Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca

Hussein ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Mu'in ibn Awn was born in Istanbul in 1853 or 1854 as the eldest son of Sharif Ali ibn Muhammad, who was the second son of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Mu'in, the former Emir of Mecca. As a sharif he was a descendant of Muhammad through his grandson Hasan ibn Ali and a member of the ancient Hashemite house. His mother Bezm-i Cihan, the wife of Ali, was a Circassian.[2]

He belonged to the Dhawu Awn clan of the Abadilah, a branch of the Banu Qatadah tribe. The Banu Qatadah had ruled the Emirate of Mecca since the assumption of their ancestor Qatadah ibn Idris in 1201, and were the last of four dynasties of sharifs that altogether had ruled Mecca since the 10th century.

In 1827 Sharif Muhammad ibn Abd al-Mu'in was appointed to the Emirate, becoming the first Emir from the Dhawu Awn and bringing an end to the centuries-long dominance of the Dhawu Zayd. He reigned until 1851, when he was replaced by Sharif Abd al-Muttalib ibn Ghalib of the Dhawu Zayd. After being deposed he was sent along with his family and sons to reside in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. It was there that Hussein was born to Muhammad's son Ali in 1270 AH (1853/1854). Muhammad was reappointed to the Emirate in 1856, and Hussein, then aged two or three, accompanied his father and grandfather back to Mecca.[2] However, Muhammad died in 1858 and was succeeded by his eldest son Sharif Abd Allah Pasha. A few years later, in 1278 AH (1861/1862), Ali was recalled to Istanbul while Hussein remained in the Hejaz under the care of his uncle Abd Allah.

Hussein was raised at home unlike other young sharifs, who were customarily sent outside of the city to grow up among the nomadic Bedouin. Reportedly a studious youth, he mastered the principles of the Arabic language and was also educated in Islamic law and doctrine. Among his teachers was Shaykh Muhammad Mahmud at-Turkizi ash-Shinqiti, with whom he studied the seven Mu'allaqat. With Shaykh Ahmad Zayni Dahlan he studied the Qur'an, completing its memorization before he was 20 years old.[2][3][4]

During Abd Allah's reign, Hussein became familiar with the politics and intrigue surrounding the sharifian court. He also participated in numerous expeditions to Nejd and the eastern regions of the Hejaz to meet with the Arab tribes, over whom the Emir exerted a loose form of control. He learned the ways of the Bedouin, including the skills needed to withstand the harsh desert environment. In his travels he gained a deep knowledge of the desert flora and fauna, and developed a liking for humayni verse, a type of vernacular poetry (malhun) of the Bedouin. He also practiced horse-riding and hunting.[2]

In 1287 AH (1871/1872) Hussein traveled to Constantinople to visit his father, who had fallen ill. He returned to Mecca after his father's death later that year.[5]

In 1875, he married Abd Allah's daughter Abdiyah. In 1877 Abd Allah died, and Hussein and his cousin Ali ibn Abd Allah were conferred the rank of pasha.

Abd Allah was succeeded by his brother, Sharif Husayn Pasha. After Husayn was assassinated in 1880, the Sultan reinstated Abd al-Muttalib of the Dhawu Zayd as Emir. Displeased at the removal of the Dhawu Awn line from the Emirate, Hussein traveled to Istanbul with two cousins, Ali and Muhammad, and their uncle Abd al-Ilah. However they were ordered to return to Mecca by the Sultan, whose intelligence services suspected that the sharifs were conspiring with European powers, particularly the British, to return the Sharifate to their clan.

The Emirate returned to the Dhawu Awn in 1882 with the deposition of Abd al-Muttalib and the appointment of Sharif Awn ar-Rafiq Pasha, the next eldest of the remaining sons of Sharif Muhammad.

Following the removal of his predecessor in October and the sudden death of his successor shortly thereafter, Hussein was appointed grand sharif by official decree of the sultan Abdülhamid on 24 November 1908.[6]

Sayyid Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca, King of Hejaz

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 "...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 December 10, 1916"[9]

When Hussein declared himself King of the Hejaz, he also declared himself King of the Arab lands (malik bilad-al-Arab). This only aggravated his conflict with Abdulaziz ibn Saud, which was already present because of their differences in religious beliefs and with whom he had fought before the First World War, siding with fellow anti-Saudis, the Ottomans in 1910.

