Arab officer to die in the battle. Sporadic clashes continued for another three hours. By then, Arab forces had retreated in disarray towards Damascus. The French Army entered the city on 25 July. In his memoirs, General Gouraud wrote that after their defeat the Syrian troops left "behind 15 cannons, 40 rifles, and a general ... named Yusuf Bey al-'Azma. He died a courageous soldier's death in battle." Legacy Al-Azma's refusal to surrender to the French, his insistence on entering battle with inferior forces and his death commanding the Syrians in Maysalun made him a hero in Syria and the Arab world. According to Khoury, al-Azma was "henceforth immortalized by Syrians as the supreme national martyr". Likewise, Provence states al-Azma "became the supreme symbol of interwar Syrian Arab patriotism". His statue stands in a major square named after him in central Damascus, with streets and schools named in his honor throughout Syria. Statues of al-Azma are also present across the Middle East. According to historian Tareq Y. Ismael, the defeat of al-Azma and the subsequent French takeover of Syria contributed to a popular attitude in the Arab world that exists until the present day which holds that "the West is not honorable in its commitments, speaks with a forked tongue about issues of democracy ... and will oppress anyone who stands in the way of its imperial designs". A tomb for al-Azma was erected inside a shaded grove at Maysalun in the 1930s. Though it has been frequently renovated, the original structure of the tomb remains largely intact. It consists of a stone sarcophagus elevated on a platform. One side of the platform has a stairway and the other side is a concrete column which carries a large concrete roof that is further supported by a beam. The sarcophagus has a triangular roof upon which is engraved the Zulfiqar sword. The Syrian military annually honors al-Azma at his tomb on Maysalun Day. See also Great Syrian Revolt Ayyash Al-Haj Fawzi al-Qawuqji Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar Sultan al-Atrash Adham Khanjar Saleh Al-Ali Hasan al-Kharrat References Bibliography 1883 births 1920 deaths Ottoman Arab nationalists Arabs from the Ottoman Empire Ottoman Army officers Ottoman Military Academy alumni Ottoman military personnel of World War I Ottoman Sunni Muslims People from Damascus Syrian Turkmen People of the Franco-Syrian War Syrian Arab nationalists Syrian military personnel killed in action Syrian ministers of defense Syrian Sunni Muslims Al-Azma