Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas

A Palestinian Arab military force of volunteer irregulars who defended Palestinian villages and towns from British forces and Zionist militias during the Great Palestinian Revolt of 1936–39 and the 1948 War. Formed by the Palestinian revolutionary leader Abd al-Qader al-Husseini at the start of the 1936 Revolt, this modest Army of the Holy War confronted British forces in several battles. In Islam, one facet of the complex concept of jihad, or struggle, is the defense of Islam from invaders. Al-Husseini, who believed that Western imperialism and colonialism were encroaching on Islamic lands, thus named his army accordingly. While al-Husseini fled Mandate Palestine following the Battle of al-Khader in October 1936, he returned in 1947 and led the army alongside Hasan Salama. The two commanded a larger force of Palestinian volunteers, with Salama patrolling the coastal areas and al-Husseini the Jerusalem area. Known as al-Husseini’s “personal army,” the Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas carried out several successful military campaigns, blockading Jerusalem by attacking Jewish convoys to the city from the coast and attacking Zionist sites in the city. Though there is no official count of the army’s fighters, they are estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 men. Al-Husseini was killed during the Battle of al-Qastal on April 8, 1948, which led to the loss of morale among his men. The force of volunteer Palestinian irregulars who fought for years to protect their villages and towns with minimal weapons and funds gradually dissolved in the summer of 1948. By October 1948, the Arab Legion, under orders from the Jordanian government, disarmed the army.