Arab Revolt

Main article: Arab Revolt

Drawing by Khalil Gibran, 1916

On the 2nd of Muharram 1335 (Oct 30 1916), Emir Abdullah called a meeting of majlis where he read a letter in which "Husayn ibn Ali was recognized as sovereign of the Arab nation. Then all those present arose and proclaimed him Malik al-Arab, King of the Arabs."[10]

Exile and abdication

Sharif Hussein in Amman, Transjordan before he left for Aqaba

Two days after the Turkish Caliphate was abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 3 March 1924, Hussein declared himself Caliph at his son Abdullah's winter camp in Shunah, Transjordan.[13] The claim to the title had a mixed reception, and Hussein was soon ousted and driven out of Arabia by the Saudis, a rival clan that had no interest in the Caliphate. Abd-ul-aziz ibn Sa'ud defeated Hussein in 1924, but he continued to use the title of Caliph when living in Transjordan. Although the British had supported Hussein from the start of the Arab Revolt and the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, they elected not to help him to repel the Saudi attack, which eventually took Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah. After his abdication, another of his sons, Ali, briefly assumed the throne of the Hejaz, but then he too had to flee from the encroachment of the Saudi forces. Another of Hussein's sons, Faisal, was briefly King of Syria and later King of Iraq, while Abdullah was Emir.

King Hussein was then forced to flee to Amman, Transjordan, where his son Abdullah was Emir. During this period, King Hussein is described as having "continued to behave like a king, receiving Arab delegation that indulged him with empty assurances of their loyalty". He is also described as having frequently "quarreled" with his son Emir Abdullah, as Hussein saw himself as more worthy of ruling. Eventually, Emir Abdullah "withdrew" his welcome of his father and sent him to live in Aqaba (which was recently transferred from Hijazi to Transjordanian sovereignty by the British).[14]

Finally, Hussein was exiled from Aqaba to British-controlled Cyprus where he lived with his son Zaid until he was paralyzed by a stroke at age 79 in 1930,[14][15] and subsequently being reinvited by Emir Abdullah to live in Amman, Transjordan.

Sharif Hussein bin Ali last days in Amman Transjordan

King Hussein died in Amman in 1931 and was buried in Jerusalem on the Haram esh-Sharif or "Temple Mount" in a walled enclosure decorated with white marble and carpets.[16]

The funeral of King Hussein in Jerusalem, 1931.

Hussein, who had four wives, fathered five sons and three daughters with three of his wives:

• Sharifa Abidiya bint Abdullah Khanum (died Istanbul, Turkey, 1888, buried there), eldest daughter of his paternal uncle, Amir Abdullah Kamil Pasha, Grand Sharif of Mecca;
• Madiha Khanum, a Circassian;
• Sharifa Khadija bint Abdullah Khanum (1866 - Amman, Transjordan, 4 July 1921), second daughter of Amir Abdullah Kamil Pasha, Grand Sharif of Mecca;
• Queen Adila Khanum (Istanbul, Turkey, 1879 - Larnaca, Cyprus, 12 July 1929, buried there at the Hala Sultan, Umm Haram, Tekke), daughter of Salah Bey, a Circassian, and granddaughter of Mustafa Rashid Pasha, sometime Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire;

With his first wife Abidiya bint Abdullah he had:

• Prince Ali, last King of Hejaz married to Nafisa bint Abdullah. Parents of Aliya bint Ali. Grandparents of Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein.
• Hasan bin Hussein, died young.
• Prince Abdullah, Emir (later King) of Transjordan, married to Musbah bint Nasser, Suzdil Hanum, and Nahda bint Uman.
• Princess Fatima, married a European Muslim businessman from France.
• Prince Faisal, later King of Iraq and Syria, married to Huzaima bint Nasser. Parents of Ghazi, King of Iraq born 1912 died 4 April 1939, married his first cousin, Princess Aliya bint Ali, daughter of HM King Ali of Hejaz.

With his second wife Madiha Khanum he had:

• Princess Saleha, married Abdullah bin Muhammed.

With his third wife Adila Khanum he had:

• Princess Sara, married Muhammad Atta Amin in July 1933, divorced September 1933.
• Prince Zeid, who succeeded in pretense King Faisal II of Iraq upon his assassination in 1958, but never actually ruled as Iraq became a republic. Married to Fahrelnissa Kabaağaç.

• 
  Ali King of Hejaz
• 
  Abdullah King of Transjordan/Jordan 1921-1951
• 
  Faisal King of Greater Syria 1920 and King of Iraq 1921-1933
• 
  Prince Zeid
• 
  Royal Standard of the King of Hejaz

In the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, Alec Guinness portrayed Prince Faisal, Sharif Hussein's son. In the 1992 film "A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia", Alexander Siddig portrayed Prince Faisal taking part in the negotiations of the Paris Peace Conference, as a representative of the House of Hashemites, to claim independence of the Arab nation.

• Battle of Mecca 1916
• Siege of Medina
• Suleiman Mousa
• Sharifian Caliphate

Notes

References

• Peters, Francis Edward (1994). Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691032672.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) - Total pages: 473
• Teitelbaum, Joshua (2001). The Rise and Fall of the Hashemite Kingdom of the Hijaz. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 1-85065-460-3

• Newspaper clippings about Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW