Michel Aflaq (1910–1989)
Born 1910 CE, died 1989 CE.
Michel Aflaq (Arabic: ميشيل عفلق, romanized: Mīšīl ʿAflaq, Arabic pronunciation: [miˈʃel ˈʕaflaq]; 9 January 1910 – 23 June 1989) was a Syrian philosopher, sociologist and Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba'athism and its political movement; he is considered by several Ba'athists to be the principal founder of Ba'athist thought. Aflaq published various books during his lifetime, such as The Road to Renaissance (1940), The Battle for One Destiny (1958) and The Struggle Against Distorting the Movement of Arab Revolution (1975). Born into a middle-class family in Damascus, Syria, he studied at the Sorbonne, where he met his future political companion Salah al-Din al-Bitar. Aflaq returned to Syria (at that time part of the French-ruled Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon) in 1932, beginning his political career in communist politics. He became a communist activist, but broke his ties with the communist movement when the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party supported colonial policies through the Popular Front under the French Mandate of Syria.
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