text_chunks:
 opener on October 26, Harden had 34 points, a career-high 17 assists, and eight rebounds in a 120–114 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, becoming just the second player in NBA history to record at least 30 points and 15 assists in an opener; Tim Hardaway had 32 and 18 for the Golden State Warriors in 1990.On December 14, he recorded 15 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds in just three quarters to lead the Rockets to a 132–98 win over the Sacramento Kings. It was <mask>'s fifth triple-double of the season and the 14th of his career, tying him with Hakeem Olajuwon for most in franchise history. He set the franchise record two days later with his sixth triple-double of the season and 15th of his career. In the Rockets' 122–110 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, <mask> helped the team set an NBA-record with 24 three-pointers, as he finished with 29 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. On December 23, he tied a career high with 17 assists in a 115–109 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. On December 30, he recorded his seventh triple-double of the season with 30 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a 140–116 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. On December 31, 2016, <mask> recorded yet another triple-double with 53 points, 17 assists and 16 rebounds in a 129–122 win over the New York Knicks, becoming the first player in NBA history to finish with a 50-15-15 stat line.He tied Wilt Chamberlain for the most points in a triple-double in NBA history—Chamberlain pulled the feat during the 1967–68 season, with 53 points, 32 rebounds and 14 assists. Harden set career highs for points and three-pointers (with nine) and matched his career best for assists. It was his 17th career triple-double and his fourth career 50-point game. Two days later, he recorded his ninth triple-double of the season in a win over the Washington Wizards and was named Western Conference Player of the Week for a third time. It was <mask>'s 12th Player of the Week honor, matching Hakeem Olajuwon for the most Player of the Week awards in franchise history. Harden's career-best December run earned him Western Conference Player of the Month honors. His 10th and 11th triple-doubles came in back-to-back games on January 8 and 10, both resulting in wins.His two performances saw him become the fourth player in NBA history with at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in consecutive games—Pete Maravich, Michael Jordan and Russell Westbrook are the three others to do it. His 12th and 13th triple-doubles came in back-to-back games on January 15 and 17. On January 27, he recorded his 14th triple-double of the season with 51 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists in a 123–118 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, becoming the first player in NBA history with multiple 50-point triple-doubles in a season. On February 3 against the Chicago Bulls, Harden scored his 10,000th point as a Rocket, passing Yao Ming for sixth place in franchise history. On February 11, he scored 40 points in three quarters (his ninth 40-point game of the season) to help the Rockets win 133–102 over the Phoenix Suns. He played just 29 minutes against the Suns to become the first Rockets player since Sleepy Floyd in 1991 to score 40 points in less than 30 minutes. On February 15, he recorded his 15th triple-double of the season with 38 points 12 rebounds and 12 assists in a 117–109 loss to the Miami Heat.Between March 12 and 18, he had four straight triple-doubles, giving him 19 for the season. He finished the regular season with 22 triple-doubles and became the first player in NBA history to finish the regular season with at least 2,000 points (2,356), 900 assists (907) and 600 rebounds (659). He placed second in league MVP voting to former teammate Westbrook. In Game 5 of the Rockets' second round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs, Harden recorded his second career postseason triple-double with 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 110–107 overtime loss; the loss saw the Rockets go down 3–2 in the series. The Rockets were eliminated by the Spurs with a 114–75 loss in Game 6. Harden capped his stellar season by tying a season low with 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting before fouling out with 3:15 left. 2017–18 season: MVP season
On July 8, 2017, <mask> signed a four-year contract extension with the Rockets for approximately $160 million, giving him a total six-year deal with $228 million guaranteed—the richest contract in NBA history.On November 5, he scored a career-high 56 points in a 137–110 win over the Utah Jazz, falling just shy of Calvin Murphy's 57-point franchise record set in 1978. <mask> joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to have at least 10 assists and shoot better than 75 percent from the field in a 50-point performance. On November 16, he had 23 of his 48 points in the second quarter while the Rockets scored 90 points in the first half en route to a 142–116 win over the Phoenix Suns. The Rockets made 61 percent of their first-half shots to get the second-most points in a first half in NBA history. He went on to become the first player in team history to score at least 20 points in each of the team's first 20 games of a season. Harden was named Western Conference Player of the Month for games played in October and November, marking the fifth time <mask> has received the honor, all coming as a Rocket. On December 9, he scored 48 points to help the Rockets rally from a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 124–117, scoring at least 20 points in each of Houston's 24 games, becoming only the second player to accomplish such a feat since the 1990–91 season.On December 20, despite <mask>'s 51 points, the Rockets were defeated 122–116 by the Los Angeles Lakers, ending their 14-game winning streak. <mask> set a franchise record by scoring at least 20 points in his 30th straight game. The previous record was held by Malone, who did it in 29 straight games in the 1981–82 season. Two days later, <mask> had a second straight 51-point performance in a 128–118 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. It was <mask>'s third 50-point game of the season and he became the first player in franchise history to have two straight 50-point games. He also became the first NBA player to score 50 or more in consecutive games since Kobe Bryant did so in four straight in March 2007. On December 31 against the Lakers, <mask> scored 40 points before leaving with a hamstring injury late in the fourth quarter.Without Harden, the Rockets won 148–142 in double overtime. The following day, he was ruled out for two weeks with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. He missed seven games as a result. On January 26, he had 23 points and 11 assists in a 115–113 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. <mask> moved into second in Rockets history in assists with 3,347, passing Allen Leavell's 3,339. On January 30, in a 114–107 win over the Orlando Magic, <mask> became the first player in NBA history to score 60 points as part of a triple-double, finishing with 10 rebounds and 11 assists for his third triple-double of the season. Harden scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to eclipse the 57 points Calvin Murphy scored in 1978 to break Houston's single-game scoring record.It was his fourth 50-point game of the season and bested his previous career high of 56 points set in November against Utah. On March 25, he helped the Rockets reach 60 wins in a season for the first time in franchise history, recording a triple-double (fourth of season, 35th of career) with 18 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in three quarters in a 118–99 win over the Atlanta Hawks. The Rockets finished the regular season as the No. 1 seed for the first time in franchise history, with a franchise-best 65–17 record. Harden won his first scoring title, averaging 30.4 points per game, second in franchise history to Malone's 31.1 in 1981–82. In Game 1 of the Rockets' first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Harden scored 44 points in a 104–101 win. In Game 1 of their second-round series against the Jazz, Harden scored 41 points in a 110–96 win.It was his sixth 40-point playoff game of his career. In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, <mask> scored 41 points in a 119–106 loss to the Golden State Warriors. In Game 4 against the Warriors, <mask> scored a game-high 30 points to help the Rockets even the series at 2–2 with a 95–92 win. In Game 6, he recorded 32 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in a 115–86 loss. Despite a 32-point effort from Harden in Game 7, the Rockets were eliminated from the playoffs with a 101–92 defeat. In June, <mask> was named the NBA Most Valuable Player for the 2017–18 season, becoming the third player in franchise history to receive the award, joining Moses Malone (1978–79 and 1981–82) and Hakeem Olajuwon (1993–94). That same month, he was voted the National Basketball Players Association's MVP for the 2017–18 season, earning the honor for a second time.2018–19 season

The Rockets started the season with an 11–14 record. By the end of December, Harden had carried the Rockets to a 21–15 record with fellow All-Star Chris Paul out with a hamstring injury. On January 11, he had 43 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in three quarters to lead the Rockets to a 141–113 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also made eight 3-pointers to extend his NBA record to 12 games in a row with at least five. It was <mask>'s 13th game of the season with 40 points, surpassing Malone's franchise record, and his seventh in the previous nine games as he continued to carry the team with Paul and Eric Gordon out with injuries. In the following game on January 13, Harden scored 38 points but was just 1 for 17 on 3-point attempts in a 116–109 loss to the Orlando Magic. On January 14, he scored 57 points in a 112–94 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.On January 16, he scored 58 points in a 145–142 overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets. On January 23, he scored a career-high 61 points to go with 15 rebounds in a 114–110 win over the New York Knicks, thus setting the fourth-longest streak for 30-point games in NBA history at 21—at the time, Wilt Chamberlain held the three longer streaks (65, 31 and 25). With 37 points on January 29 against the New Orleans Pelicans, Harden extended his streak of 30-point games to 24 and had his 11th straight game with at least 35 points. With 30 points against the Denver Nuggets on February 1 and 43 points against the Utah Jazz on February 2, Harden set the third-longest streak in NBA history for games with 30-plus points. With 42 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on February 13, Harden scored 30 or more points for the 31st consecutive game, tying Chamberlain for the second-longest streak in league history. On February 21, in the Rockets' first game after the All-Star break, Harden scored 30 points against the Los Angeles Lakers for his 32nd consecutive game with 30-plus points. After missing the Rockets' next game with an illness and a strained neck, his return game on February 25 saw him score 28 points against the Atlanta Hawks, snapping his 32-game streak with at least 30.On February 28, he scored 58 points in a 121–118 win over the Miami Heat. On March 19, he scored 31 points in a win against the Hawks and became the first player in NBA history to score 30 or more points against all 29 other teams in a single season. On March 20, he scored 57 points in a 126–125 overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, marking his seventh 50-point game of the season. Two days later, he matched his career high with 61 points, including 27 in the first quarter, to lead the Rockets to a 111–105 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. For these performances, he received his fourth Western Conference Player of the Week honor of the 2018–19 season. On March 31, Harden had 50 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a 119–108 win over the Sacramento Kings to record his ninth 50-point game of the regular season. It was his fifth career 50-point triple-double, the most of any player in NBA history.He also became the ninth player in NBA history to make 2,000 3-pointers in their career. After a 135–103 victory against the Los Angeles Clippers on April 3, he became the third person in NBA history to record 2,700+ points and 500+ assists in a single season. In a 149–113 blowout win against the Phoenix Suns on April 7, Harden's 30-point, 13-rebound, nine-assist, and two-steal performance matched and broke several records: he tied Kobe Bryant for the most 30-point games in one season for any NBA player in the past 30 years with 56 games; became the second player in NBA History (Michael Jordan, 1989–90) to record 2,700 points, 500 assists, and 500 rebounds in one season; and joined Michael Jordan as the only player to average at least 30 points, seven assists, five rebounds and two steals in one season. He finished the season with the largest scoring margin (8.1 points per game) over the second-leading scorer since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962–63. Harden led the Rockets to a Game 2 win against the Utah Jazz with 32 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists—his third career triple-double during the postseason—to give the Rockets a 2–0 series lead in the first round. In Game 3 against the Jazz, he had one of the worst shooting nights of his career when he started the game 0-of-15, a figure breaking the NBA playoff record for most missed consecutive shots without a make in a game since Michael Jordan went 0-of-11 in an 87–80 loss against the Miami Heat in the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals. However, he finished the game with 22 points on 3-of-20 shooting, 10 assists, six steals, and four rebounds to lead the Rockets to a 104–101 win, putting the series at 3–0.The Rockets went on to lose 4–2 to the Warriors in the conference semifinals. At the season's end, he was unanimously selected to his fifth All-NBA First Team, and he was announced a finalist for the MVP award. 2019–20 season

