Everything about Abdullah I Of Jordan totally explained
Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan born in
Mecca,
Saudi Arabia in (
1882 -
July 20,
1951) (
Arabic: عبد الله الأول بن الحسين), to
Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca then King of
Hejaz and his first wife Abdiya bint Abdullah. He was
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 since he was the founder of Jordan.
Founding of the Emirate of Trans-Jordan
When French forces captured
Damascus at the
Battle of Maysalun and expelled his brother
Faisal, Abdullah moved his forces from Hejaz towards Syria to liberate Syria and dislodge the French from Damascus, where his brother had been proclaimed King in 1918. Having heard of Abdullah's plans,
Winston Churchill invited Abdullah to a famous "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 didn't 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.
Expansionist aspirations
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.
In 1946-1947, Abdullah had no intention to "resist or impede the partition of Palestine and creation of a
Jewish state." 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. 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 [atthe meetings] don't 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". According to Karsh, the meetings in question concerned "an agreement based on the imminent U.N. Partition Resolution, [inMeir'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". His forces under their British commander
Glubb Pasha didn't approach the area set aside for the new Israel, though they clashed with the Yishuv forces around Jerusalem, intended to be the International Zone.
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." who according to
Alec Kirkbride, the British Resident in Amman, was a "former terrorist". 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 bastardly crime Jordan ever witnessed." 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 Prince Hussein became the effective ruler as
King Hussein at the age of seventeen.
Marriages and children
Abdullad had married three times.
In 1904, Abdullah married his first wife
Musbah bint Nasser (1884 -
15 March,
1961) at Stinia Palace,
Constantinople,
Turkey. She was a daughter of
Emir Nasser Pasha and his wife Dilber Khanum. They had three children:
In 1913, Abdullah married his second wife Suzdil Khanum (d.
16 August,
1968), at Constantinople. They had two children:
HRH Prince Naif (14 November, 1914 - 12 October, 1983). A Colonel of the Royal Jordanian Land Force. Regent for his older half-brother Talal from 20 July to 3 September, 1951). Father of Prince Ali and Prince Asem.
HRH Princess Maqbula (6 February, 1921 - 1 January, 2001). Married Hussein bin Nasser, Prime Minister of Jordan (terms 1963 - 1964, 1967).
In 1949, Abdullah married his third wife Nahda bint Uman, a lady from Sudan, in Amman. They had no children.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Abdullah I Of Jordan'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://abdullah_i_of_jordan.totallyexplained.com">Abdullah I of Jordan Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
