Background
Al-Dandashi was born to the wealthy Dandashi clan, a major political family based in Talkalakh.
Al-Dandashi was born to the wealthy Dandashi clan, a major political family based in Talkalakh.
Al-Dandashi graduated from a university in Belgium with a degree in law.
He was one of the founders of the League of Nationalist Action. During his time at the university, he participated in Arab activist circles. After returning to Syria, he established a law office.
Dandashi was became the secretary-general of the LNA. With his leadership position, he built a large power base, consisting of intellectuals, lawyers, and student activists. Under al-Dandashi, the LNA emerged as a more confrontational counterweight to the National Bloc which ultimately favored negotiating Syria's independence from French rule through diplomatic and other non-violent means. According to Syrian historian Sami Moubayed, al-Dandashi was "an impassioned orator and a hard-line Arab nationalist".
Al-Dandashi died in 1935 when he looked out from the window while riding a train and his head subsequently struck a tunnel wall.
In 1932, Dandashi and other Arab intellectuals convened in the Mount Lebanon village of Qarnayel and founded the League of Nationalist Action (LNA), a nationalist political group whose main goal was coordinated Arab action in ending European colonialism in the Arab world. Al-Dandashi's death, the subsequent defection of Zaki al-Arsuzi to the Ba'ath Party and the expulsion of Sabri al-Asali greatly reduced the influence of the LNA in Syrian politics.