After a disappointing start to the season shooting 28.6% from the field and 15% from the three-point line in the first three games, Harden scored 59 points on 18–32 shooting from the field, along with nine assists in a 159–158 win against the Washington Wizards on October 30, 2019—two points away from his career-high. With this game, Harden extended a streak of having a 50-point game in 6 straight seasons, the 2nd-longest streak in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain (10 straight seasons, 1959–69). On November 11, 2019, he was named the Western Conference's Player of the Week after the Rockets went 3–0, Harden recording a double-double in each game and averaging 40.7 points, scoring 22 3-pointers on 43.1% shooting; 9.3 assists; 8.0 rebounds; 2.33 steals; and 1.33 blocks. Harden has scored a total of 334 points in 318 minutes of play this season, the highest total through the first nine games of a season since Michael Jordan scored 337 in 1988–89. Harden, at this point in the season, hit 39 3-pointers, marking the fourth-highest total through the first nine games of a season and the most by a player besides Stephen

masks: Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden Harden


text_chunks:
 Curry.On November 30, 2019, in a 158–111 blowout win against the Atlanta Hawks, <mask> got his fourth career 60-point game—tied for third-most with Michael Jordan—with a season-high 60 points along with 8 assists in 31 minutes. With this game, Harden joins Klay Thompson and Kobe Bryant as the only players to hit 60 points in just three quarters. His 24 shot attempts are the fewest ever in a 60-point game in NBA history. <mask> is currently the only active player who has scored 60 points more than once. On December 11, 2019, <mask> got his fourth 50-point game of the season with 55 points on an efficient 20-of-34 field goal shooting and 10-of-18 from three in a 116–110 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He became the fourth player in NBA history with multiple games of 10 or more 3-pointers, joining Stephen Curry (15), Klay Thompson (5), and J.R. Smith (3). He continued his scoring rampage in the following 130–107 win against the Orlando Magic on December 13, 2019, where he got his second 50-point game in a row—the third time in his career where he has scored back-to-back 50-point games—with 54 points on 19-of-31 field goal shooting and 10-of-15 from three, in addition to seven assists, and five rebounds.In this game, <mask> became the second player in NBA history to score 10+ 3PM in consecutive games, joining Stephen Curry, who did this in February 2016, and he also passed Paul Pierce for eighth in the all-time career three-pointers made list. He also became the first player in NBA history to have 50+ points and 10+ 3PM in back-to-back games. Before those last two performances, only three times had a player attempted seven or less free throws while scoring 54 or more points in a game; Harden did it twice that week. On December 21, 2019, <mask> passed Elgin Baylor for most 40-point games in NBA history with 40 points a 139–125 win against the Phoenix Suns. He became the Western Conference player of the month for December for his historical and efficient scoring tear during the month. He finished the decade as the NBA's leading scorer with 19,578 points going back to January 1, 2010 despite beginning his career as a sixth man with the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the Rockets’ first game after the suspension of the season due to COVID-19, <mask> became the second highest scorer in franchise history after a 49 point, 9 rebound, 8 assist, 3 steal, 3 block, and 1 turnover performance on 70% shooting from the field in a 153–149 comeback overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks.He also became the only player in NBA history with the most consecutive seasons with 20+ games scoring 40+ points since Wilt Chamberlain. He became the league's scoring champion for the third season in a row and the league leader in total steals. He additionally became a finalist for the MVP award and was named to the NBA's All-Seeding First Team. Houston was eliminated from the playoffs in the second round by the Lakers. 2020–21 season
During the off-season, general manager Morey and head coach D'Antoni left the Rockets. Harden demanded a trade in November 2020, and reported to training camp late. On December 26, he put up a season-high 44 points and tied a career-high 17 assists in a 128–126 overtime loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.Brooklyn Nets (2021–2022)

2020–21 season
On January 14, 2021, <mask> was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in a four-team deal which involved the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers, sending Rodions Kurucs, Dante Exum, Victor Oladipo, four first-round draft picks and four first-round pick swaps to the Rockets. On January 16, he recorded 32 points, 12 rebounds and 14 assists in a 122–115 win over the Orlando Magic, becoming the first player in franchise history and the seventh player in NBA history to log a triple-double in their team debut. Harden also set the record for being the first player in NBA history to post a 30-point triple-double debut performance, while also setting a franchise record for the most assists in a player's first game with the Nets. On February 2, <mask> earned his first Eastern Conference Player of the Week honor, after logging a double-double average with 25.3 points and 11.3 assists over three games. On February 19, Harden posted a double-double with 23 points and 11 assists in a 108–98 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, becoming the first player in franchise history to log a double-double in eleven consecutive games. On February 22, <mask> was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week, after leading the Nets to four straight wins. He averaged 31.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 10.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game.The following day, <mask> was named an Eastern Conference reserve for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, marking his ninth consecutive All-Star selection. On March 1, <mask> logged his seventh career triple-double as a Net with 30 points, 15 assists and 14 rebounds in a 124–113 overtime victory against the San Antonio Spurs, giving the franchise their first win in San Antonio in 19 years. In his efforts, <mask> became the first player in league history to post a 30–15–10 stat line with zero turnovers in a game since individual turnovers were first tracked during the 1977–78 season. The following day, <mask> was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for the month of February. The honor was the eleventh of his career and first as a Net, making him the first Net to win the award since Vince Carter in April 2007. <mask> led the franchise to an Eastern Conference-best 9–4 record in February, recording averages of 25.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, an Eastern Conference-leading 10.7 assists and 1.2 steals in 36.8 minutes per game. On March 13, <mask> logged his ninth triple-double as a Net with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 100–95 win against the Detroit Pistons, surpassing Larry Bird on the league’s all-time scoring list.He now sits at 34th overall with 21,792 points, one more point than Bird. On March 15, <mask> registered his tenth triple-double as a Net with 21 points, 15 assists and 15 rebounds in a 117–112 victory against the New York Knicks, becoming the first player in franchise history to log at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in a game. On March 17, <mask> posted a season-high 40 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists in a 124–115 win over the Indiana Pacers, joining Carter as the only Nets players with a 40-point triple-double. He also became the fourth player in NBA history with 100 40-point games and became second all-time in 40-point triple-doubles with 16, behind only Oscar Robertson who had 24. In his efforts, Harden’s first two points of the game give him 21,815 points in his career, moving him past Gary Payton into 33rd overall in the league’s all-time scoring list while his fourth assist of the first quarter was the 5,637th of his career, moving him past Chauncey Billups into 45th place in the NBA's all-time assist leader. On March 26, <mask>, who missed a game against the Utah Jazz due to neck soreness, returned to the Nets and logged a season-high 44 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists in a 113–111 win over the Detroit Pistons. On March 29, <mask> logged his twelfth triple-double in 32 games as a Net with 38 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists in a 112–107 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves, tying Jason Kidd’s franchise record for triple-doubles in a season who did it twice in 80 and 51 games, respectively.On April 1, <mask> was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for the month of March. The honor was <mask>'s second as a Net, becoming the first player in league history to earn Player of the Month honors in each of his first two full months with a new team since the award's inception in 1979–80. He also set a record for being the first player in franchise history to earn Player of the Month honors in consecutive months. <mask> led the Nets to an NBA-best 11–2 record in March, recording averages of 27.9 points on 43.8 percent shooting from the field and 87.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line, 9.8 rebounds, 11.5 assists, 1.6 steals in 38.8 minutes per game. <mask>'s franchise-record six triple-doubles of the month carried the Nets into first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2003. After missing 18 games due to a strained hamstring, <mask> returned to action on May 12. Coming off the bench for the first time since 2012, Harden posted a double-double with 18 points and 11 assists in a 128–116 win over the San Antonio Spurs.In Game 5 of the first round of the playoffs, <mask> posted a triple-double with 34 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a 123–109 win to close out the series. In the first minute of Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the conference semifinals, <mask> re-injured his hamstring and missed the remainder of the game, as well as the next three games of the series. <mask> made his return in Game 5 of the series, a 114–108 comeback win. In Game 7, Harden had 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists in the 111–115 overtime loss. 2021–22 season
On October 22, 2021, <mask> put up 20 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in a 114–109 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, moving past Kyle Korver for fourth on the all-time three-pointers made list. On November 12, Harden had a season-high 39 points, 5 rebounds and 12 assists in a 120–112 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. On November 19, Harden recorded 36 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists in a 115–113 win against the Orlando Magic.On December 14, <mask> entered health-and-safety protocols, causing him to miss the next three games. <mask> made his return against the Los Angeles Lakers on December 25, where he recorded 36 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 blocks in the 122–115 win. On December 27, Harden had 39 points, 8 rebounds and a season-high 15 assists in a 124–108 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. On January 15, 2022, Harden had 27 points, 8 rebounds and tied a season-high 15 assists in a 120–105 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. On January 21, Harden scored 37 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 11 assists in a 117–102 win over the San Antonio Spurs. On February 3, <mask> was named an Eastern Conference reserve for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, making his tenth straight All-Star selection. Philadelphia 76ers (2022–present)
On February 10, 2022, Brooklyn traded <mask> and Paul Millsap to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and two first-round selections.On February 25, <mask> made his Sixers debut, putting up 27 points, 12 assists, and eight rebounds in a 133–102 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the following game on February 27, <mask> logged his 68th career triple-double and first as a Seventy Sixer with a season-high 16 assists to go with his 29 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals in a 125–109 win against the New York Knicks. He became the first player in NBA history to record 25 plus points and 10 or more assists in his first two games with a new team. Player profile

