Ahmad Toukan (1903–1981) was a Palestinian

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 political leader who was Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 of Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

 from 26 September 1970 to 28 October 1970.

Overview

Toukan was born on 15 August 1903 in Nablus

Nablus

Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...

, Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

.

He is the eldest brother of Ibrahim Touqan

Ibrahim Touqan

Ibrahim Abd al-Fattah Touqan was a Palestinian nationalist poet whose works rallied Arabs during their revolt against the British. Touqan was born in Nablus, Palestine during Ottoman times. He was the brother of poetess Fadwa Touqan and he tutored and influenced her to write poetry...

 and Fadwa Touqan, both of whom are famous poets in the Arab world.

Education

• BSc Engineering Sciences, American University of Beirut
  American University of Beirut
  The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
  
  , 1925.
• MSc Physics, University of Oxford
  University of Oxford
  The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
  
  , 1929.

Career

Toukan occupied many high-ranking positions both locally and internationally:

• UNESCO Expert and UNRWA Deputy Head of Education (1954-1961)
• Education Expert at the International Bank for Reconstruction & Development (1962-1966)
• Minister (including Foreign Minister, Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister during the years1950-1970)
• Prime Minister in 1970
• Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan in 1972
• Chairman of University of Jordan’s Board of Trustees in 1972.

Toukan was Prime Minister in 1970 during a crackdown that drove the PLO guerillas out of Jordan.

Death

He died in Jordan at age 78 after a prolonged illness. The Ahmad Toukan School in Amman

Amman

Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...

is named in his honor.