Sharif Al-Hussein bin Ali bin Muhammad Al-Hashimi

Sharif Al-Hussein bin Ali bin Muhammad Al-Hashimi (1853 – 4 June 1931), founder of the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz, leader of the Great Arab Revolt at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the first to call for Arab independence from the rule of the Ottoman Empire. He belongs to the nobles of Bani Hashim and was nicknamed “King of the Arabs”.
He was born in Astana in 1853 while his father was there, and received his first education there, then returned to Mecca and lived under the care of his uncle, who brought him close to him and assigned him some tasks. His tendencies emerged calling for getting rid of foreign rule and achieving Arab independence, so he led armed revolutions against the Ottoman Empire for the sake of Arab independence. He was exiled to Astana in the year 1893 after a dispute with his uncle Aoun Al-Rafiq, and he stayed there for a while until he returned in 1908 as the Emir of Mecca to run the affairs of the country and aspires to complete Arab independence for which he was working.

Sharif Al-Hussein bin Ali married three times: the first was from his cousin Abdiya, who bore him three sons, in order: Ali, Abdullah and Faisal. Then he married the second time to a Circassian girl who bore him one daughter, but this marriage did not last long, and the third time he married Adela Khanum, the granddaughter of Rashid Pasha the Great, and she bore him his fourth son Zaid and two daughters: Fatima and Surra.

Sharif Al-Hussein worked to restore the status of the Hejaz emirate to its previous era and fix what had been corrupted by his uncle, who neglected security affairs and extorted money from pilgrims and failed to strike at the hands of the abusers. This led to his dispute with the Ottoman governors who were accomplices with his uncle. Sharif Hussein sought to preserve the safety of Hajj and pilgrims as one of the most important responsibilities of the Sharif of Mecca, and was strongly opposed to the policy of the Association of Progressive Union that took power in the Ottoman Empire, and as a result of its policies that were rejected by the Arabs, Sharif Hussein announced the Great Arab Revolt, when he fired the first shot From the honor of his palace in Mecca, he announced the start of military operations led by his sons, the princes Ali, Abdullah, Faisal and Zaid. Their armies advanced and achieved victories, ending the Ottoman presence in the Hijaz and the Levant, leading to the establishment of the Arab state first in Syria, then in Iraq and then in Jordan. After the end of World War I and the victory of the Allies and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Sharif Hussein represented at the Versailles Peace Conference his third son, Faisal, who refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles (1919), rejecting the mandate of Syria, Palestine and Iraq by France and Britain

Sharif Hussein refused the participation of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War and also refused to declare holy jihad and a general mobilization among Muslims, and the result of this decision was that the Union and Progress Society sought to remove him from his position and tried to assassinate him and his sons and end their influence in the Hijaz.

Sharif Hussein was firm and firm in his positions when it came to Palestine and Jerusalem, rejecting all treaties and agreements that did not explicitly state the Arabness of Palestine and Jerusalem. He made a donation for the reconstruction and restoration of Al-Aqsa Mosque after the mosque’s walls and ceilings were damaged. The people of Palestine and the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem valued this donation, as the restoration process contributed to the steadfastness of the facilities of Al-Aqsa Mosque when a violent earthquake struck the area in 1927.

Sharif Hussein was pledged allegiance after the end of the Great Arab Revolt to the king of the Arabs and declared himself the caliph of the Muslims, which was rejected by many Islamic groups and entities, and accused Sharif Hussein of breaking against the Ottoman governor and endangering the Islamic holy sites in Mecca and Medina. That the goal of Sharif Hussein’s revolution was to obtain the emirate or the caliphate, these events later led to his clash with some Arab tribes in the Hijaz, who did not see Sharif Hussein qualified for the position of caliphate and accused him of corruption in the land and was the beginning of the end of the Hashemite Hijazi kingdom, which fought in its last days a series Of the battles and wars with the Sultanate of Najd led by Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

Hussein was forced to abdicate the rule of the Hejaz to his eldest son Ali in an attempt to end the battles and in order to avoid the bloodshed and exile to Aqaba, King Ali failed to defend his kingdom in the Hejaz, which was not able to withstand Ibn Saud, and King Ali remained defending the Hejaz until he abdicated the king He left for Baghdad, and King Abdulaziz Al Saud was officially proclaimed King of the Hejaz by the unanimous consent of the residents of the major cities.

