Image Source:
Bassel al-Atasi Archive
The Istanbul-trained lawyer worked with the Great Arab Revolt of 1916-1918 and served as Homs MP and governor during the era of the Arab Government (1918-1920). He also was on the Constitutional Committee charged with drafting Syria's first royalist Charter. In 1925, he was arrested for co-planning the Great Syrian Revolt against the French Mandate, and sent to the Arwad Island Prison, off the coast of Tartous. Two years later, he helped co-found the National Bloc, the leading anti-French political movement, with its president--his cousin, President Hashem al-Atasi. Wasfi al-Atasi died at the age of 52 in 1932.