court in Istanbul, and was later appointed a judge in his own city of Aleppo, after Syria's independence from the Ottoman Sultanate.

He settled with his wife in Damascus, given his own professorship at Damascus University, then the country's only university.

B. Scholarly Activity

Dr. Homad remained a professor at the Faculty of Law in Damascus from his appointment there in 1946 until he resigned to devote himself full time to ministerial work, as a decision issued by the President of the Republic in 1959 required.

This period was interrupted, however, by a decision dismissing him from the university, when Colonel Adib al-Shishakli seized power in 1951 and issued a legal instrument barring professors from political activity, requiring them to swear an oath to this effect. He refused to take this oath, along with some of his fellow professors, and Shishakli dismissed them, doing real harm to legal scholarship in the process.

He was reinstated to his own post in 1954, once legitimate rule was restored and the wretched coup regime brought down.

After the secession took place in 1961, Dr. Homad left the Union ministry for his own home. Once the secession itself fell on 8 March 1963, he was unable to complete his own political career, and Rabat University chose him as a professor of criminal law, at both the licence and doctoral levels, where he remained from 1964 until 1968, and there he taught the history of Morocco's two modern legal codes, in two works published by the Toumi Library (Rabat).

He likewise taught criminal law at Kuwait University from 1968 until 1983, teaching the penal code and the code of criminal procedure there.

Below is a list of his legal works, some reprinted seven times over:

1. La repression de la criminalite politique en droit compare (Pedon, Paris, 1994)

2. Al-Ijram al-Siyasi (Political Crime), a free translation of his own earlier doctoral thesis, published by Dar al-Maaref, Beirut, 1963.

3. Al-Mujaz fi al-Mastara al-Jina'iyya al-Maghribiyya (A Summary of Moroccan Criminal Procedure), Rabat, Toumi Library, 1968.

4. Al-Qanun al-Jina'i al-Maghribi (Al-Qism al-Khas) (Moroccan Criminal Law: Special Part), Rabat, Toumi Library, 1968.

5. Al-Ijram al-Dawli (International Crime), Kuwait University, 1978.

6. Al-Wasit fi Sharh al-Qanun al-Jaza'i al-Kuwaiti (A Guide to Kuwaiti Penal Law), 4th ed., 1978 (published by Kuwait University).

7. Al-Wasit fi al-Ijra'at al-Jaza'iyya al-Kuwaitiyya (A Guide to Kuwaiti Criminal Procedure), 4th ed., 1989 (published by Kuwait University).

8. Dirasat Mu'ammaqa fi al-Fiqh al-Jina'i al-Muqaran (In-Depth Studies in Comparative Criminal Jurisprudence), 2nd ed., Damascus, 1987 (al-Matbaa al-Jadida).

9. Usul al-Muhakamat al-Jaza'iyya (Syrian) (Syrian Criminal Procedure), 4th ed., Damascus, 1987 (al-Matbaa al-Jadida).

10. Al-Mufassal fi Sharh Qanun al-Uqubat (Syrian) (A Detailed Commentary on the [Syrian] Penal Code), 7th ed., Damascus, 1990 (al-Matbaa al-Jadida).

11. A collection of lectures and studies published in Arab journals and in the journal of the Arabic Language Academy.

During his time as a professor, he supervised a number of doctoral and master's theses, and withdrew from all work in 1983, retiring to a life of rest at home, reading, reflecting, and writing.

12. He also recorded the history of Syria before and after independence from France, in several works:

1. Memoirs of an Arab Student at the Sorbonne.

2. Rushdi al-Kikhya: The Ascetic Leader and the People's Party.

3. My Memoirs of the Syrian-Egyptian Union.

4. My Memoirs of the Secession.

5. Works in press:

- Humane Stances

- A Call to Simplify Arabic Grammar

- The Development of Legal Thought on International and Criminal Responsibility

- Contemporary Perspectives on the Independence of Criminal Law

- Contemporary Perspectives on the Development of Islamic Thought

C. Political Activity

Dr. Homad was elected deputy for Aleppo in three consecutive terms:

1. The Chamber of Deputies elected on 17 July 1947, which Za'im Husni al-Za'im dissolved when he carried out his own coup on 30 March 1949, less than three years after the foreign occupation's own withdrawal (17 April 1946). This opened the door to coups for opportunists, and corrupted both military and political life alike.