Sharif Hussein was exiled to Cyprus again in 1926, and he lived in exile until his health deteriorated, so he was transferred to Amman and spent his last days among his sons until he died in Raghadan Palace. His body was then transferred to Jerusalem and erected in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

His upbringing and childhood

Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the eldest son of Sharif Ali bin Muhammad, was born in Astana (the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul at present) in 1853, where his father and grandfather “Muhammad bin Abd al-Ma’in” had been exiled there since 1851 by order of the Ottoman Sultan. Sharif Hussein was born during the Sharif Emirate Abdul Muttalib bin Ghalib over Mecca, who was installed by the Ottoman Sultan in the place of Muhammad bin Abdul Maeen.
He received his first education in Astana, then moved to Mecca with his family at the age of three, after assigning the position of honor to his grandfather for the second time in 1856.

And when Al-Hussein came to Mecca, his father entrusted him to someone who would teach him the principles of reading and writing, some preparatory principles and a few surahs from the Qur’an. The tribes neighboring Mecca, and he was not raised by a pure Bedouin education in which they receive Bedouin morals in their livelihoods and train horseback riding and enduring hardships, so he grew up urban, and was fond of studying and reading. Sneh…». Among those who took al-Hussain from them were Sheikh Muhammad Mahmoud al-Taqazi al-Shanqiti, the historian Sheikh Ahmad Zaini Dahlan and others.

In the year 1858, his father traveled to Astana following the death of his grandfather, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Ma’in in the same year, while al-Husayn remained in Mecca receiving his education in private schools for supervision because there were no Arab schools at that time.
Al-Hussein was passionate about reading and learned about matters of religion and memorizing the Qur’an, then soon news reached him of his father’s ill health in Astana, so he traveled there and resided there and stayed with his father until he died in 1870.

Sharif Abdullah bin Muhammad (Al-Hussein’s uncle) had assumed honor in the year 1858 after the death of Muhammad bin Abdul-Ma’in. Al-Hussein returned from Astana to the Hijaz after the death of his father and lived under the care of his uncle, who brought him close to him and married him to his daughter (Abdiya) in 1875, and she is the mother of his children Ali Abdullah and Faisal, then his uncle prepared him to take responsibility and assigned him some tasks, so Al-Hussein traveled to Najd and toured in the eastern Hijaz to find out about the tribes and their clans, and tested the conditions of the Bedouins and their ways of life until he became the link between the Emir of Mecca and the Hijazi tribes and others.]
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The lineage of Sharif Al-Hussein bin Ali goes back to Al-Hassan bin Ali bin Abi Talib, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad by his daughter Fatima Al-Zahra.

His lineage is Al-Hussein bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Abdul Maeen bin Aoun bin Mohsen bin Abdullah bin Al-Hussein bin Abdullah bin Al-Hassan bin Muhammad Abu Nami the second bin Barakat the second bin Muhammad the first bin Barakat the first bin Al-Hassan bin Ajlan bin Rumaitha bin Muhammad Abu Nami the first bin Abu Saad al-Hassan ibn Ali al-Akbar ibn Qatada ibn Idris ibn Mutaan ibn Abd al-Karim ibn Issa ibn al-Husayn ibn Suleiman ibn Ali ibn Abdullah al-Akbar ibn Muhammad al-Tha’ir ibn Musa al-Thani ibn Abdullah Sheikh Saleh ibn Musa al-Jun ibn Abdullah al-Mahad ibn al-Hasan al-Muthanna ibn al-Hasan Bin Ali Bin Abi Talib Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi.

his family

Sharif Al-Hussein bin Ali’s mother is called Bazamjahan. He has one brother, Sharif Nasser (born in 1862), in addition to four sisters.

