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Background

Further information: Sharifate of Mecca

In 1908, the Young Turks took over the Ottoman Empire, and in 1909 when a counter-coup failed, the Young Turks "secularized" the government. Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, was appointed by the previous Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and did not favor the Young Turks; his opposition to the empire grew over time, culminating in the Arab Revolt.⁷

Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif and Emir of Mecca from 1908,⁸ enthroned himself as King of the Hejaz after proclaiming the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire,⁹ and continued to hold both of the offices of Sharif and King from 1916 to 1924.¹⁰ At the end of his reign he also briefly laid claim to the office of Sharifian Caliph; he was a 37th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad, as he belongs to the Hashemite family.¹¹ A member of the Dhawu Awn clan (Banu Hashim) from the Qatadid emirs of Mecca, he was perceived to have rebellious inclinations and in 1893 was summoned to Istanbul, where he was kept on the Council of State.¹² In 1908, in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution, he was appointed Emir of Mecca by the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II.¹³ In 1916, with the promise of British support for Arab independence, he proclaimed the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, accusing the Committee of Union and Progress of violating tenets of Islam and limiting the power of the sultan-caliph. Shortly after the outbreak of the revolt, Hussein declared himself "King of the Arab Countries". However, his pan-Arab aspirations were not accepted by the Allies, who recognized him only as King of the Hejaz.

In the aftermath of World War I, Hussein refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, in protest at the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of British and French mandates in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. He later refused to sign the Anglo-Hashemite Treaty and thus deprived himself of British support when his kingdom was attacked by Ibn Saud. After the Kingdom of Hejaz was invaded by the Al Saud-Wahhabi armies of the Ikhwan, on 23 December 1925 King Hussein bin Ali surrendered to the Saudis, bringing both the Kingdom of Hejaz and the Sharifate of Mecca to an end.¹⁴

History

In their capacity as Caliphs, the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire would appoint an official known as the Sharif of Mecca. The role went to a member of the Hashemite family, but the Sultans typically promoted Hashemite intra-familial rivalries in their choice, preventing the building of a solid base of power in the Sharif.

With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Sultan, Mehmed V, in his capacity as Caliph, declared a jihad against the Entente powers. The British in particular hoped to co-opt the Sharif as a weighty alternative religious figure backing them in the conflict. The British already had a series of treaties with other Arab leaders in the region and were also fearful that the Hejaz could be used as a base to attack their shipping to and from India.

The Sharif was cautious but, after discovering that the Ottomans planned to remove and possibly murder him, agreed to work with the British if they would support a wider Arab Revolt and the establishment of an independent Arab Kingdom — the British implied they would. After the Ottomans executed other Arab nationalist leaders in Damascus and Beirut, the Hejaz rose against and soundly defeated them, almost completely expelling them (Medina remaining under Ottoman control throughout).

In June 1916, Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, declared himself King of Hejaz as his Sharifian Army participated with other Arab Forces and the British Empire in expelling the Ottomans from the Arabian Peninsula.¹⁵¹⁶

The US State Department quotes an aide-mémoire dated 24 October 1917 given by the Arab Bureau to the American Diplomatic Agency in Cairo confirming that

...Great Britain, France and Russia agreed to recognize the Sherif as lawful independent ruler of the Hedjaz and to use the title of "King of the Hedjaz" when addressing him, and a note to this effect was handed to him on 10 December 1916.¹⁷

The British, though, were compromised by their agreement to give the French control of Syria (comprising modern-day Syria and Lebanon) and did not, in Hussein's eyes, honour their commitments. Nevertheless, they did eventually create Hashemite-ruled kingdoms (in protectorate form) in Transjordan and in Iraq, as well as Hejaz. The changing boundaries of the Ottoman Hejaz Vilayet contributed to uncertainties between the neighbouring Hashemite kingdoms, particularly the competing claim with Transjordan over the inclusion of the sanjak of Ma'an, including the cities of Ma'an and Aqaba.

King Hussein refused to ratify the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, and in response to a 1921 British proposal to sign a treaty accepting the Mandate system stated that he could not be expected to "affix his name to a document assigning Palestine to the Zionists and Syria to foreigners."¹⁸ A further British attempt to reach a treaty failed in 1923–24, and negotiations were suspended in March 1924;¹⁹ within six months the British withdrew their support in favour of their central Arabian ally Ibn Saud, who proceeded to conquer Hussein's Kingdom.²⁰

The League of Nations Covenant provided for membership to the signatories of the Peace Treaties; the Hejaz was one of two (the other one was the United States) that failed to ratify Versailles.²¹²²

Kings of Hejaz

See also

• History of Saudi Arabia
• T. E. Lawrence
• Sharifate of Mecca
• Sharifian Caliphate
• Faisal–Weizmann agreement

Bibliography

• Mousa, Suleiman (1978). "A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 9 (2): 183–194. doi:10.1017/S0020743800000052. S2CID 163677445.
• Huneidi, Sahar, ed. (2001). A Broken Trust: Sir Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians. I.B.Tauris. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-86064-172-5.
• Malik Dahlan (2018). The Hijaz: The First Islamic State. Oxford University Press. pp. 133–. ISBN 978-0-19-093501-6.