2. The Constituent Assembly, elected on 15 October 1949, during the era General Sami al-Hinnawi established on 14 August of that same year, following his own coup against Husni al-Za'im's rule, and his execution along with his prime minister, Dr. Muhsin al-Barazi.

This Assembly drafted the first Syrian constitution of the independence era, issued under the signature of its own speaker, the late Rushdi al-Kikhya, on 5 September 1950.

The Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Homad as the constitutional committee's own general rapporteur, and he drafted its text and defended it before the Assembly until it was passed.

In recognition of his own efforts in drafting the constitution on progressive, moderate foundations, the Constituent Assembly asked the government to honor him fittingly, and the government decided to award him the Syrian Order of Merit, First Class, and Prime Minister Dr. Nazim al-Qudsi issued a decision naming him chairman of the State Laws Committee, tasked with reviewing the laws in force and proposing the repeal of any provision at odds with the new constitution.

3. The Chamber of Deputies of 10 September 1954, elected after the fall of Colonel Adib al-Shishakli's own rule, and the restoration of legitimate government to the country.

Colonel Adib al-Shishakli had carried out a coup against the order that had become constitutional, with the constitution's own ratification and the completion of the governmental, administrative, and state apparatus, on the morning of 19 December 1949, arresting members of the government and some deputies, so that President Hashim al-Atassi resigned, and Shishakli took sole power, until he was overthrown on 28 February 1954, restoring legitimate rule to the country, and the elections of 10 September of that same year were held.

This chamber continued in its own work until it approved the Union with Egypt, and was dissolved with the Union's own establishment. Dr. Homad was among the founders of the People's Party in 1948, a party dissolved, along with the other parties, upon the Union's establishment in 1958.

D. Ministerial Posts Held

Dr. Homad held the reins of the following ministries:

1. The Ministry of Education, in Mr. Hasan al-Hakim's own government, from 9 August 1951 to 28 November of that same year. He sent nearly three hundred students abroad to study at universities in Europe and Egypt, allocated on a regional basis, who became, upon their return, strong pillars in establishing Syria's future universities, and it is to him that credit belongs for establishing free secondary education (before a similar decision was issued in Egypt by Dr. Taha Hussein) during his own term at this ministry. This principle of free education was later enshrined in the 1950 constitution.

2. The Ministry of Finance, in Mr. Said al-Ghazzi's own government, from 13 September 1955 to 14 June 1956. During his own tenure at this ministry, he accomplished two major achievements:

The first: printing Syrian paper currency at the Pakistani government's own press, after this currency's printing had long been monopolized by an English press. For the record, Britain was, at that time, scheming against Syria and the Arabs, while Pakistan stood by every Arab cause, the Palestinian cause especially.

The second: concluding a new agreement with the Iraq Petroleum Company, whose pipelines carried Iraqi oil to the Mediterranean. These exhausting negotiations ended in a Syrian victory, raising Syria's own share from 13 million lira a year (achieved under Adib al-Shishakli's own rule) to 65 million a year, along with a sum of 85 million paid in a single lump sum to the Syrian treasury for an earlier period.

3. A second term as Minister of Education, in Mr. Sabri al-Asali's own government, from 14 June 1956 until 31 December of that same year. During this government's own term, the Suez War took place, and the minister sent nearly three hundred more students to American, European, and Egyptian universities, to specialize in various fields.

The merger union between Syria and Egypt was announced, under President Gamal Abdel Nasser, on 1 February 1958, from Cairo, and President Abdel Nasser announced the provisional constitution on 5 March 1958, and, on 6 March, Abdel Nasser formed the Union's own first cabinet.