Standing at 6 feet 5 inches tall (1.96 m) in shoes and weighing 220 pounds (100 kg), Harden plays mostly at the shooting guard position, but he is capable of playing the point guard position. He is the highest all-time left-handed scorer in NBA history. With season averages of over 25 points per game since the 2012–13 season, Harden is considered one of the most versatile and dangerous scorers in the NBA. ESPN named him the 5th best shooter in the NBA throughout the entire 2010s decade.He possesses a wide array of offensive moves; two of the most prominent among them being his Euro step and his step-back jumper. Since his trade to the Houston Rockets in the 2012–13 NBA season, he has scored the most points in the NBA. He is the all-time NBA leader in unassisted three-point makes. He has also gained notoriety for his ability to exploit league rules in order to more efficiently draw fouls and get to the free throw line, from which he is a career 85.7% shooter. He is the all-time leader in 3-point shooting fouls drawn, and he has led the NBA in free throw attempts and makes every year since the 2014–15 season. He is also the all-time leader in completed four-point plays, passing Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford with his 54. Though primarily a scorer, he is also known for his playmaking ability, orchestrating the Rockets' offense with his elevated assist numbers.During the early portion of the 2016–17 season, Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni played Harden at point guard, which resulted in him averaging over 10 assists per game for the first time in his career. He is also the all-time franchise leader in assists for the Rockets. While he has garnered acclaim for his prowess on the offensive end, Harden has built a reputation as a poor defender. Criticism of his defense intensified in early 2014, when a video titled "<mask>: Defensive Juggernaut" featuring eleven minutes worth of clips of Harden conceding field goals, was circulated on the Internet. During the 2014 offseason, he committed to an improvement on defense, which manifested as early as August of that year as a member of the United States men's national basketball team. His improved defense carried over to the following season, and has been cited as a major reason for the Rockets' regular season success. Another negative aspect of his game that is sometimes brought up by pundits are his turnovers.Harden set the NBA record for turnovers during the 2015–16 season and broke it again the following season. National team career

<mask> was a member of the United States national team that won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, and was also a member of the team that won the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014. Harden was a candidate for the 2016 Olympics, but he withdrew from the team. Before his birth, after that of his older sister, their mother suffered a string of miscarriages. <mask> is a Christian. He has talked about his faith, saying, "I just want to thank God for everything he has done in my life". Harden started growing his trademark beard in 2009 after being too lazy to shave.His beard has appeared in songs and T-shirts, and it earned him an endorsement and a unique candy with Trolli's where a depiction of his face and beard was shown on each gummy. On August 3, 2015, the sports apparel company Adidas submitted an endorsement deal to Harden worth $200 million over the next 13 years. On July 18, 2019, Harden became a part owner in Houston's professional soccer teams; the Houston Dynamo of MLS and the Houston Dash of NWSL. Harden explained his decision by saying "Houston is my home now, and I saw this as a way to invest in my city and expand my business interests at the same time" as well as "This is my city and I'm here to stay". Politics
On October 4, 2019, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey issued a tweet that supported the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. Morey's tweet resulted in the Chinese Basketball Association's suspension of its relationship with the Houston Rockets. <mask> later apologized to China, saying: "We apologize.We love

masks:
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden
James Harden
Harden
Harden
Harden


text_chunks:
<mask> (;  1235 – 24 March 1284), also called <mask> of Antioch-Lusignan and the Great, was the king of Cyprus from 1267 and king of Jerusalem from 1268. Born into the family of the princes of Antioch, he effectively ruled as regent for underage kings <mask> of Cyprus and <mask> of Jerusalem for several years. Prevailing over the claims of his cousin <mask> of Brienne, he succeeded both young monarchs upon their deaths and appeared poised to be an effective political and military leader. As the first king of Jerusalem to reside in the kingdom since the 1220s, <mask> tried to restore the royal domain, reassert royal authority over the increasingly independent mainland vassals, and prevent further loss of territory to the Egyptian Mamluks. Marital alliances brought to him steadfast loyalty of the most powerful noble families, the Ibelins and the Montforts, but his efforts on the mainland were doomed to failure by the hostility of the Venetian merchants and the Knights Templar. His insular vassals, on the other hand, resented his determination to deploy Cypriot armies in defense of the Crusader states. In 1275 he failed to establish himself as regent of the County of Tripoli.Most problematically, <mask>'s right to the throne of Jerusalem was challenged by his aunt Maria of Antioch, who sold her claim to Charles I of Anjou in 1277. With the support of the Venetians and the Templars, Charles promptly took Acre, the last city on the mainland that belonged directly to the king. After two unsuccessful attempts to regain Acre, <mask> died in Tyre, a mainland city held by the loyal Montforts. He was succeeded by his son John I. Background
<mask> was the son of Isabella of Cyprus and Henry of Antioch, who married  1233. Isabella was the sister of King Henry I of Cyprus, while <mask>'s father was the youngest son of Prince Bohemond IV of Antioch. <mask>'s maternal grandmother, Alice of Champagne, was an unsuccessful claimant to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.As the heir presumptive to her grandnephew King Conrad II of Jerusalem, she was selected to rule the kingdom as regent in 1243. She died in 1246 and the regency passed to her son, Henry I of Cyprus, passing over the claim of her half-sister Melisende of Cyprus. King Henry ruled the mainland kingdom as regent until his death in 1253. <mask>'s mother brought him up along with his cousin <mask> of Brienne, son of her deceased older sister, Maria. He married Isabella, a member of the House of Ibelin, who were the leading nobility of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The marriage, or at least a betrothal, took place in 1255, when a dispensation was issued. <mask> was handsome and charming, but disadvantaged by his bad temper and tactlessness.Regency

<mask>'s mother, Isabella, was the aunt of the young King <mask> of Cyprus and his closest relative of royal blood. The king's mother, Plaisance of Antioch, ruled on his behalf as regent until her death in 1261. Isabella then stood to assume the regency as <mask>'s heir presumptive. She ceded the regency to her son, <mask> of Antioch, who proved to be an able ruler. As <mask> II was also heir presumptive to King <mask> of Jerusalem, who lived in Europe, he was entitled to govern the Kingdom of Jerusalem as regent. But since he was a minor, that regency needed to be exercised by his next of kin, and Isabella accepted that role in 1263. Isabella died in 1264, and a dispute arose between <mask> of Brienne and <mask> of Antioch.The former claimed that he should now exercise the regency in Jerusalem because his mother was older than <mask> of Antioch's. But, as regent of Cyprus, <mask> of Antioch could contribute more militarily to the dwindling mainland kingdom, and was better connected, being the first cousin of Prince Bohemond VI of Antioch as well as being married into the powerful Ibelin family. The High Court of Jerusalem ruled that, since the contenders were equally close relatives of the young king, the elder of them should have priority, and that was <mask> of Antioch. Being chosen as regent effectively marked <mask> of Antioch as the heir presumptive of <mask> II. As regent, <mask> considered it his duty to defend the Crusader states. He was the first ruler of Cyprus in over a decade to deploy Cypriot army in defense of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. His army, however, came too late to prevent the Mamluk ruler of Egypt, Baibars, from conquering Caesarea Maritima, Arsur, Haifa, Safed, Toron, and Chastel Neuf.<mask> likely focused on reinforcing the defence of Acre, the sole remaining royal city on the mainland. Reign

