Ali (ibn Sulayman al-Wahsh) al-Assad (1875 - 1963)

Born 1875 in Qardaha, Latakia Sanjak, Ottoman Empire

Descendants

Biography

Ali (ibn Sulayman al-Wahsh) al-Assad is Notable.

Ali al-Assad was a Syrian farmer and tribal leader who was the father of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and grandfather of current president Bashar al-Assad.

Ali was the son of Sulayman ibn Ahmed ibn Ibrahim ibn Sulayman al-Wahsh. His family were members of the Kalbiyya tribe, and resided in Qardaha, an Alawite town in the mountainous Latakia Sanjak of what was then the Ottoman Empire and is today part of Syria.

In the 1920s, Ali assisted refugees fleeing the former Aleppo province when France gave parts of it to Turkey. He was one of the few literate Alawites in his home village, and the only man in his village to subscribe to a newspaper. For his accomplishments, Ali was called al-Assad ("the Lion") by his fellow Alawites, and made the nickname his surname in 1927.

Ali married 3 times and over three decades had eleven children. His first wife Sa'ada was from the district of Haffeh. They had three sons and two daughters. His second wife was Na'isa, twenty years younger than him. She was the daughter of Uthman Abbud from the village of Qutilba. They had a daughter and five sons.

Sources

• Wikidata: Item Q17308760, en:Wikipedia for Ali al-Assad