Kamil Al-Husseini tilhørte Al-Ḥusaynī-slekten og var sønn av Mohammed Tahir al-Husseini, den første stormufti i Jerusalem. Tittelen hadde osmanerne kopiert, fra stormuftien i Egypt.[1] Da faren døde i 1908, etterfulgte han i farens embede. Britene skulle omtale ham som (i Philip Charles Palins rapport av 1920:) «the representative of Islam in Palestine and a member of the oldest nobility of the country».[2]
Til forskjell fra sin far forsøkte han under det britiske mandatet å nå frem til kompromisser med britene og sionistene.[3]
De britiske myndigheter utnevnte ham til formann av ankedomstolen, og senere til direktør for den høye waqfkomitéen.[3]
Zvi Elpeleg (1992, David Harvey, trans.). The Grand Mufti : Haj Amin al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement (London: Frank Cass) ISBN0-7146-3432-8
^abPorath 1971, s. 128: "These developments were hastened by another important factor, this time of a more personal nature. When the British entered the city the Mufti of Jerusalem happened to be Kamil al-Husayni. From the outset, Kamil al-Husayni went out of his way to be of aid to the British, particularly when it came to working out a suitable arrangement between the authorities of the occupation and the local population, and he made it very much easier for the latter to get used to the idea of a Christian power ruling in Jerusalem. He saw to it that the question of naming the Muslim ruler during Friday prayers did not develop into a political issue, and even his attitude to the Jews and his relations with them were friendly and correct. During the period of tension that followed the April 1920 disturbances, he appealed to the public in the course of a sermon at the al-Aqsa mosque to maintain law and order and to rest assured that the British Government, as was their policy everywhere, would do nothing to hinder the Muslims in the practice of their religion. The British authorities, first military and then civil, were indebted to Kamil al-Husayni for his exemplary conduct. One of the ways in which their esteem for him found expression was the award made to him of the C.M.G."
