Salim Effendi al-Husayni was Mayor of Jerusalem from 1882 to 1897. Hussein al-Husayni and Mousa Kazim al-Husayni, later mayors of the city, were his sons. He was a member of the Jerusalem Council and belonged to the prominent al-Husayni clan of Jerusalem. He built a palace in the city, which his granddaughter Hind al-Husseini later developed into the Dar al-Tifl Institution, which sheltered and educated orphaned children. Al-Husayni died in 1908 and is buried in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, near the American Colony Hotel.