Accessions

14-year-old King <mask> died in December 1267, not having reached majority, and was duly succeeded as king of Cyprus by his cousin and regent <mask> of Antioch (<mask>). <mask>'s coronation took place in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Nicosia on 25 December 1267. In May 1268 the new king sailed to Acre to be recognized as the formal regent, and thus heir presumptive, of <mask> of Jerusalem. The High Court was prepared to accept him, but he was surprised to find his claim challenged by his aunt Maria of Antioch. She insisted that she had the better claim to regency due to being a nearer relative of Conrad; whereas <mask> was a great-grandchild of their common ancestor, Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem, Maria was a grandchild. Maria's case was legally stronger and, unlike <mask>, she had come prepared for debate.<mask>, however, was a more desirable choice, as he was a man, experienced in government, and with troops at disposal. Earlier in 1268 Baibars had conquered Jaffa, Beaufort, and Antioch, which prompted the High Court to rule in <mask>'s favour. On 29 October 1268, Conrad was executed in Naples by the orders of Charles I of Anjou, who had conquered Conrad's Kingdom of Sicily. <mask> thus became king of Jerusalem too. Instead of appointing a bailli to rule his new kingdom on his behalf, <mask> divided his time between Cyprus and Acre. For the first time since the 1220s the mainland kingdom had a resident monarch. Policy
The barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem had grown independent from royal authority during the reigns of the absentee kings.<mask> tried to improve the system of government, introducing an inner council and the use of a privy seal, both likely imports from Cyprus. The regents had alienated much of the royal domain through legally tenuous grants, which became invalid on <mask>'s accession. The most notable cases were the grants of the lordships of Arsur to the Knights Hospitaller, Sidon to the Knights Templar, and Tyre to Philip of Montfort. <mask> refused to accept this as a fait accompli, but was willing to compromise to find solutions. His policy centred on fostering close relations with the Montforts, a powerful family which held the important city of Tyre. With Philip he reached an agreement providing that <mask>'s sister, Margaret, would marry Philip's son John, to whom Philip would cede Tyre, and that <mask> would enfeoff John and his descendants by Margaret with Tyre. The agreement enabled <mask> to be crowned, despite Maria's protests, on 24 September 1269 by the bishop of Lydda in the Cathedral of Tyre, where kings and queens of Jerusalem had been crowned since the loss of the city of Jerusalem in 1187.In June 1271, Acre became exposed when Baibars' conquered the Montfort Castle to its north-east. He immediately made an unsuccessful attempt at raid on Cyprus. At that time, the English prince Edward took a small army of about 1,000 men on a a crusade to the Latin East, arriving in Acre on 9 May 1271. Edward was soon disillusioned by the uncooperativeness of the local Christians. Baibars' failed attack on their island had disturbed Cypriot knights, who refused <mask>'s summons to serve on the mainland. They argued that the king could not expect them to fight for him outside Cyprus. Edward was called on to arbitrate.Their disobedience was humiliating for <mask>. It was decided that the knights could be commanded to serve abroad for four months each year if led by the king or his son. Edward helped <mask> raid Baibars' territory, and early in 1272 <mask> secured a truce, after which Acre remained at peace until 1291. Edward left on 16 June 1272. The only lay fief on the mainland other than Tyre was Beirut, held by Isabella of Ibelin. Her husband, Hamo le Strange, distrusted King <mask> and put her and her fief under Baibar's protection on his deathbed in 1273. As a female vassal, Isabella was legally required to marry one of three candidates presented to her by the king.Wishing to attract a capable knight to the East by offering her hand in marriage, <mask> took Isabella to Cyprus. Baibars demanded that she be returned to Beirut, and as the High Court offered no support, <mask> relented. The king did not resume control over Beirut until long after Baibars died. Despite some successes, in the end <mask> found it impossible to be more than "king of Acre", as Muslim writers called him. Bohemond VI, the last prince of Antioch, died in 1275, leaving two children, Bohemond VII and Lucia. Bohemond VII inherited the County of Tripoli from his father, but he was a minor. King <mask> arrived in Tripoli to claim regency as the closest adult scion of the ruling family.Bohemond VII's mother, Sibylla of Armenia, had already established herself as regent, however, as was her right according to family custom. <mask> found no support in Tripoli. He only won a minor diplomatic victory when he negotiated with Baibars a truce covering Latakia, preserving the last remnant of the Principality of Antioch. Baronial opposition

<mask> succeeded in mending the rifts between his lay vassals, the Ibelins and the Montforts, but the merchants of Venice and Genoa were irreconcilable. The Venetians in particular were aggrieved by his preferential treatment of the Genoese. The Templars and the Teutonic Knights objected to his own rapprochement with Philip of Montfort, while the commune of Acre resented the renewed royal involvement in its affairs and the favour shown to Tyre. Though he disliked him, the grand master of the Templars, Thomas Berard, never openly challenged <mask>.But William of Beaujeu, elected to succeed Thomas Berard in 1273, proved determined to undermine the king. <mask>'s chief problem, however, was the persistence of his aunt Maria in claiming the throne of Jerusalem. <mask> sent procurators to answer her appeal to the Holy See in 1273, but she was already entertaining the sale of her claim to Charles of Anjou, whose ambition to dominate the Mediterranean <mask> had feared since 1269. Charles had the support of William of Beaujeu, his kinsman. As the ruler of Sicily and brother of the celebrated crusader King Louis IX of France, he rivalled what <mask> could offer militarily and diplomatically. Charles was also personally hostile to <mask>, encouraging Maria's claims to Jerusalem and <mask> of Brienne's to Cyprus. Indignant at the opposition he faced, <mask> suddenly packed up his belongings and left Acre for good in October 1276.The final straw was the purchase of a village near Acre by the Templars, for which they deliberately did not seek the king's approval and ignored his complaints. The Templars and the Venetians were pleased to see him go, but the decision stunned the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights, and the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Thomas of Lentino. They sent delegates to Tyre, where the king had retired with the intention to sail to Cyprus, begging him to at least appoint a bailli. It took the intercession of his brother-in-law John of Montfort to make the angry king appoint an administrator, Balian of Ibelin. King <mask> immediately embarked and went to Cyprus, from where he justified his action to Pope John XXI. The sale of Maria's claim to Charles was concluded, with papal approval, in March 1277. Within weeks Charles's representative Roger of San Severino arrived in Acre to claim government, facing no opposition from <mask>.Roger proclaimed Charles king of Jerusalem and demanded that the barons do homage to him as Charles's bailli. To preserve a sense of legality, the barons twice asked <mask> to absolve them from their allegiance to him, but he refused to answer. The holders of the most important lordships, John of Tyre and Isabella of Beirut, continued to recognize <mask> as their legitimate king. Struggles for Acre
<mask> attempted twice to reoccupy Acre but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1279 he brought a large Cypriot army to Tyre, hoping that a display of strength and bribery would be enough to restore his authority over the city. John of Montfort was on his side, but William of Beaujeu's enduring opposition to <mask> frustrated the plan. Upon returning to Cyprus, he seized the Templars' properties and destroyed their fortifications in reprisal.The Templars complained to the pope, who asked <mask> to restore their property, but he declined. Though restricted since 1277 in his ability to support the mainland against the Mamluks, <mask> may have planned to assist the Mongols in their attempted invasion of the Mamluk-held Levant. 1282 saw the recall of Roger of San Severino due to a major uprising on Sicily against Charles, as well as the death of Isabella of Beirut and the consequent passing of her lordship to her sister, Eschiva, whose husband, Humphrey of Montfort, was a close friend of <mask>'s. Thus encouraged to try again to retake Acre, <mask> sailed from Cyprus in late July 1283 with his sons Henry and Bohemond. Instead of landing at Acre, <mask> was blown to Beirut, where he was welcomed on 1 August. While his army marched to Tyre, they were ambushed by Muslim raiders, whom the king believed to have been incited by the Templars. <mask> reached Tyre by sea, encountering bad omens: his standard fell into the sea, and the cross carried by the assembled clergy accidentally cracked the skull of his Jewish court physician.<mask> waited in vain to be welcomed to Acre. Charles's new bailli in Acre, Odo Poilechien, had just concluded a truce with the Mamluks, and <mask> may have feared their intervention if he attacked. The king lost his most promising son, Bohemond, on 3 November 1283. An even more serious blow was the death of his friend and brother-in-law, John of Montfort. The Cypriots left him after the agreed period of four months expired, but <mask> remained in Tyre, where he died on 24 March 1284. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, John I, who died the next year and was followed by another son, Henry II. Issue
With his wife, Isabella of Ibelin, <mask> had eleven children:

References

Sources

1235 births
1284 deaths
13th-century kings of Jerusalem
Kings of Cyprus
Christians of Lord Edward's crusade
Burials at Saint Sophia Cathedral, Nicosia
House of Poitiers-Lusignan

masks:
Hugh III
Hugh
Hugh II
Conrad III
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh II
Hugh II
Hugh
Hugh
Conrad III
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh II
Hugh
Hugh III
Hugh III
Conrad III
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh
Hugh


text_chunks:
<mask> (May 2, 1882 – June 11, 1971) was a Puerto Rican activist who helped pave the way for Puerto Ricans to be given United States citizenship. As a young unwed pregnant woman, <mask> had her plans to find and marry the father of her unborn child derailed by the United States Treasury Department when she was excluded as an alien "likely to become a public charge" upon her arrival in New York City. <mask> challenged the Government of the United States in the groundbreaking case Gonzales v. Williams (192 U.S. 1 (1904)). Officially the case was known as <mask>les, Appellant, v. William Williams, United States Commissioner of Immigration at the Port of New York No. 225, argued December 4, 7, 1903, and decided January 4, 1904. Her case was an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, filed February 27, 1903, after also having her Writ of Habeas Corpus (HC. 1-187) dismissed.Her Supreme Court case is the first time that the Court confronted the citizenship status of inhabitants of territories acquired by the United States. <mask> actively pursued the cause of U.S. citizenship for all Puerto Ricans by writing letters published in The New York Times. Early years
<mask> was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico when the island was still a possession of the Spanish Crown. Therefore, she was a native inhabitant of Puerto Rico and a Spanish subject, though not of the Peninsula (Spain). Her parents were Severo <mask> and Antonia Dávila. She was residing in the island on April 11, 1899, the date of the proclamation of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 which ceded the island to the United States. One of the conditions of the treaty was to transfer by cession the allegiance of the islanders to the United States.<mask> was a citizen of Puerto Rico, but not of the United States even though the island was governed by that nation. <mask>'s fiancé traveled to New York City in 1902, leaving her behind, pregnant and with another child from a previous marriage (she was a widow). He went with the intention of finding a job in a factory in Linoleumville, Staten Island, in the neighborhood where <mask>'s brother <mask> worked. <mask> was to join her fiancé there and they were to marry after he found a place to live. Situation in Puerto Rico pre-1904
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 which was ratified on December 10, 1898, Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States after the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain had lost its last colony in the Western Hemisphere. The United States established a military government which acted as both head of the army of occupation and administrator of civil affairs.Almost immediately, the United States began the "Americanization" process of Puerto Rico. The U.S. occupation brought about a total change in Puerto Rico's economy and polity and did not apply democratic principles in their colony. Puerto Rico was classified as an "unincorporated territory" which meant that the protections of the United States Constitution — including the right of citizenship — did not automatically apply, because the island belonged to the U.S., but was not part of the U.S.

