Yusuf Dia Pasha al-Khalidi was a prominent Ottoman politician and mayor of Jerusalem in the years 1870–1876, 1878–1879, and 1899-1906.
Early life and education
Al-Khalidi was born in Jerusalem in 1842. His father, Muhammad Ali al-Khalidi, served as the head of the sharia court in Jerusalem for about sixty years. Members of the Khalidi family, one of the two politically prominent, old families of the local nobility, continuously held the office through the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the Husayni clan was larger and wealthier, the Khalidis were more united and noted for their intellect. As a teenager, al-Khalidi may have been influenced by the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. At the age of 17, he wrote of his thoughts about the state of the world, personal dignity and the individual's quest to become free. He viewed the Ottoman Empire as being increasingly surrounded by European powers pilfering the region of its wealth and identified the cause of the situation to be the disparity in knowledge between the region and Europe. Yousef's initial attempt to receive an education in Egypt was unsuccessful and his following attempt to attend a school in Europe was denied by his father. Afterward he and his cousin Husayn left Jerusalem without the family's permission and reached Malta where they were enrolled into the Protestant college through the mediation of the Anglican bishop Gobat of Jerusalem. There, he studied English and French, and then continued to study Semitic languages in the Oriental Academy of Vienna. Yousef's brother Yasin persuaded him after two years in the Protestant college to attend the Imperial Medical School in Constantinople, capital of the Empire. Yousef was dissatisfied with his time at the medical school after a year, finding no "salvation, he enrolled in an American school outside of the capital, Robert College. He remained there for a year and a half before returning to Jerusalem because of the death of his father.
Career
Al-Khalidi played a key role in the opposing political factions established to prohibit the Ottoman Empire's attempts to violate the constitution. He also wrote the first Kurdish-Arabic dictionary. In 1899 he wrote a letter to the Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France in which he stated "Who can deny the rights of the Jews to Palestine? My God, historically it is your country!”, however, he then suggested that, since Palestine was already inhabited, the Zionists should find another place for the implementation of their political goals. "... in the name of God," he wrote, "let Palestine be left alone." Kahn showed the letter to Theodore Herzl, the founder of political Zionism. On 19 March 1899 Herzl replied to al-Khalidi in French assuring him that, if the Zionists were not wanted in Palestine, "We will search and, believe me, we will find elsewhere what we need." Al-Khalidi died on January 25, 1906.
