Everything about Faisal I totally explained
Faisal bin Al Hussein Bin Ali El-Hashemi ,
GCB,
GCMG (
Fayṣal ibn Ḥusayn;
May 20,
1883 –
September 8,
1933) was for a short time king of
Greater Syria in
1920 and
king of Iraq from August 23
1921 to
1933. He was a member of the
Hashemite dynasty, a descendant of the tribe of
Muhammad.
Early life
He was born in
Ta'if (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
Istanbul, he visited
Damascus twice. On one of these visits he received the
Damascus Protocol, joined with the
Al-Fatat group of Arab nationalists, and his father became king of
Hijaz.
First World War
Faisal sided with
Great Britain in
World War I and with the help of
T. E. Lawrence organised a
revolt against the
Ottoman Empire and this way helped ending the
Caliphate. He conquered
Medina after a long siege, after defeating the defense organized by the
Ottoman Fakhri Pasha.
Some of Faisal's critics considered fighting alongside
Christians as a betrayal to
Islam. This motivated
Iqbal to write against him. Though Faisal was a descendant of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad,
Arab nationalism and independence, not religion, was his main motivation.
Faisal also worked with the
Allies during
World War I in their conquest of
Greater Syria and the capture of
Damascus, where he became part of a new Arab government in
1918.
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 criticized 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 promises were not immediately fulfilled, but 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 and the U.N., so Weizmann argued that the fulfillment was kept eventually and therefore the agreement still held.
King of Iraq
On
March 7,
1920 he was made king of Greater Syria by the Syrian National Congress. In April
1920, the
San Remo 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 of that year.
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
plebiscite showing 96% in favor, Faisal agreed to become king. In August
1921 he was made
king of Iraq.
He was instrumental in making his country nominally independent in 1932.
He died on
September 8,
1933 when he'd a
heart attack whilst he was staying in
Berne,
Switzerland. He was succeeded on the throne by his oldest son
Ghazi.
A square is named in his Honour at the end of
Haifa Street,
Baghdad where an equestrian statue of him stands. The statue was knocked down following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958, but later restored.
Marriage and Children
Faisal married twice: Huzaima bint Nasser and El-Sharifa Latifa Bint Hameed.
He had two sons and three daughters:
Film
He has been portrayed on film three times: in the 1951 film
Sirocco (dealing with the Syrian insurrection against France), by
Jeff Corey;
David Lean's epic
Lawrence of Arabia (1962), played by
Alec Guinness, and in the unofficial sequel to
Lawrence, (1990) by
Alexander Siddig. On video, he was portrayed in
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Chapter 19 The Winds of Change (1995) by Anthony Zaki.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Faisal I'.
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