Faisal I of Iraq
Faisal I فيصل الأول | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
King of Iraq | |||||
Reign | 23 August 1921 – 8 September 1933 | ||||
Predecessor | Military occupation | ||||
Successor | Ghazi I | ||||
Prime Ministers | See list | ||||
King of Syria | |||||
Reign | 8 March 1920 – 24 July 1920 | ||||
Predecessor | Military occupation | ||||
Successor | Monarchy abolished | ||||
Prime Ministers | See list
| ||||
Born | 20 May 1885 | ||||
Died | 8 September 1933 Bern, Switzerland | (aged 48)||||
Burial | Royal Mausoleum, Adhamiyah | ||||
Spouses | Huzaima bint Nasser Latifa bint Hamed | ||||
Issue |
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| |||||
Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz | |||||
Mother | Abdiyah bint Abdullah | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam[3] |
Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi (
The third son of
In August 1921, in accordance with the decision made at the
Early life
Faisal was born in
Following the Ottoman Empire's declaration of war against the Entente in December 1914, Faisal's father sent him on a mission to Constantinople to discuss the Ottomans' request for Arab participation in the war. Along the way Faisal visited Damascus and met with representatives of the Arab secret societies al-Fatat and Al-'Ahd. After visiting Constantinople Faisal returned to Mecca via Damascus where he again met with the Arab secret societies, received the Damascus Protocol, and joined with the Al-Fatat group of Arab nationalists.[citation needed]
World War One and the Great Arab Revolt
On 23 October 1916 at
Post World War I
Participation in peace conference
In 1919, Emir Faisal led the Arab delegation to the
Greater Syria
British and Arab forces took Damascus in October 1918, which was followed by the Armistice of Mudros. With the end of Turkish rule that October, Faisal helped set up an Arab government, under British protection, in Arab controlled Greater Syria. In May 1919, elections were held for the Syrian National Congress, which met the following month.
Faisal–Weizmann Agreement
On 4 January 1919, Emir Faisal and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the Zionist Organization,[11] signed the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement for Arab-Jewish Cooperation, in which Faisal conditionally accepted the Balfour Declaration, an official declaration on behalf of the British government by Arthur Balfour, promising British support to the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.[12] Once Arab states were granted autonomy from the European powers, years after the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, and these new Arab nations were recognized by the Europeans, Weizmann argued that since the fulfillment was kept eventually, the agreement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine still held.[13] In truth, however, this hoped-for partnership had little chance of success and was a dead letter by late 1920. Faisal had hoped that Zionist influence on British policy would be sufficient to forestall French designs on Syria, but Zionist influence could never compete with French interests.[citation needed] At the same time Faisal failed to enlist significant sympathy among his Arab elite supporters for the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, even under loose Arab suzerainty.
Following the decisions taken by the
King of Syria and Iraq
This section needs additional citations for verification. (June 2014) |
On 7 March 1920, Faisal was proclaimed
In March 1921, at the Cairo Conference, the British decided that Faisal was a good candidate for ruling the British Mandate of Iraq because of his apparent conciliatory attitude towards the Great Powers and based on advice from T. E. Lawrence (more commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia). But, in 1921, few people living in Iraq even knew who Faisal was or had ever heard his name. With help of British officials, including Gertrude Bell, he successfully campaigned among the Arabs of Iraq and won over the popular support of the minority Sunni. However, the Shia majority were lukewarm about Faisal, and his appearance at the Shia port of Basra was met with indifference.[16]
The British government, mandate holders in Iraq, were concerned at the unrest in the colony. They decided to step back from direct administration and create a monarchy to head Iraq while they maintained the mandate. Following a
