Ilyas Yakoub

Ilyas Yakoub (14 June 1903 – 2 August 1958) sometimes spelled Ilyas Ya'kub, was an Indonesian Islamic scholar, journalist and politician. He was declared a National Hero of Indonesia in 1999.^[1]

Ilyas Yakoub was born in Asam Kumbang, North Sumatra, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) on 14 June 1903.^[2] His father Haji Yakoub was a cloth merchant.^[2] Ilyas was sent to in a Hollandsch-Inlandsche School, a Dutch-language school for native children, and he also studied Islam with his grandfather.^[2] After graduating during the First World War, he worked as a clerk for a mining company in Sawahlunto until 1919.^[2] In 1923, he went to Egypt to study further; he became active in student and Islamic politics and began to write for Egyptian newspapers.^[2] He returned to the Indies in 1929.^{[citation needed]}

In 1930 he cofounded the Persatuan Muslim Indonesia, a nationalist party with an Islamist orientation.^[2] Because of this he was exiled by the Dutch to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp.^[3]

He died on 2 August 1958. In 1958 he was declared a Pioneering Hero of Indonesian Independence and was declared a National Hero in 1999.^[2]