The
son of Hussein bin Ali the Grand Sheriff of Mecca and the ruler of Hijaz
(1916-1924). He was quite gifted in politics the matter that made his father
to depend on him in the negotiations with Britain and in the peace
conference of Paris 1919. In addition he led his father's troops in the Arab
revolt against the Ottoman empire in 1916. He succeeded in taking most of
Syria and he declared himself as a king of Syria in September 1918 with the
blessings of the leaders of the nascent Arab-Nationalism movement. However,
The French forced him to leave the thrown of Syria very abruptly after the
failure of the negotiations and he was forced into a temporarily exile in
Britain.
The
British administration of the occupied Iraq at the time had enough troubles
with controlling the violent resentment of the Iraqi people for the
occupation. Specially after the August 1920 revolt in almost all over the
country it was decided by the British government to change it's presence in
Iraq into an indirect one by giving Iraqis their own government. Faysal was
the most appropriate candidate for the suggested Iraqi throne, and he had
the support of the local national movement. Subsequently he was crowned on
the 23rd of August 1921 as Faysal I of Iraq after a referendum controlled by
the British administration.
Through his reign he had a wide support of the local power poles in Iraq and
the region. His governments managed to sign different treaties with Britain
and achieving the independence in 1932 when Iraq became a full member of the
league of nations. He died in the 8th of December 1933 in a clinic in Bern,
Switzerland after having heart problems.