On January 15, 1899, the military government changed the name of Puerto Rico to Porto Rico (On May 17, 1932, the U.S. Congress changed the name back to "Puerto Rico") and the island's currency was changed from the Puerto Rican peso to the American dollar, integrating the island's currency into the U.S. monetary system. The United States exerted its control over the economy of the island by prohibiting Puerto Rico from negotiating commercial treaties with other nations, from determining tariffs, and from shipping goods to the mainland on other than U.S. carriers. Opposition to U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans
There were various factors which contributed to the opposition of giving United States citizenship to Puerto Ricans by the Government of the United States. The U.S. Congress was reluctant to fully incorporate Puerto Rico because its population was deemed racially and socially inferior to that of the mainland. In 1899, a letter published in the New York Times described Puerto Ricans as: "uneducated, simple-minded and harmless people who were only interested in wine, women, music and dancing."Prior to 1898, the United States had organized new acquisitions from non-tribal governments into largely self-governing territories as a prelude to statehood and had generally extended broad constitutional protections and U.S. citizenship to free, non-tribal residents. After 1898, this process changed and in Puerto Rico, Congress established a centrally controlled administration and declined to recognize Puerto Ricans as U.S. citizens. In the Downes v. Bidwell case of 1901, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that the U.S. Constitution functioned differently in Puerto Rico from the way it did on the mainland. Justice Edward Douglass White  introduced the concept of unincorporated territories and reasoned that, unlike prior territories, Puerto Rico had not been incorporated by Congress or by treaty into the U.S. union. It was thus "foreign to the United States in a domestic sense", that is, foreign for domestic law purposes, yet also part of the United States under international law. The decision permitted the establishment of unequal, undemocratic polities in such territories, did not demand that those territories eventually be incorporated, and granted wide latitude to Congress and the executive in structuring those polities. <mask> travels to New York City

In August 1902, <mask> boarded the S.S. Philadelphia, a small Red D Line steamship that departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the Port of New York as its destination.She sent a telegram to her family about her expected arrival, which normally would be at the docks of New York. But, while the S.S. Philadelphia was en route, the United States Treasury Department's Immigration Commissioner General F. P. Sargent issued new immigration guidelines that changed <mask>'s and her fellow countrymen's status to that of aliens. Gonzalez and the others arrived on August 4, 1902, and were transferred to Ellis Island. The new commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island was William Williams, a former Wall Street lawyer. He was aggressively leveling the statutory bar on those aliens "likely to become a public charge", and he was strictly enforcing immigration laws. Williams directed inspectors to treat aliens as suspect if traveling with less than ten dollars. He also instructed his inspectors to attach the label of "public charge" to unmarried mothers and their children, even though most of them had jobs waiting for them.Ellis Island policy dictated that "unmarried pregnant women were always detained for further investigation" and that single women were released only if family members came to claim them. <mask> was detained by the Immigration Commissioner at that port as an "alien immigrant", in order that she might be returned to Puerto Rico if it appeared that she was likely to become a public charge. Gonzalez had eleven dollars in cash on her person and her family was to pick her up, however the immigration officials discovered her pregnancy during her early line inspection and a Board of Special Inquiry opened a file (note: her surname was later misspelled as "Gonzales" by immigration officials) on her. Board Hearings

A hearing was held the next day and <mask>'s uncle, Domingo Collazo, and her brother, <mask>, joined her (her fiancé was not permitted to miss his job). During the hearings, the family focused on the question of preserving <mask>'s honor and bringing her to New York. Inspectors weighed proof of legitimate family relations against presumptions that certain kinds of women were inadequate mothers and certain kinds of men were insufficient fathers and husbands. Williams said:
It will be a very easy matter to fill up this country rapidly with immigrants upon whom responsibility for the proper bringing up of their offspring sits lightly, but it cannot be claimed that this will enure to the benefit of the American people.Two days later, without help from the father of <mask>'s expected child, <mask>'s brother and Domingo Collazo's wife, Hermina Collazo (Hermina was <mask>'s aunt, or the sister of <mask>'s mother, Antonia Davila), tried to assure the court they could help <mask>. The family insisted that Gonzalez would not be a burden to the State's Welfare system since they had the economic means to support her. These attempts failed, in part because <mask>'s fiancé failed to appear at the hearing. The immigration authorities placed emphasis on his absence in its decision to stop her from entering the mainland US. Collazo drew on his political and professional connections. In the 1890s, he had been active in the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico, a radical wing of the Cuban Revolutionary Party that sought an Antillean social revolution to improve the status of workers and people of African descent. He had attended meetings with the Antillean activists Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and Rosendo Rodríguez.Collazo swore a habeas corpus petition for <mask>. A friend of <mask> related the story to Orrel A. Parker, a lawyer. His partner Charles E. Le Barbier became interested in the case and filed Collazo's petition with the U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York. Seven weeks later, the court issued its opinion, ruling that the petitioner was an alien and upholding her exclusion. United States Supreme Court: Gonzales v. Williams

On August 30, 1902, Federico Degetau, an expert in international law and the first Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to the United States House of Representatives, unaware of the Gonzalez situation, wrote to the Secretary of State in protest of the new rules that made Puerto Ricans subject to immigration laws. His protest was forwarded to the Treasury Department.Degetau then contacted Le Barbier and Parker, who informed him that they planned to appeal Gonzalez's case to the Supreme Court. Once <mask> lost her administrative appeal, she switched tactics. She decided to appeal and to take her case to the United States Supreme Court, however this time instead of focusing on the "public charge" issue, she decided to take up the issue that all Puerto Ricans were citizens of the United States and as such should not be detained, treated as aliens and denied entry into the United States. Degetau saw in the case of <mask> the perfect "test case" because now it would not be about whether immigration inspectors, following guidelines suffused with concepts of race and gender, deemed <mask> and her family desirable. The case now would be about settling the status of all the native islanders who were in existence at the time the Spanish possessions were annexed by the United States. By February 16, 1903, Frederic René Coudert, Jr., an international law attorney from New York, who launched the Downes v. Bidwell case for clients protesting tariffs levied on goods shipped between Puerto Rico and the United States, joined Paul Fuller, Charles E. LeBarbier and Degetau in the Gonzalez case as a collaborator. The case, which became known as Gonzales v. Williams, was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4 and 7, 1903, with Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller presiding.The case sparked administrative, legal, and media discussions about the status of Puerto Ricans. It also questioned the issues of immigration and U.S. doctrines in the treatment of U.S. citizens, chiefly women and people of color (dark-skinned). <mask> and her lawyers moved among the legal realms, aided by shared languages of race, gender, and morality, while the U.S. solicitor general Henry M. Hoyt, focused on what he considered were failed parents, rearing children outside moral, economically self-sufficient homes. <mask>, who was out on bond, secretly married her fiancé and thus became "a citizen of this country through marriage", and acquired the right to remain stateside. She could have ended her appeal, but instead she decided to press her claim that all Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens. On January 4, 1904, the Court determined that under the immigration laws, <mask> was not an alien, and therefore could not be denied entry into New York. The court, however declined to declare that she was a U.S. citizen.The question of the citizenship status of the inhabitants of the new island territories, and their situation remained confusing, ambiguous, and contested. Puerto Ricans came to be known as something in between: "noncitizen nationals". Aftermath
<mask> had five children. She married Juan Francisco Torres on November 17, 1915, and stayed in New York until the 1930s when they moved to New Jersey (1930 Cranford Township NJ Census). She actively pursued the cause of U.S. citizenship for all Puerto Ricans because she believed that if the people of Puerto Rico were deceived out of one honorable status—Spanish citizenship—the United States was obliged to extend Puerto Ricans a new honorable status—U.S. citizenship. She wrote published letters in The New York Times that the decision and surrounding events of her case revealed that the United States failed to treat Puerto Ricans honorably, breaking promises to them and marking them as inferior to "full-fledged American citizens".<mask> wrote the following:

