Faisal I of Iraq
Faisal bin Husayn (
Arabic:
فيصل بن حسين May 20,
1883 –
September 8,
1933) was for a short while king of
Greater Syria in
1920 and
king of Iraq from
1921 to
1933. He was a member of the
Hashemite dynasty.
He was born in
Taif (in present-day
Saudi Arabia) in
1883, the third son of
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, the
Grand Sharif of Mecca. In
1913 he was elected as representative for the city of
Jeddah for the
Ottoman parliament.
In
1916, on a mission to
Constantinople he visited
Damascus twice. On one of these visits, he received the
Damascus Protocol, he joined with the
Al-Fatat group of Arab nationalists, and his father became king of
Hijaz. Faisal also worked with the Allies during
World War I in their conquest of
Transjordan and the capture of
Damascus, where he became part of a new Arab government in
1918.
 |
1918. Emir Faisal I and Chaim Weizmann (left, also wearing Arab outfit as a sign of friendship) |
He led the Arab delegation to the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and, with the support of the knowledgeable and influential
Gertrude Bell, argued for the establishment of independent
Arab emirates for the area previously covered by the
Ottoman Empire. His role in the Arab Revolt was described by
T.E. Lawrence in
"Seven Pillars of Wisdom", although the accuracy of that book has been criticised by historians.
On
January 3,
1919, Faisal and Dr.
Chaim Weizmann, President of the
World Zionist Organization signed the
Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, in which Faisal conditionally accepted the
Balfour Declaration based on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of independence to the Arabs. These were not kept [
1].
On
March 7,
1920, he was made king of Greater Syria by the
Syrian National Congress. But in April
1920, the
Sanremo conference gave
France the mandate for
Syria, which led to the
battle of Maysalun on
July 24,
1920; Faisal was expelled from
Syria by the
French and went to live in the
United Kingdom in August that year.
The
British government, mandate holders in
Iraq, were concerned at the unrest in the new country. They decided to step back from direct administration and create a
monarchy to head
Iraq while they maintained the mandate. Following a
plebiscite showing 96% in favour, Faisal agreed to become king; so, in August
1921 he was made
king of Iraq.
He was instrumental in making his country fully independent in 1932.
He died on
September 8,
1933, when he had a
heart attack whilst he was staying in
Bern,
Switzerland. He was succeeded on the throne by his son
Ghazi.
He has been twice portrayed on film: in
David Lean's epic
Lawrence of Arabia (1962), played by
Alec Guiness, and in the unofficial sequel to
Lawrence,
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990) by
Alexander Siddig.