Faisal encouraged an influx of Syrian exiles and office-seekers to cultivate better Iraqi-Syrian relations. In order to improve education in the country Faisal employed doctors and teachers in the civil service and appointed Sati' al-Husri, the ex-Minister of Education in Damascus, as his director of the Ministry of Education. This influx resulted in much native resentment towards Syrians and Lebanese in Iraq.[22] The tendency of the Syrian emigres in the education ministry to write and issue school textbooks glorying the Umayyad Caliphate as the "golden age" of the Arabs together with the highly dismissive remarks about the Imam Ali gave great offense in the Shiite community in Iraq, prompting protests and leading Faisal to withdraw the offending textbooks in 1927 and again in 1933 when they were reissued.[22] Faisal himself was a tolerant man, proclaiming himself a friend of the Shiite, Kurdish and Jewish communities in his realm, and in 1928 criticized the policy of some of his ministers of seeking to fire all Jewish Iraqis from the civil service, but his policy of promoting pan-Arab nationalism to further his personal and dynastic ambitions proved to be a disruptive force in Iraq as it drew a wedge between the Arab and Kurdish communities.[23] Faisal's policy of equating wataniyya ("patriotism" or in this case Iraqiness) with being Arab marginalized the Kurds who feared that they had no place in an Arab-dominated Iraq, indeed in a state that equated being Iraqi with being Arab.[23]
Faisal also developed desert motor routes from
During the
In 1929, when bloody rioting broke out in Jerusalem between the Arab and Jewish communities, Faisal was highly supportive of the Arab position and pressured the British for a pro-Arab solution of the Palestine crisis.[26] In a memo stating his views on Palestine submitted to the British high commissioner Sir Hubert Young on 7 December 1929, Faisal accepted the Balfour Declaration, but only in the most minimal sense in that the declaration had promised a "Jewish national home".[27] Faisal stated he was willing to accept the Palestine Mandate as a "Jewish national home" to which Jews fleeing persecution around the world might go, but he was adamant that there be no Jewish state.[27] Faisal argued that the best solution was for Britain to grant independence to Palestine, which would be united in a federation led by his brother, the Emir Abdullah of Trans-Jordan, which would allow for a Jewish "national home" under his sovereignty.[28] Faisal argued that what was needed was a compromise under which the Palestinians would give up their opposition to Jewish immigration to Palestine in exchange for which the Zionists would give up their plans to one day create a Jewish state in the Holy Land.[27] Faisal's preferred solution to the "Palestine Question", which he admitted might not be practical at the moment, was for a federation that would unite Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine under his leadership.[27]
Faisal saw the
In March 1932, just months before independence, Faisal wrote a memorandum where he complained about a lack of Iraqi national identity, writing:
Iraq is a kingdom ruled by a Sunni Arab government founded on the wreckage of Ottoman rule. This government rules over a Kurdish segment, the majority of which is ignorant, that includes persons with personal ambitions who lead it to abandon it [the government] under the pretext that it does not belong to their ethnicity. [The government also rules over] an ignorant Shiite majority that belongs to the same ethnicity of the government, but the persecutions that had befallen them as a result of Turkish rule, which did not enable them to take part in governance and exercise it, drove a deep wedge between the Arab people divided into these two sects. Unfortunately, all of this made this majority, or the persons who harbor special aspirations, the religious among them, the seekers of posts without qualification, and those who did not benefit materially from the new rule, to pretend that they are still being persecuted because they are Shiites.[30]
In 1932, the British mandate ended and Faisal was instrumental in making his country independent. On 3 October, the Kingdom of Iraq joined the League of Nations.
In August 1933, incidents like the
In July 1933, right before his death, Faisal went to London where he expressed his alarm at the current situation of Arabs that resulted from the Arab-Jewish conflict and the increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, as the Arab political, social, and economic situation was declining. He asked the British to limit Jewish immigration and land purchases.
Death
King Faisal died of a heart attack on 8 September 1933 in Bern, Switzerland.[2] He was 48 years old at the time of his death. Faisal was succeeded on the throne by his eldest son, Ghazi.
A square is named in his honour at the end of
Marriage and children
Faisal was married to Sharifa Huzaima bint Nasser and had with her one son and three daughters, and to Latifa bint Hamed and had with her one son.
- Princess Azza bint Faisal.
- Princess Rajiha bint Faisal.
- Princess Rafia bint Faisal.
- King Ali of Hejaz.
