Abdullah I of Jordan
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as-Sayyid Abdullah I, King of Jordan GBE, GCMG (1882 – July 20, 1951 by assassination) (Arabic: عبد الله الأول), also known as as-Sayyid Abdullah bin al-Husayn (Arabic: عبد الله بن الحسين `as=Sayyid Abd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn), was, successively, Emir of Transjordan (1921–1946) under a British Mandate, then King of Transjordan (May 25, 1946–1949), and King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (1949–1951). He is also frequently called King Abdullah the Founder (عبدالله المؤسس), since he was the founder of Jordan.
The son of the Hashemite as-Sayyid Husayn ibn Ali, he had two sons and three daughters: (1) H.M King Talal bin Abdulla; (2) H.R.H Prince Nayef bin Abdulla; (3) H.R.H Princess Hayd bint Abdulla; (4) H.R.H Princess Munera bint Abdullah; (5) H.R.H Princess Maqbouleh bint Abdulla. When the French forces captured Damascus at the battle of Maysloun, and expelled his brother Faysal, Abdullah moved his forces from Hejaz towards Syria to liberate Syria and dislodge the French from Damascus, where his brother was proclaimed King in 1918. Having heard of Abdullah's plans, Winston Churchill invited Abdullah to the infamous "tea party" where he convinced Abdullah to stay put and not attack Britain's allies, the French. Churchill told Abdullah that French forces were superior to his and that the British did not want any trouble with French. Abdullah acquiesced and was rewarded when the British created a protectorate for him, which later became a state; Transjordan. He embarked on negotiations with the British to gain independence, resulting in the announcement of the Emirate of Trans-Jordan’s independence on May 25, 1923. This date is Jordan’s official independence day. His brother Faisal became King of Iraq.
Prime Ministers under Abdullah formed 18 governments during the 23 years of the Emirate.
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[edit] Expansionist aspirations
- See also: 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Abdullah, alone among the Arab leaders of his generation, was a moderate with a modestly pro-Western outlook. He would actually have signed a separate peace agreement with Israel, but for the Arab League's militant opposition. Because of his dream for a Greater Syria comprising the borders of what was then Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the British Mandate for Palestine under a Hashemite dynasty with "a throne in Damascus," many Arab countries distrusted Abdullah and saw him as both "a threat to the independence of their countries and they also suspected him of being in cahoots with the enemy" and in return, Abdullah distrusted the leaders of other Arab counties.[1][2][3]
In 1946-1947, Abdullah had no intention to "resist or impede the partition of Palestine and creation of a Jewish state."[4] Historian Eugene L. Rogan wrote that Abdullah actually supported partition in order so that the allocated areas of the British Mandate for Palestine could be annexed into Transjordan. According to this thesis, Abdullah went so far as to have secret meetings with the Jewish Agency (future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was among the delegates to these meetings) that came to a mutually agreed upon partition plan independently of the United Nations, and that the plan even had approval from British authorities.[5] This idea of secret Zionist-Hashemite negotiations in 1947 was in fact first proposed by New Historian Avi Shlaim in his book Collusion Across The Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine.
The claim has, however, been strongly disputed by Israeli historian Efraim Karsh. In an article in Middle East Quarterly, he alleged that "extensive quotations from the reports of all three Jewish participants [at the meetings] do not support Shlaim's account...the report of Golda Meir (the most important Israeli participant and the person who allegedly clinched the deal with Abdullah) is conspicuously missing from Shlaim's book, despite his awareness of its existence".[6] According to Karsh, the meetings in question concerned "an agreement based on the imminent U.N. Partition Resolution, [in Meir's words] "to maintain law and order until the UN could establish a government in that area"; namely, a short-lived law enforcement operation to implement the UN Partition Resolution, not obstruct it".[7]
By 1948, the neighboring Arab states pressured Abdullah into joining them in an "all-Arab military intervention" against the newly created State of Israel, which he used to restore his prestige in the Arab world, which had grown suspicious of his relatively good relationship with Western and Jewish leaders.[4] Abdullah's role in this war became substantial. He saw himself as the "supreme commander of the Arab forces" and "persuaded the Arab League to appoint him" to this position.[8] His forces under their British commander Glubb Pasha did not approach the area set aside for the new Israel, though they clashed with the Yishuv forces around Jerusalem, intended to be the International Zone.
