Yusuf al-'Azma (Arabic: يوسف العظمة‎, ALA-LC: Yūsuf al-‘Aẓmah; 1883–24 July 1920) was the Syrian Minister of War in the governments of prime ministers Rida al-Rikabi and Hashim al-Atassi and Chief of General Staff under King Faisal. He served as Minister of War from January 1920 until his death while commanding Syrian forces against the French invasion during the Battle of Maysalun.

Early life and career

Al-'Azma was born to a prominent mercantile and landowning Damascus-based family of Turkmen descent in 1883. Al-'Azma graduated from the Istanbul-based Ottoman Military Academy in 1906 and then underwent additional military training in Germany until returning to Istanbul in 1909. There he enlisted in the Ottoman Army and promptly was assigned as a military attache to Cairo, Egypt. In 1914, al-'Azma served as Commander of the 25th Brigade on the front lines in Bulgaria during World War I. Later during the war, he was reassigned as a deputy of General Enver Pasha (Anwar Pasha) in Istanbul.