Nizar Qabbani
Al-Shaghour was a major center of resistance to French rule. Many of its inhabitants were involved in political activism and in the development of Syria's national political thought is the 1930s. Al-Shaghour was the home to several prominent intellectuals and political figures including the famous poet Nizar Qabbani, the minister of defense of the Kingdom of Syria, Yusuf al-Azma, and Hasan al-Kharrat, the most prominent rebel leader in Damascus during the 1925 Great Syrian Revolt.