Federico Degetau traveled to Washington, D.C., as Puerto Rico's first "Resident Commissioner", or nonvoting representative. He dedicated himself to the struggle to gain U.S. citizenship for all Puerto Ricans. Frederic René Coudert, Jr. became a member of the State Senate from 1939 to 1946 and was elected as a Republican to the Eightieth and to the five succeeding United States Congresses (January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1959; was not a candidate for the 86th Congress). Legacy
<mask>'s struggle was not in vain. In 1917, the United States Congress passed the Jones-Shafroth Act which conferred a statutory United States citizenship on all the citizens of Puerto Rico, This meant that the citizenship was not guaranteed by the Constitution. Two months later President Wilson signed a compulsory military service act which gave the United States the right to draft Puerto Ricans for military service in World War I. The act, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917, also revised the system of the government in Puerto Rico.<mask> moved to Cranford Township, New Jersey around 1930 with her husband Juan Francisco Torres. Her descendants went on to live in New Jersey, Florida, California and Colorado. She died on June 11, 1971 and is buried with her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey. Her great granddaughter, Belinda Torres-Mary, now actively pursues and maintains information regarding <mask>'s history and immigration struggle and is the keeper of the family documents. Further reading
Civic Ideals: "Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History"; By Rogers M. Smith; Page 438; Published by Yale University Press, 1997; ,

<mask>'s groundbreaking immigration case was later published in the following books:
"De Antes Y De Ahora:  Coleccion De Articulos Y Discursos" by Luis Sanchez Morales, 1936 (published by Centro Editorial Ruben Dario, Madrid Spain). "Puerto Rican Almanac":  "Almanaque Puertorriqueno Asenjo" (1937) pp. 97–98.See also

History of women in Puerto Rico
Insular Cases
List of Puerto Ricans

References

External links
U.S. Supreme Court

1882 births
1971 deaths
Puerto Rican activists
Puerto Rican women activists
People from San Juan, Puerto Rico

masks:
Isabel González
González
González
Isabella Gonza
González
González
González
González
González
Isabel
Luis González
González
González
González
González
González
González
Luis González
González
Isabel González
González
Isabel
Isabel
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González
González


text_chunks:
<mask> (October 12, 1906 – September 7, 1984) was an American professional baseball player, manager and executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop, most notably as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Cronin spent over 48 years in baseball, culminating with 14 years as president of the American League (AL). During his 20-year playing career (1926–1945), Cronin played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox; he was a player-manager for 13 seasons (1933–1945), and served as manager for two additional seasons (1946–1947). A seven-time All-Star, Cronin became the first American League player to become an All-Star with two teams; he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956. Early life

Cronin was born in Excelsior District of San Francisco, California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake had cost his Irish Catholic parents almost all of their possessions.Cronin attended Sacred Heart High School. He played several sports as a child and he won a city tennis championship for his age group when he was 14. As he was not greatly interested in school, Cronin's grades improved only when the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League began giving away tickets to students with good conduct and attendance. At the time, the nearest MLB team was nearly  from San Francisco. Major league career

As a player
Baseball promoter <mask>, who scouted for the Senators and managed the Chattanooga Lookouts at Engel Stadium, originally signed Cronin. Engel first spotted Cronin playing in Kansas City. "I knew I was watching a great player", Engel said."I bought Cronin at a time he was hitting .221. When I told Clark Griffith what I had done, he screamed, 'You paid $7,500 for that bum? Well, you didn't buy him for me. You bought him for yourself. He's not my ballplayer – he's yours. You keep him and don't either you or Cronin show up at the ballpark.'" In , Cronin had a breakout year, batting .346 with 13 home runs and 126 RBI.Cronin won both the AL Writers' MVP (the forerunner of the BBWAA MVP, established in 1931) and the AL Sporting News MVP. His 1931 season was also outstanding, with him posting a .306 average, 12 home runs, and 126 RBIs. Cronin led the Senators to the 1933 World Series and later married Griffith's niece, Mildred Robertson. As a player-manager and manager
Cronin was named player-manager of the Senators in , a post he would hold for two years. In his first year, he led the Senators to what would be their last pennant in Washington. While Cronin was on his honeymoon with Mildred in his hometown of San Francisco, he received a message from Griffith–the Boston Red Sox had offered the Senators their starting shortstop, Lyn Lary, in return for Cronin and $250,000. Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey also offered Cronin a five-year contract as player-manager.Well aware of the Senators' perennial financial problems (Griffith had no income apart from the Senators), Cronin accepted the trade. <mask> remained as player-manager of the Red Sox until , then remained solely as manager until . As early as , it was apparent Cronin was nearing the end of his playing career. Red Sox farm director Billy Evans thought he had found Cronin's successor in Pee Wee Reese, the star shortstop for the Louisville Colonels of the Triple-A American Association. He was so impressed by Reese that he was able to talk Yawkey into buying the Colonels and making them the Red Sox' top farm club. However, when Yawkey and Evans asked Cronin to scout Reese, Cronin realized he was scouting his replacement. Believing he still had enough left to be a regular player, Cronin deliberately downplayed Reese's talent and suggested the Red Sox trade him.Reese was eventually traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he went on to a Hall of Fame career. As it turned out, the initial concerns by Evans and Yawkey about Cronin were valid. His last year as a full-time player was ; after that season he never played more than 76 games per season. Even when World War II saw dozens of young players either enlist or be drafted, Cronin limited his playing appearances to cameo roles as a utility infielder and pinch-hitter. On June 17, 1943, Cronin sent himself in to pinch hit in both games of a doubleheader and hit a home run each time. In April 1945, he broke his leg in a game against the Yankees. He sat out the remainder of the season, and retired as a player at the end of the year.Over his career, Cronin batted .300 or higher eight times, as well as driving in 100 runs or more eight times. He finished with a .301 average, 170 home runs, and 1,424 RBIs. As a manager, he compiled a 1,236–1,055 record and won two American League pennants (in 1933 and 1946). His 1933 Senators dropped the 1933 World Series to the New York Giants, and his 1946 Red Sox–the franchise's first pennant winner in 28 years–lost the 1946 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. As a general manager
At the end of the 1947 season, Cronin succeeded Eddie Collins as general manager of the Red Sox and held the post for over 11 years, through mid-January . The Red Sox challenged for the AL pennant in  and , finishing second by a single game each season, thanks to Cronin's aggressive trades. In his first off-season, he acquired shortstop Vern Stephens and pitchers Ellis Kinder and Jack Kramer from the St. Louis Browns; all played major roles for the 1948 Red Sox, who finished in a flatfooted tie for the pennant with the Cleveland Indians but lost a one-game tie-breaker.Kinder and Stephens were centerpieces of the Red Sox' 1949–1950 contenders as well. In the former year, they were edged out by the Yankees during the regular season's final weekend; in the latter, they finished third but came within four games of the league-leading Yanks. As it turned out,  was the last hurrah for the Red Sox during <mask>'s tenure as general manager. With the exception of Ted Williams (who missed most of the 1952–1953 seasons while serving in the Korean War), the core of the 1946–1950 team aged quickly and the Red Sox faced a significant rebuilding job starting in . <mask>'s acquisition of future American League Most Valuable Player Jackie Jensen from Washington in  represented a coup, but the club misfired on several "bonus babies" who never lived up to their potential. The Red Sox posted winning season records for all but two of <mask>'s 11 seasons as general manager, but from 1951 through 1958 they lagged behind the AL pennant-winners (except for 1954, the Yankees) by an average of almost 18 games. Then, beginning in , the Red Sox began a skein of eight straight below-.500 and second-division campaigns.They would not be a factor in a pennant race again until the "Impossible Dream" season of 1967. Most attention has been focused on <mask> and Yawkey's refusal to integrate the Red Sox roster; by January 1959, when <mask>'s tenure as general manager ended, the Red Sox were the only team in the big leagues that had never fielded a black player. Notably, Cronin once passed on signing a young Willie Mays and never traded for a black player. The Red Sox did not break the baseball color line until six months after <mask>'s departure for the AL presidency, when they promoted Pumpsie Green, a utility infielder, from their Triple-A affiliate, the Minneapolis Millers, in July 1959. As AL president

In January 1959, Cronin was elected president of the American League, the first former player to be so elected and the fourth full-time chief executive in the league's history. When he replaced the retiring Will Harridge, who became board chairman, <mask> moved the league's headquarters from Chicago to Boston. Cronin served as AL president until December 31, 1973, when he was succeeded by Lee MacPhail.During <mask>'s 15 years in office, the Junior Circuit expanded from eight to 12 teams, adding the Los Angeles Angels and expansion Washington Senators in   and the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots in . It also endured four franchise shifts: the relocation of the original Senators club (now owned by Cronin's brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Calvin Griffith and Thelma Griffith Haynes) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul, creating the Minnesota Twins (1961); the shift of the Athletics from Kansas City to Oakland (); the transfer of the Pilots after only one season in Seattle to Milwaukee as the Brewers (); and the transplantation of the expansion Senators after 11 seasons in Washington, D.C., to Dallas–Fort Worth as the Texas Rangers (). The Angels also moved from Los Angeles to adjacent Orange County in  and adopted a regional identity, in part because of the dominance of the National League Dodgers, who were the Angels' landlords at "Chavez Ravine" (Dodger Stadium) from 1962–1965. Of the four expansion teams that joined the league beginning in 1961, three abandoned their original host cities within a dozen years (the Pilots after only one season), and only one team—the Royals—remained in its original municipality. Two of the charter members of the old eight-team league, the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians, also suffered significant attendance woes and were targets of relocation efforts by other cities. In addition, the AL found itself at a competitive disadvantage compared with the National League during <mask>'s term. With strong teams in larger markets and a host of new stadiums, the NL outdrew the AL for 33 consecutive years (1956–1988).In 1973, Cronin's final season as league president, the NL attracted 55 percent of total MLB attendance, 16.62 million vs. 13.38 million total fans, despite the opening of Royals Stadium in Kansas City and the American League's adoption of the designated hitter rule, which was designed to spark scoring and fan interest. While the National League held only an 8–7 edge in World Series play during the Cronin era, it dominated the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, going 15–3–1 in the 19 games played from 1959–1973. After the  season, Cronin drew headlines when he fired AL umpires Al Salerno and Bill Valentine, ostensibly for poor performance; however, it later surfaced that the two officials were fired for attempting to organize an umpires' union. Neither man was reinstated (Valentine became a successful minor league front-office executive), but the Major League Umpires Association was formed anyway, two years later. However, in 1966, Cronin was hailed for integrating MLB's umpiring staff with the promotion of veteran minor league arbiter Emmett Ashford to the American League. Hall of Fame
<mask> was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (with Hank Greenberg) in 1956. Career statistics

