After the end of the First World War and the withdrawal of the Ottoman forces from Damascus, an Arab government was formed headed by Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein, son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the leader of the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. The prince met with a delegation of Syrian doctors, who asked him to reopen the Ottoman Medical Institute in the Baramkeh neighborhood, which had been closed due to the circumstances of the war. Faisal accepted their request and ordered the institute to reopen on January 23, 1919, after its name changed to become the Institute of Arab Medicine. A small committee of prominent doctors was formed, with the aim of Arabizing curricula and converting them from the Turkish language into Arabic. Rida Saeed chaired this committee, which included Abdul Rahman Al Shahbandar, a graduate of the American University of Beirut, Dr. Ahmed Munif Al-Aidi, a graduate of the Ottoman Medical Institute in Istanbul, Dr. Murshed Khater, a graduate of the Jesuit University of Beirut, Dr. Abdel Qader Zahra, one of Sharif Hussein's physicians, and Dr. Mahmoud Hammouda, one of the prominent Damascene doctors in the Hijaz.