4. Minister of Justice, in the Union state, from 6 March 1958 to 7 October 1958.

5. Minister of the Treasury, in the Syrian regional cabinet (the Executive Council), which Mr. Nour al-Din Kahhaleh came to chair, this ministry lasting from 7 October 1958 until 16 August 1961.

6. Central Minister of Planning, in the central government formed by merging the two executive councils into a single government, chaired by President Gamal Abdel Nasser, with Cairo becoming the unified state's own capital and the central government's seat. Dr. Homad moved with his own family to Cairo, sending his own children, Maysa, to the Franciscan School for Girls, and Ghassan to the Orman School for Boys, but the secessionist coup destroyed the Union, and with it, this ministry, which had lasted from 16 August 1961 to 28 September 1961, less than a month and a half, came to an end.

With the fall of the Union, Dr. Homad returned with his family to his own home in Syria, to work against the ill-fated secessionist regime.

Once this regime was overthrown on 8 March 1963, a new unionist government was formed the very next day after this coup.

7. Minister of Finance, in the cabinet formed under Mr. Salah al-Din al-Bitar, though he soon submitted his own resignation from it, along with his fellow unionist Nihad al-Qasim. This cabinet resigned on 11 May 1963, and Mr. Salah al-Din al-Bitar's own government later had him arrested for five months, from 20 July until the end of December of that same year.

E. Conferences Attended

1. The Arab League Conference in Cairo, 1955, at which the government of independent Sudan was admitted as a member of the Arab League.

2. The First Congress on the Prevention of Crime, autumn 1955, held by the United Nations in Geneva, where he served as head of the Syrian delegation.

3. His visit to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, as a member of a Syrian parliamentary delegation, summer 1955, less than two years after the death of Joseph Stalin.

4. A special mission to the Vatican in 1956, concerning Palestine.

5. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank Conference, held in Washington, autumn 1959, where he held the title of governor at the World Bank, in his capacity as Minister of Finance.

6. A number of official missions to certain Arab countries.

F. Honors Received

1. The Syrian Order of Merit, First Class, 1951, in recognition of his own efforts in drafting and passing the Syrian constitution of 1950.

2. The Order of the Egyptian Republic, First Class, 1956, awarded to him by President Gamal Abdel Nasser, for national considerations.

3. The Order of the Yugoslav People's Republic, 1959.

G. Detentions

1. He was detained by Colonel Adib al-Shishakli, along with the members of Dr. Maarouf al-Dawalibi's own government, of which he was not a member. His detention lasted three months, in a wing of the military hospital in al-Mazzeh.

2. A month under house arrest, as Adib al-Shishakli's own regime began to totter, which he spent at his own home in Aleppo.

3. He was arrested by Mr. Salah al-Din al-Bitar's own government in 1963, for five months, over political disputes concerning the pursuit of union with Egypt after the secession was overthrown.

H. Membership in the Arabic Language Academy

This academy was once called the "Scientific Academy," founded in 1919, following Syria's separation from the Ottoman state.

During the Union, it merged with the Cairo academy, becoming known as the Arabic Language Academy, and became an independent academy once more after the 1963 secession.

Its full members are chosen by election, among its own full members. Dr. Homad was elected a full member at the academy's session held on 24 November 1990, and a decree confirming this election was issued by the President of the Republic, No. 205, dated 27 May 1990, with his own induction reception held at the Zahiriyah Library hall on the evening of 16 October 1991.

The academy's full members, according to its own roster, number twenty, and the academy also has corresponding members, chosen for their broad mastery of their own fields and their good reputation, including Syrians, other Arabs, and foreigners.

I. His Children

1. His daughter Maysa, born 8 January 1948, holds a licence in French literature from Damascus University, and works as a French language teacher.

2. His son Ghassan, born 11 November 1952, holds a licence in electrical and electronic engineering from Damascus University, and works in the private sector.