Al-Qudwa, also spelled, al-Qudwah, Kudwah, Qidwa, (Arabic: القدوة) is a famous family of notables in the city of Gaza in the State of Palestine of the Ashraf class (الأشراف) . The family is also known as Arafat (Arabic: عرفات), Arafat al-Qudwa or Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini .

History and background

The family traces its origins to two brothers, Sayed Mohammad bin Yusef al-Qudwa and Sayed Arafat bin Yusef al-Qudwa (the first), who moved in 1658 to Gaza from Aleppo (Arabic: حلب), Syria where the family was also known as "al-Nabhani" and as "al-Nabhani al-Qudwa al-Hussieni" since 1200. Sayed Mohammad bin Arafat al-Qudwa made extensive endowments around 1688, and later his descendants also did. The Qudwas belonged to the Ashraf class, the highest hereditary noble title in the Islamic world.

Family fortunes later included homes and farmland in the vicinity of Jaffa and Jerusalem. In the mid 18th century their assets extended to include endowments and property still owned in Egypt, where a leading Qudwa, Sayed Mohammad bin Arafat (the third), and his two sons, Sayed Abdullah and Sayed Mustafa, had lived (for part of their life times) and managed their business. Sayed Mohammad bin Arafat died in 1774 in Egypt, and his two sons returned to Gaza.

In Gaza, Sayed Mustafa Arafat Al Qudwa was a Naqeeb al-Ashraf, (equal to Archduke: the son or male-line grandson of a sovereign nobleman), of the Hashemite nobility, or the head of the Ashraf class, descendants of Islamic prophet Muhammad in the late 18th century, a post held in the family since 1000 and held in e 20th century by Yasser Arafat.

Sayed Suleiman bin Mohammad bin Naqeeb Mustafa al-Qudwa was elected member of the Gaza city municipality council. His wife was Princess Quoot AlQuloob daughter of Prince Najem Eldeen Basha Altomertash (Chief Justice under the Egyptian monarchy in 1766). Sayed Suleiman left several sons, one of whom, Sheikh Sayed Abdul-Razzaq, was also elected to the city municipality council. Sheikh Sayed Abdul-Razzaq was also a traditionally-trained Islamic scholar who had studied under scholars (Ulema) at the al-Azahar mosques (University) in Egypt; he died in 1872. Sayed Mahmood (d. 1942), the son of Sayed Abdul-Razzaq, served on the council of Awqaf (Endowments), and managed the large Qudwa endowment.

Prominent members

• Yasser Arafat, His full name is Mohammad Yasser Abdul Raouf Dawoud Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussieni, President of Palestinian National Authority, Chairman of PLO, and Laureate of the Nobel Prize
• Fathi Arafat, founder and chairman of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and member of the Palestinian National Council.^[1]
• Moussa Arafat, head of the Palestinian Public Security Service in the Gaza Strip.
• Muhammad al-Qudwa, governor of the Gaza Governorate (1996–2014)
• Nasser al-Qudwa, former Foreign Affairs Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, UN special envoy to Syria.

References