Sharif Hussein bin Ali married three times: the first of his cousin, Sharif Abdullah bin Muhammad (her name is Abdiya), who bore him three sons, who are in order: Ali bin Al Hussein (1879 – 1935), his eldest son, the second and last king of the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz, and Abdullah the First Ibn Al-Hussein (1882 – 1951) the founder and first king of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Faisal I bin Al-Hussein (1883 – 1933), the first king of the Kingdom of Iraq and former King of Syria, then married the second time, during his exile in Astana, to a Circassian girl named “Madiha” who bore him his son One woman named “Saliha” in 1894, but this marriage did not last long, and in the third time he married “Adila Khanum [English]” in 1897, a Turkish woman, the granddaughter of “Rashid Pasha the Great” and she bore him his fourth son, Zaid bin Al Hussein (1898 – 1970), who He served as Crown Prince of the Arab Kingdom of Syria, and had two daughters, Fatima and Surra (or Sarah).

Developments in his loyalty and his wars
The First World War broke out in the year 1332 AH / 1914 AD, and the spirit of resentment grew against the Ottomans in the Levant, Iraq and the Hijaz, and the British took advantage of the opportunity, while they were at war with the state of the Othman family and the Germans, so they contacted Sharif Hussein from Egypt, and promised him and congratulated him on a broad king who is Asia The full Arabic if he helped them and revolted against the Ottomans (through what was known as the correspondence of Hussein McMahon), he announced the Great Arab Revolt, and fired his first bullet in Mecca on the 9th of Sha’ban 1334 AH / 1916 AD, and besieged the Ottomans who were in the Hijaz, and his English allies provided him with money and weapons, and he was named As the savior king, he directed his son Faisal at the head of a large army to Syria and entered it with the British army.

His wars with the House of Saud:

And with the end of the war in 1918 AD, al-Husayn took over all of Hejaz. And he sent his second son Abdullah with a large army to subdue the oases of Turbah and Al-Khurmah in the east of Taif, and they were loyal to Ibn Saud, King Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman, the leader of Najd at that time, so he camped between them. Some of the men of the two oases, led by some loyalists to Ibn Saud, surprised him in the year 1337 AH / 1919 AD, so Abdullah bin Sharif Hussein was defeated and fled with a few remnants of his soldiers.

His wars in the Levant:
Al-Hussein lost in this campaign the largest force he had gathered. The French expelled his son, Faisal, from Syria after the Battle of Maysalun in 1920 AD, and occupied it. Some of its leaders sought help from Hussein, so he directed Abdullah to avenge his brother, or to gather on the borders of Syria a force that would be the nucleus of an army that worried the occupier. Abdullah approached her and landed in the town of Amman. The British invited him to Jerusalem. They agreed with him that he should have the Emirate of Transjordan, so he settled in Amman and forgot what he had come for. And the revolution of Iraq against the British worsened, so they helped Faisal to take the throne in Baghdad, and he assumed it. Al-Husayn had two powerful wings in the Hijaz: Faisal in the north of the Arabian Peninsula and Abdullah in the north-west. Ibn Saud gestured to him, wanting to be with him, but that did not happen.

He visited Amman in the year 1924 AD, and people pledged allegiance to him for the caliphate, and he returned to Mecca, nicknamed the Commander of the Faithful.

his negation

The tension between him and Ibn Saud intensified, so crowds from Najd, Turbah and Al-Khurmah came to the city of Taif, and they tore the army of Hussein stationed there, and occupied it. And panic spread to Mecca, so he contacted the British Consul in Jeddah, and this replied that his government decided to be neutral. Some of its people of opinion met in Jeddah and advised Hussein to relinquish the throne to his eldest son, Ali, and he did.

And he moved from Mecca to Jeddah in the year 1343 AH / 1924 AD, so he rode the sea to Aqaba, the last frontier of the Hijaz in the north, and his son Abdullah was in charge. He stayed for several months. Then his son told him that the British believed that his stay there (Aqaba) might induce Ibn Saud to attack it. And he received a British warning that he should leave her. A British armored vehicle arrived at its port, and he rode it “in discontentment” to the island of Cyprus in 1925 AD, and he lived there for six years, then he fell ill and the British authorized him to return to Oman. His two sons, Faisal and Abdullah, came to him and accompanied him to her.

his death:

He remained ill for six months and days, and passed away in the year 1350 AH / 1931 AD, so he was carried to Jerusalem and buried there.