- Prince Mohammed bin Faisal.[32]
Film
Faisal has been portrayed on film at least three times: in David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962), played by Alec Guinness; in the unofficial sequel to Lawrence, A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990), played by Alexander Siddig; and in Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert (2015), played by Younes Bouab. On video, he was portrayed in The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Chapter 19 The Winds of Change (1995) by Anthony Zaki.
Images
Ancestry
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See also
- Faisal–Weizmann Agreement
- List of Syrian monarchs
- Timeline of Syrian history
- Battle of Maysalun
- Ali of Hejaz
- Abdullah I of Jordan
- Ghazi of Iraq
- Hussein of Hejaz
References
- ^ a b c "rulers.org". rulers.org. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f "britannica.com". britannica.com. 8 September 1933. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
- ^ IRAQ – Resurgence In The Shiite World – Part 8 – Jordan & The Hashemite Factors, APS Diplomat Redrawing the Islamic Map, 14 February 2005
- ISBN 9780300127324.
- ^ Lawrence, T.E. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Wordsworth Editions, 1997. p. 76.
- ^ Faisal of Arabia, The Jerusalem Post
- ^ a b Karsh, Efraim Islamic Imperialism A History, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006 pages 137–138
- ^ Karsh, Efraim & Karsh, Inari The Empires of the Sand, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999 page 195.
- ^ Karsh, Efraim & Karsh, Inari The Empires of the Sand, Cambridge: Harvard University Press,, 1999 page 196.
- ^ a b Karsh, Efraim & Karsh, Inari The Empires of the Sand, Cambridge: Harvard University Press,, 1999 page 197.
- JSTOR 40105338.
- ^ United Nations (8 July 1947). "Official records of the Second Session of the General Assembly". Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
- ^ Official records of the Second Session of the General Assembly (A/364/Add.2 PV.21), United Nations, 8 July 1947 Archived 7 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ] (PhD thesis)
- ^ Hardi, Mahdi Abdul (2017). Documents on Palestine. Vol. I. Jerusalem: PASSIA. p. 78.
- ^ "Letters from Baghdad" documentary (2016) Directors: Sabine Krayenbühl, Zeva Oelbaum.
- ^ Allawi, Ali Faisal I of Iraq, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014 pages 339–340.
- ^ Rezonville (17 February 1931). "VI. King Faisal I - First Issue, 1927 & 1932 - rezonville.com". Rezonville.com. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
- ^ a b Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 page 679.
- ^ Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 pages 679–680.
- ^ a b Karsh, Efraim & Karsh, Inari The Empires of the Sand, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999 page 196.
- ^ a b Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 page 690.
- ^ a b Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 pages 690–691.
- ^ Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 page 681.
- ^ Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 page 682.
- ^ Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 pages 683–684.
- ^ a b c d e Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 page 684.
- ^ Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 pages 684–685.
- ^ Masalha, N "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33" pages 679–693 from Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 27, Issue # 4, October 1991 pages 689–690.
- ^ Osman, Khalil Sectarianism in Iraq: The Making of State and Nation Since 1920, London: Routledge, 2014 page 71
- ^ Time, 28 August 1933
- ^ Rasit
- ISBN 9781860643316. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
- ^ "Family tree". alhussein.gov. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
Further reading
- Masalha, N. (October 1991). "Faisal's Pan-Arabism, 1921–33". Middle Eastern Studies. 27 (4): 679–693. JSTOR 4283470.
- Simon, Reeva S. (June 1974). "The Hashemite 'Conspiracy': Hashemite Unity Attempts, 1921–1958". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 5 (3): 314–327. S2CID 162677596.
- Allawi, Ali A. (2014). Faisal I of Iraq. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12732-4.
- Tripp, Charles (2007). A History of Iraq (3 ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87823-4.
External links
- "Border Massacre". Time. 28 August 1933. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
- "Death of Feisal". Time. 18 September 1933. Archived from the original on 9 October 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
- "Dreaming in Arabic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
- "King Faisal of Iraq". Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- Newspaper clippings about Faisal I of Iraq in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW