 |
Kind Abdullah I (full name Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn) was a statesman who would become the first ruler (1946 - 1951) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Abdullah, the second son of Husayn ibn Ali, the ruler of the Hejaz, was educated in Istanbul in what was then the Ottoman Empire. After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, he represented Mecca in the Ottoman parliament. Early in 1914 he joined the Arab nationalist movement, which sought independence for Arab territories in the Ottoman Empire. In 1915–16 he played a leading role in clandestine negotiations between the British in Egypt and his father that led to the proclamation (June 10, 1916) of the Arab revolt against the Ottomans.
On March 8, 1920, while the Syrian Congress in Damascus declared Syria independent and proclaimed Faisal king, a separate gathering of 29 Iraqi nationalists in Damascus - sometimes called the Iraqi Congress - declared Iraq independent and proclaimed Abdullah its constitutional king. British officials rejected the group’s authority to speak for Iraq. Abdullah never assumed the throne, although contemporary records indicate that he was interested in ruling Iraq if Britain supported him. After French forces ended Faisal’s rule in Syria and occupied Damascus in July 1920, British policymakers came to favor Faisal, who was crowned king of Iraq on August 23, 1921. Meanwhile, Abdullah arrived in Ma’an in November 1920, initially threatening to challenge French rule in Syria, and moved to Amman in March 1921. He subsequently reached an agreement with Britain to govern Transjordan as emir, with the territory administered separately under Article 25 of the Palestine Mandate.
Abdullah aspired to create a united Arab kingdom encompassing Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan. During World War II (1939–45), he actively sided with the United Kingdom, and his army, the Arab Legion - the most effective military force in the Arab world - took part in the British occupation of Syria and Iraq in 1941. In 1946 Transjordan became independent, and AbdullAh was crowned inAmman on May 25, 1946. He was the only Arab ruler prepared to accept the United Nations’ partitioning of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states (1947). In the war with Israel in May 1948, his armies occupied the region of Palestine due west of the Jordan River, which came to be called the West Bank, and captured East Jerusalem, including much of the Old City. Two years later he annexed the West Bank territory into the kingdom—thereupon changing the name of the country to Jordan. That annexation angered his former Arab allies, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, all of which wanted to see the creation of a Palestinian Arab state on the West Bank. Abdullah’s popularity at home declined, and he was assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist. The reign of his son Talal, who suffered from severe mental illness, was brief. A second son, Na'if, was passed over, and the throne soon went to Talal’s son Hussein.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Photo: Wikimedia