Ijzim - إجزم: Encyclopedia Of The Palestinians: Biography of Taqyy al-Din al-Nabhan

al-Nabhani, Taqyy al-Din
Spiritual Leader and founder of Hizbu al-Tahrir
1909-1979 Izjim

Born in Izjim, a village south of HAIFA, Taqyy al-Din al-Nabhani studied at al-Azhar University and Dar al-Uum in Egypt, after which he returned to Palestine and held administrative positions in the Islamic court system in Haifa, Hebron! Jaffa, and Jerusalem. Called by the title al-Shaykh, a religious scholar, he was later appointed as a judge in the Islamic courts of Baysan, Hebron, Ramla, and Lydda before fleeing Palestine for Beirut in 1948. Nabhani soon returned to the WEST BANK, where he served as an Islamic court judge in Jerusalem and a teacher in the Islamic College in Amman. 

Nabhani was also an Islamic militant concerned with the Palestine problem. He had joined the Muslim Brotherhood while in Egypt and was active in the movement on returning to Palestine. He also maintained ties with the Palestinian leader AL-HAJJ AMIN AL-HUSAYNI during the PALESTINE MANDATE. During the period of Jordanian rule in the West Bank, however, Nabhani grew critical of the Brotherhood's close links with the Jordanian regime because of its pro-Western leanings. He also thought the Brotherhood's understanding of Islam was "inauthentic."

In November 1952, Nabhani broke with the Brotherhood and established the Liberation Party in Jerusalem. The party advocated Nabhani's vision of a militant, pan-Islamic, and anti-Western struggle for liberating Palestine. Because the party advocated replacing the Hashemite regime with an Islamic government, it was unable to operate legally and Nabhani was arrested. Nabhani left Palestine for Syria in 1953 and moved to Lebanon in 1959. He died and was buried in Beirut in 1979.

Michael. R. Fischbach

The above was quoted from Encyclopedia Of The Palestinians edited by Philip Mattar