Saudi Arabia portal

References

1. Mousa 1978, p. 185. - Mousa, Suleiman (1978). "A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 9 (2): 183–194. doi:10.1017/S0020743800000052. S2CID 163677445. https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0020743800000052 ↩

2. Huneidi 2001, pp. 71–72. - Huneidi, Sahar, ed. (2001). A Broken Trust: Sir Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians. I.B.Tauris. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-86064-172-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=sY27UmuT6-4C&pg=PA84 ↩

3. Huneidi 2001, p. 72. - Huneidi, Sahar, ed. (2001). A Broken Trust: Sir Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians. I.B.Tauris. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-86064-172-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=sY27UmuT6-4C&pg=PA84 ↩

4. Mai Yamani (13 October 2009), Cradle of Islam: the Hijaz and the quest for an Arabian identity (Pbk. ed.), I.B. Tauris (published 2009), ISBN 978-1-84511-824-2 978-1-84511-824-2 ↩

5. Madawi Al Rasheed. A History of Saudi Arabia. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ↩

6. A Brief overview of Hejaz – Hejaz history http://www.rogersstudy.co.uk/hejaz/about.html ↩

7. Dividing the Middle East – The Great Loot – Extra History – #1, 2 May 2020, archived from the original on 17 November 2021, retrieved 24 March 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2L6L37GGAY ↩

8. Kayali, Hasan (2023) [1997]. "A Case Study in Centralization: The Hijaz under Young Turk Rule, 1908–1914". Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 147–173. ISBN 9780520204461. 9780520204461 ↩

9. Roshwald, Aviel (2013). "Part II. The Emergence of Nationalism: Politics and Power – Nationalism in the Middle East, 1876–1945". In Breuilly, John (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 220–241. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199209194.013.0011. ISBN 9780191750304. 9780191750304 ↩

10. Kayali, Hasan (2023) [1997]. "A Case Study in Centralization: The Hijaz under Young Turk Rule, 1908–1914". Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 147–173. ISBN 9780520204461. 9780520204461 ↩

11. Kayali, Hasan (2023) [1997]. "A Case Study in Centralization: The Hijaz under Young Turk Rule, 1908–1914". Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 147–173. ISBN 9780520204461. 9780520204461 ↩

12. Kayali, Hasan (2023) [1997]. "A Case Study in Centralization: The Hijaz under Young Turk Rule, 1908–1914". Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 147–173. ISBN 9780520204461. 9780520204461 ↩

13. Kayali, Hasan (2023) [1997]. "A Case Study in Centralization: The Hijaz under Young Turk Rule, 1908–1914". Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 147–173. ISBN 9780520204461. 9780520204461 ↩

14. Peters, Francis E. (2017) [1994]. Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton, New Jersey and Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press. p. 397. ISBN 9781400887361. OCLC 468351969. 9781400887361 ↩

15. Randall Baker (1979), King Husain and the Kingdom of Hejaz, Cambridge, England. New York: Oleander Press, ISBN 978-0-900891-48-9 978-0-900891-48-9 ↩

16. Joshua Teitelbaum (2001), The rise and fall of the Hashimite Kingdom of Arabia, New York University Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-8271-2 978-0-8147-8271-2 ↩

17. Division of Near Eastern Affairs (1931). Mandate for Palestine (PDF) (Report). United States State Department. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190525101232/http://education.mei.edu/sites/default/files/mei_library/pdf/6855.pdf ↩

18. Mousa 1978, p. 185. - Mousa, Suleiman (1978). "A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 9 (2): 183–194. doi:10.1017/S0020743800000052. S2CID 163677445. https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0020743800000052 ↩

19. Huneidi 2001, pp. 71–72. - Huneidi, Sahar, ed. (2001). A Broken Trust: Sir Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians. I.B.Tauris. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-86064-172-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=sY27UmuT6-4C&pg=PA84 ↩

20. Huneidi 2001, p. 72. - Huneidi, Sahar, ed. (2001). A Broken Trust: Sir Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians. I.B.Tauris. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-86064-172-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=sY27UmuT6-4C&pg=PA84 ↩

21. Christian J Tams. "League of Nations, B.2.Membership". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/e519. Retrieved 2 June 2019. https://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e519 ↩

22. LoN Hejaz, HC Deb 17 March 1930 vol 236 c1714. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1930/mar/17/league-of-nations-hejaz ↩