Managerial record

Death
In the last months of his life, Cronin struggled with cancer that had invaded his prostate and bones; he suffered a great deal of bone pain as a result.Cronin came to Fenway Park for one of his last public appearances when his jersey number 4 was retired by the Red Sox on May 29, 1984. He died at the age of 77 on September 7, 1984, at his home in Osterville, Massachusetts. He is buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in nearby Centerville. Legacy
At the number retirement ceremony shortly before Cronin's death, teammate Ted Williams commented on how much he respected Cronin as a father and a man. Cronin was also remembered as a clutch hitter. Manager Connie Mack once commented, "With a man on third and one out, I'd rather have Cronin hitting for me than anybody I've ever seen, and that includes Cobb, Simmons and the rest of them." In 1999, he was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.See also

 Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
 Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
 List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders
 List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
 List of Major League Baseball player-managers
 List of Major League Baseball managers by wins

Notes

References
Armour, Mark (2010). <mask>: A Life in Baseball. University of Nebraska Press. . External links

^<mask> at SABR (Baseball BioProject)

1906 births
1984 deaths
American League All-Stars
American League presidents
American people of Irish descent
Baseball players from San Francisco
Boston Red Sox executives
Boston Red Sox managers
Boston Red Sox players
Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts
Johnstown Johnnies players
Kansas City Blues (baseball) players
Major League Baseball general managers
Major League Baseball player-managers
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Major League Baseball shortstops
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
New Haven Profs players
People from Osterville, Massachusetts
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Sportspeople from Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Washington Senators (1901–1960) managers
Washington Senators (1901–1960) players

masks:
Joseph Edward Cronin
Joe Engel
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Cronin
Joe Cronin
Joe Cronin
Joe Cronin


text_chunks:
<mask> (25 September 1899, Brno – 4 July 1967, Prague) was a Czech painter, illustrator, writer, journalist and entomologist. He is known mainly as an author of children books. Sekora was also one of the first propagators of rugby in Czechoslovakia. Biography
In 1919 he graduated from the gymnasium in Vyškov. He then studied at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University. From 1921 he worked as a sports editor, illustrator, reporter and commentator for Lidové noviny newspaper in Brno. In 1923 he married Markéta Kalabusová, but was divorced a year later.From 1929 to 1931 he studied privately as a pupil of Professor Arnošt Hofbauer. In 1927 the editorial office of Lidové noviny moved to Prague. <mask> married his second wife, Ludmila Roubíčková, in 1931. A year later she bore him a son, who was also named Ondřej. In 1941, during World War II, he was forced to leave his job and expelled from the Federation of Czech Journalists. The reason was his mixed marriage. His second wife, Ludmila, was of Jewish origin, and the whole family was persecuted by Germans as racially mixed.From October 1944 to April 1945, he was imprisoned in the German labor camps in Kleinstein (Poland) and Osterode (Germany). His wife was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In Osterode, Sekora met and befriended Czech actor Oldřich Nový, with whom he attempted to organize the puppet theatre in the camp. Both Sekora and his wife survived the imprisonment, and he later described his experience in his diary. Following World War II he worked as an editor in the magazines Práce (Work) and Dikobraz (Porcupine). From 1949 he also led one of the sections of the Státní nakladatelství dětské knihy (SNDK) (State Publishing House of Children Books). In his later years Sekora devoted himself solely to painting, writing and illustration.In 1964 he was awarded the Meritorious Artist title, and in 1966 he received the Marie Majerová Prize. His public activities ceased in 1964, after a heart attack. He died in 1967, and is buried in Prague-Košíře. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In the post-war years he actively participated in the Czechoslovak communist agitation and propaganda. Sekora trained the first Czech rugby clubs, Moravská Slávie in Brno-Pisárky and AFK Žižka Brno among others. He also created the Czech rugby terminology.He co-founded and edited the magazine Sport. The Main-belt asteroid 13406 Sekora, discovered in 1999, is named after him. Rugby
Rugby union was introduced to Czechoslovakia (as it was then) by <mask> Sekora, when he returned from living in France in 1926, with a rugby ball and set of rules. Brno, the Moravian capital is considered the cradle of rugby in Czechoslovakia, and is where the first match took place, between SK Moravská Slávie, based in Brno-Pisárky, and AFK Žižka, based in Brno. Both of these teams were trained by Sekora, who also coined Czech language rugby terminology. Style
Sekora became popular as an author of comic strips, published in Lidové noviny in the 1930s and at the beginning of the 1940s. He was inspired by cartoons of Walt Disney, Wilhelm Busch and Albert Dubout.His short stories were full of humor, with indications of situation comedy. The basis of his style was lively and dynamic drawing with clear contours, accompanied with quatrains. His verses were often inspired by folk speech. He is known as the creator of animated characters Ferda Mravenec ("Ferda the Ant") and Brouk Pytlík ("Pouch the Beetle"). Both books of Brouk Pytlík ("Pouch the Beetle") were published since 1969 under the title Brouk Pytlík. Slovník české literatury (Dictionary of the Czech Literature)
 Czech biography – Spisovatele.cz
 Rozhlas.cz
Obrys – Kmen. Týdeník pro literaturu a kulturu

1899 births
1967 deaths
Artists from Brno
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
Czech male writers
Czech children's book illustrators
Czech comics artists
Czechoslovak entomologists
Czech humorists
Czech rugby union players
Czech rugby union coaches
Writers who illustrated their own writing
20th-century Czech painters
20th-century male artists
Czech male painters
Masaryk University alumni
Writers from Brno
Nazi concentration camp survivors

masks:
Ondřej Sekora
Sekora
Ondřej


text_chunks:
<mask>-Quwatli (; 6 May 189130 June 1967) was the first president of post-independence Syria. He began his career as a dissident working towards the independence and unity of the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories and was consequently imprisoned and tortured for his activism. When the Kingdom of Syria was established, Quwatli became a government official, though he was disillusioned with monarchism and co-founded the republican Independence Party. Quwatli was immediately sentenced to death by the French who took control over Syria in 1920. Afterward, he based himself in Cairo where he served as the chief ambassador of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress, cultivating particularly strong ties with Saudi Arabia. He used these connections to help finance the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–1927). In 1930, the French authorities pardoned Quwatli and thereafter, he returned to Syria, where he gradually became a principal leader of the National Bloc.He was elected president of Syria in 1943 and oversaw the country's independence three years later. Quwatli was reelected in 1948, but was toppled in a military coup in 1949 by Husni al-Za'im. He subsequently went into exile in Egypt, returning to Syria in 1955 to participate in the presidential election, which he won. A conservative presiding over an increasingly leftist-dominated government, Quwatli officially adopted neutralism amid the Cold War. After his request for aid from the United States was denied, he drew closer to the Eastern bloc. He also entered Syria into a defense arrangement with Egypt and Saudi Arabia to confront the influence of the Baghdad Pact. In 1957, Quwatli, who the US and the Pact countries attempted but failed to oust, sought to stem the leftist tide in Syria, but to no avail.By then, his political authority had receded as the military bypassed Quwatli's jurisdiction by independently coordinating with Quwatli's erstwhile ally, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Following months of unity talks, in 1958, Quwatli merged Syria with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic and stepped down for Nasser to serve as president. In gratitude, Nasser awarded Quwatli the honorary title of "First Arab Citizen". However, Quwatli grew disenchanted with the union, believing it had reduced Syria to a police state subordinate to Egypt. He backed Syria's secession in 1961, but plans for him to complete his presidential term afterward did not materialize. Quwatli left Syria following the 1963 Ba'athist coup, and he died of a heart attack in Lebanon weeks after Syria's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. He was buried in Damascus on 1 July.Personal life