[edit] Assassination
On July 20, 1951, Abdullah, while visiting Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, was shot dead by Mustapha Shukri Usho, "a Palestinian from the Husseini clan."[4] On July 16, Riad Bey al-Solh, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, had been assassinated in Amman, where rumors were circulating that Lebanon and Jordan were discussing a joint separate peace with Israel. The assassin passed through apparently heavy security. Abdullah was in Jerusalem to give a eulogy at the funeral and was shot while attending Friday prayers at the Dome of the Rock in the company of his grandson, Prince Hussein.[citation needed] The Palestinian gunman, motivated by fears that the old king would make a separate peace with Israel, fired three fatal bullets into the King's head and chest. Abdullah's grandson, Prince Hussein Ibn Talal was at his side and was hit too. A medal that had been pinned to Hussein's chest at his grandfather's insistence deflected the bullet and saved his life.[citation needed]
The assassin was 21-year-old tailor's apprentice Mustafa Ashu,[9] who according to Alec Kirkbride, the British Resident in Amman, was a "former terrorist".[10] Ten conspirators were accused of plotting the assassination and were brought to trial in Amman. The prosecution named Colonel Abdullah Tell, ex-Military Governor of Jerusalem, and Dr. Musa Abdullah Husseini as the chief plotters of "the most dastardly crime Jordan ever witnessed."[citation needed] The Jordanian prosecutor asserted that Col. Tell had given instructions that the killer, made to act alone, be slain at once thereafter to shield the instigators of the crime. Tell and Husseini fled to protection in Egypt and four local co-conspirators were sentenced to death in Amman. Jerusalem sources added that Col. Tell had been in close contact with the former "Grand Mufti of Jerusalem", Amin al-Husayni, and his adherents in Arab Palestine.
Abdullah was succeeded by his son Talal; however, since Talal was mentally ill, Talal's son – the aforementioned Prince Hussein – became the effective ruler as King Hussein at the age of seventeen. Hussein was in turn succeeded by his son, King Abdullah II.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Shlaim, 2001, 82.
- ^ Tripp, 2001, 136.
- ^ Landis, 2001, 179-184
- ^ a b c Sela, 2002, 14.
- ^ Rogan, 2001, 109-110.
- ^ [1] Karsh, 1996
- ^ [2] Karsh, 1996
- ^ Tripp, 2001, 137.
- ^ Michael T. Thornhill, ‘Abdullah ibn Hussein (1882–1951)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 24 November 2006
- ^ Wilson, 1990, p. 211.
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_abdulla.php
[edit] References
- Rogan, Eugene L., ed., and Avi Shlaim, ed. The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.
- Landis, Joshua. "Syria and the Palestine War: fighting King 'Abdullah's 'Greater Syria plan.'" Rogan and Shlaim. The War for Palestine. 178-205.
- Rogan, Eugene L. "Jordan and 1948: the persistence of an official history." Rogan and Shlaim. The War for Palestine. 104-124.
- Shlaim, Avi. "Israel and the Arab coalition in 1948." Rogan and Shlaim. The War for Palestine. 79-103.
- Tripp, Charles. "Iraq and the 1948 War: mirror of Iraq's disorder." Rogan and Shlaim. The War for Palestine. 125-150.
- Sela, Avraham. "Abdallah Ibn Hussein." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 13-14.
- Shlaim, Avi (1990). The Politics of Partition; King Abdullah, the Zionists and Palestine 1921-1951 . Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07365-8.
- Wilson, Mary Chrstina (1990). King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39987-4.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by New creation |
Emir of Transjordan under the British Mandate 1923 – 1946 |
Succeeded by Kingdom |
| Preceded by The Emirate |
King of Transjordan 1946–1949 |
Succeeded by King of Jordan |
| Preceded by King of Transjordan |
King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 1949–1951 |
Succeeded by H.M King Talal bin Abdulla |