Family

The Quwatlis were a Sunni Muslim mercantile family from Baghdad which moved to Damascus in the 18th century, establishing itself in the district of al-Shaghour. Their initial wealth in Damascus stemmed from trade with Baghdad and Arabia. After 1860 the family invested part of its wealth in large land tracts in the Ghouta farms surrounding Damascus. The first member of the family to own extensive tracts was Shukri's granduncle Murad (d. 1908). The family's notable status was owed to their wealth, rather than an aristocratic or religious lineage, and their traditional spheres of activity were commerce and the Ottoman civil service. <mask>'s grandfather Abd al-Ghani was involved in finance, as was his granduncle Ahmad, who was appointed the president of the Agricultural Bank of Damascus in 1894, and another granduncle, Hasan, president of the Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce, while Murad had become a member of the Administrative Council of the city in 1871 and was re-elected in the early 1890s. <mask>'s father's wealth rested on the highly fertile lands he owned and later bequeathed to Shukri and his siblings in the Ghouta.His elder brother Hasan was elected President of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. Despite the substantial wealth accrued toward the end of the 19th century, the family remained in the working class al-Shaghur and developed networks there which contributed to its future political ambitions. In 1928, <mask> married Bahira al-Dalati, the 19-year-old daughter of nationalist Said al-Dalati, whom Quwatli met while in jail in 1916. <mask> and Bahira had five children; Hassan (the oldest, born in 1935), Mahmud, Huda, Hana and Hala. Bahira al-Dalati died in 1989. Childhood and education
<mask> Quwatli was born in Damascus in 1891. He received his elementary education at a Jesuit school in the city, then studied at the preparatory high school of Maktab Anbar in the Jewish quarter of Damascus.He obtained his baccalauréat in 1908. He then moved to Istanbul where he studied political science and public administration. Quwatli graduated from the Mekteb-i Mülkiye in 1913. He returned to Damascus in 1913 after receiving his diploma, and started working for the Ottoman civil service. Early influences
Quwatli was initially brought up in a pro-Ottoman environment, owing to his family's connections in Istanbul. The restrictions of the Abdul Hamid II era, however, started to be felt around the Ottoman Empire, and discontent was brewing even among the empire's elite. Following the Young Turk Revolution against Abdul Hamid II in 1908, parliamentary elections were called in all provinces, and liberal Arab intellectuals like <mask> al-Asali, Shafiq Muayyad al-Azm, and Rushdi al-Shama'a secured seats as deputies (members of the legislature) representing Damascus.The liberal current that established itself through these figures, and the political dailies they established including al-Qabas ("The Firebrand") and al-Ikha' al-Arabi ("Arab Brotherhood"), greatly influenced Quwatli and other Arab youths. During the 31 March Incident, Quwatli strongly supported the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) against Abdul Hamid II. Nevertheless, after the failed countercoup, the CUP accused Arab provinces of supporting Abdul Hamid II and initiated a policy of Turkification, whereby all local officials were substituted by Turkish ones. Soon after, the parliament was dissolved, and the liberal Arab politicians were forced out in the following elections. Early nationalist activities
Quwatli's early involvement in the Arab nationalist movement came through the Arab Congress of 1913. Shortly after starting his career at the Ottoman civil service in Damascus, he received an invitation to attend the conference in Paris. However, the conference was strongly condemned by the Ottoman authorities, and Arab notables were forbidden from attending.Nevertheless, the congress had succeeded in rousing nationalist feelings in Arab provinces. Quwatli's first confrontation with the Ottoman authorities came in February 1914 during a visit by Jamal Pasha, the governor of Syria at the time, to the offices of the Governorate of Damascus, where Quwatli worked. During the visit, Quwatli refused to follow the normal protocol—bending over and kissing Jamal Pasha's right hand—and was promptly thrown in prison at the Citadel of Damascus. He was bailed out of prison a few days later through his family's connections, but he lost his job at the civil service. Al-Fatat

The growing hardships in the country during the early years of World War I pushed Quwatli to join the secret society of al-Fatat, which was facilitated by his childhood friend and co-founder, Nasib al-Bakri. Al-Fatat was an underground organization established in Paris in 1911 by Arab nationalists with the aim of gaining independence and unity of the various Arab territories in the Ottoman Empire. In 1913, the society established its main branch in Damascus, and was successful in attracting the Syrian elite into its ranks.In 1915, Sharif Hussein, trying to garner support for his planned uprising against the Ottomans, sent his son Faisal to Damascus to lobby the Syrian notables on his behalf. Faisal, a member of al-Fatat himself, met secretly with other members of the society, including Quwatli, in the house of Nasib al-Bakri. When the Ottoman authorities learned of the meeting, they ordered the arrest of al-Bakri and his two brothers, Fawzi and Sami, accusing them of treason. Quwatli was charged by the al-Fatat leadership with the task of facilitating their escape, in which he succeeded. In retaliation, Ottoman authorities placed him under arrest, in which he was subjected to torture and humiliation. Nevertheless, Quwatli refused to confess to anything, and his captors failed to implicate him in the operation so they released him a month later. The tremendous pressure of that experience, however, took its toll on the young Quwatli, and upon his release he retired to his country house in Saidnaya and stopped all contacts with members of al-Fatat and the opposition.In late 1916 he was approached by Fasih al-Ayyubi in hope that Quwatli could help him secure an escape route for his ailing father, <mask> al-Ayyubi, who was arrested by the Ottomans, like he did for Nasib al-Bakri. However, despite Quwatli's refusal to help, Ottoman authorities tracked down the contact and arrested both men. Quwatli was subjected to further torture to coerce him to reveal the names of his al-Fatat colleagues. In an attempt to prevent himself from surrendering the names, Quwatli tried to commit suicide. After cutting his wrists, Quwatli's life was saved at the last minute by fellow inmate, al-Fatat member and practicing doctor, Ahmad Qadri. He spent four more months in jail, before being released on bail by his relative, Shafiq al-Quwatli, who served as a deputy at the Ottoman Parliament, on 28 January 1917. His experience in jail and the story about his attempted suicide turned Quwatli into a nationalist hero in Syria.Kingdom of Syria

On 1 October 1918, an Arab army under the leadership of Emir Faisal and British general T. E. Lawrence entered Damascus, and by the end of October the rest of Ottoman Syria fell to the Allied Forces. Emir Faisal became in charge of administering the liberated territory. He appointed Rida al-Rikabi as prime minister, and Quwatli's friend, Nasib al-Bakri became a personal adviser to the Emir. Quwatli, at the age of twenty-six, was appointed assistant to the governor of Damascus, Alaa al-Din al-Durubi. However, many of Quwatli's generation were unimpressed with Faisal's leadership skills, and were drawn to a republican, rather than monarchist, view of governance. Furthermore, they were suspicious of Faisal, and his brother Abdullah's ties with the British. On 15 April 1919 they founded a loose coalition under the name of al-Istiqlal Party ("Independence Party").The party had a pan-Arab, secular, anti-British and anti-Hashemite outlook and attracted mostly youth activists from the elite classes. Well-known members, other than Quwatli, included Adil Arslan, Nabih al-Azmeh, Riad al-Sulh, Saadallah al-Jabiri, Ahmad Qadri, Izzat Darwaza and Awni Abd al-Hadi. Although ostensibly working for the government, Quwatli devoted his efforts to nationalist activities outside the government's auspices. In addition to al-Istiqlal, he was also a member of the Palestinian-led Arab Club's Damascus branch. In a meeting with the 1919 King–Crane Commission, sent by the United States (US) to gauge national sentiment in greater Syria, Quwatli rejected the notion of an American military presence in Syria, telling Crane that "Reduction of sovereignty is non-negotiable" and instead suggesting that the US help Syrians to "build their state and live in peace on their land." Nevertheless, French forces had already started landing on the Syrian coast in 1919 to enforce the Sykes–Picot Agreement whereby France and the UK would divide up the former Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire between themselves. In March 1920, the League of Nations granted France a mandate over Syria and Lebanon, and in response Emir Faisal declared himself king of Syria on 8 March 1920.When King Faisal refused to accept the mandate, the French marched on Damascus. Yusuf al-'Azma, minister of defense at the time, led a small force and met the French at the Battle of Maysalun on 23 July 1920. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the French, and the next day French forces occupied Damascus. King Faisal was deported to Europe, and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was officially declared. Leader in Syrian independence movement

Emissary of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress
The French started their rule by sentencing 21 nationalist leaders, including Quwatli, to death on 1 August 1920. Quwatli managed to flee only hours before a warrant for his arrest was issued. From Damascus he fled by car to Haifa in British-mandated Palestine, and soon after to Cairo in Egypt.From there, Quwatli spent the bulk of his time traveling throughout the Arab world and Europe serving as the virtual ambassador of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress. He became the chief link between Arab nationalist activists in Europe and in the Arab world. In Europe, he particularly frequented Berlin where he worked with the prominent Arab nationalist intellectual Shakib Arslan to proliferate anti-French sentiment, leading the French Mandatory authorities to label Quwatli one of the "most dangerous" Syrian exiles. He developed close ties with Ibn Saud, who by 1925 ruled much of Arabia, having overrun the Hashemites in the Hejaz. Quwatli had a prior relationship with the House of Saud, stemming from his own family's commercial links with the Saudis and Quwatli's friendship with Sheikh Yusuf Yasin, a Syrian adviser to Ibn Saud, who Quwatli had dispatched to Arabia during Faisal's rule. Quwatli, strongly distrustful of the Hashemites, was impressed by Ibn Saud's relatively quick conquest over much of Arabia and saw in the Saudis a strong potential ally against British and French colonial rule in the Middle East. By 1925, Quwatli had solidified his position as the intermediary between Ibn Saud and the Syrian-Palestinian Congress.His acquisition of Saudi funding put him at odds with the Congress's chief financier Michel Lutfallah, however. Financing the Great Syrian Revolt
In the summer of 1925 tensions between the Druze chiefs of the Hauran led by Sultan Pasha al-Atrash and the French authorities culminated with the Great Syrian Revolt, which spread throughout Syria within months. While Quwatli's Istiqlal Party lobbied the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini to set up a financial support network for the rebellion, Quwatli had already secured the funneling of funds and arms from the Hejaz and also diverted some of the military aid to the Jerusalem-based committee. As the revolt's initial momentum began to recede in mid-1926, bickering between opposition leaders, inside and outside of Syria, increased significantly. Quwatli was accused by his rivals in Cairo of pocketing some money he raised and paying off rebels to prevent rebel raids against his family's extensive apricot orchards in the Ghouta. Tensions between Istiqlalists like Quwatli and Arslan and other Syrian nationalist leaders like al-Bakri and Shahbandar, were particularly

masks:
Shukri al
Shukri
Shukri
Shukri
Shukri
Shukri
Shukri
Shukri