Rulers of Mecca According to historians
Ibn Khaldun and
Ibn Hazm, in
Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Hasani came from
Medina and conquered
Mecca in the name of the
Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz, after the latter had
conquered Egypt from the
Ikhshidids. Jafar was from the wider
Banu Hashim clan, albeit a different branch to the modern dynasty. The Banu Hashim claim to trace their ancestry from
Hashim ibn Abd Manaf (died c. 497 AD), the great-grandfather of
Muhammad, although the definition today mainly refers to the descendants of
Fatimah bint Asad and her son
Ali ibn Abi Talib, the usurped successor of Muhammad according to Shia Islam. Control of Mecca remained with the clan; when the
Ottoman Turks took control of Egypt in 1517 AD, Sharif Barakat quickly recognized the change in sovereignty, sending his son
Abu Numayy II to the
Ottoman sultan Selim I in Cairo, bearing the keys to the holy cities and other gifts. The Ottoman sultan confirmed Barakat and Abu Numayy in their positions as co-rulers of the Hejaz.
World War I and the Arab Revolt Before World War I,
Hussein bin Ali of the Hashemite Dhawu-'Awn clan ruled the Hejaz on behalf of the
Ottoman sultan. For some time it had been the practice of the
Sublime Porte to appoint the
Emir of Mecca from among a select group of candidates. In 1908, Hussein bin Ali was appointed to the
Sharifate of Mecca. He found himself increasingly at odds with the
Young Turks in control at
Istanbul, while he strove to secure his family's position as hereditary emirs. Hussein bin Ali's lineage and destined position as the
Sharif of Mecca helped foster the ambition for an independent Arab kingdom and caliphate. These pretensions came to the Ottoman rulers' attention and caused them to "invite" Hussein to Istanbul as the guest of the sultan in order to keep him under direct supervision. Hussein brought his four sons, Ali, Abdullah, Faisal, and Zeid, with him. It was not until after the
Young Turk Revolution that he was able to return to the
Hijaz and was officially appointed the Sharif. Of Hussein's four sons, Abdullah was the most politically ambitious and became the planner and driving force behind the Arab revolt. Abdullah received military training in both the Hijaz and Istanbul. He was the deputy for Mecca in the Ottoman Parliament between 1912 and 1914. During this period, Abdullah developed deep interest in Arab nationalism and linked his father's interest for autonomous rule in the Hijaz to complete Arab emancipation. In 1914 he met the British high commissioner,
Lord Kitchener, in Cairo to discuss the possibility of the British supporting an Arab uprising against the Turks. The possibility of co-operation was raised but no commitment was made by either side. Shortly after Abdullah returned to Mecca, he became his father's foreign minister, political advisor, and one of the commanders of the Arab Revolt. Faisal, Hussein's third son, played an active role in the revolt as commander of the Arab army, while the overall leadership was placed in the hands of his father. The idea of an Arab uprising against the Ottoman Empire was first conceived by Abdullah. Only after gradual and persistent nudging did Abdullah convince his father, the conservative Sharif of Mecca, to move from the idea of home rule of a portion of Arabia within the Ottoman Empire to complete independence of the entire Empire's Arab provinces. Hussein recognized the necessity of breaking away from the Empire in the beginning of 1914 when he realized that he would not be able to complete his political objectives within the framework of the Ottomans. To have any success with the Arab revolt, the backing of another great power was crucial. Hussein regarded Arab unity as synonymous with his own kingship. He aspired to have the entire
Arabian Peninsula, the
region of Syria, and
Iraq under his – and his descendants' – rule. After a year of fruitless negotiation, Sir
Henry McMahon conveyed the British government's agreement to recognize Arab independence over an area that was much more limited than that to which Hussein had aspired. The Arab revolt, an Anglo-Hashemite plot in its essence, broke out in June 1916. Britain financed the revolt and supplied arms, provisions, direct artillery support, and experts in desert warfare including the soon to be famous
T. E. Lawrence. The Hashemites promised more than they were able to deliver, and their ambitious plan collapsed. There were only a small number of Syrian and Iraqi nationalists who joined under the Sharifan banner while others remained loyal to the Ottoman sultan. Sharif Hussein bin Ali rebelled against the rule of the Ottomans during the
Arab Revolt of 1916. For Hashemite contribution to the Allied forces effort to bring down the Ottoman Empire, Britain promised its support for Arab independence. However, the
McMahon–Hussein correspondence left territorial limits governing this promise obscurely defined leading to a long and bitter disagreement between the two sides. File:Sharif Husayn.jpg|
Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca (1853–1931), the founder of the modern dynasty File:King Faysal (Faisal) I of Iraq (left) probably with his brother Emir Abdullah of Transjordan, at the palace, Baghdad, Iraq LOC matpc.13171.jpg|King Faisal I of Iraq and King Ali of Hejaz File:Hashemite Tree 2.PNG|Hashemites family tree
Post-War: the Sharifian Solution , illustrated in a map presented by
T. E. Lawrence to the Eastern Committee of the War Cabinet in November 1918, was superseded by the policy agreed at the
March 1921 Cairo Conference. After the war, the British devised a "
Sharifian Solution" to "[make] straight all the tangle" of their various wartime commitments. This proposed that three sons of Sharif Hussein would be installed as kings of newly created countries across the Middle East. Given the need to rein in expenditure and factors outside British control, including France's
removing of Faisal from Syria in July 1920, and
Abdullah's entry into Transjordan (which had been the southern part of Faisal's Syria) in November 1920, the eventual Sharifian solution was somewhat different, the informal name for a British policy put into effect by
Secretary of State for the Colonies Winston Churchill following the 1921
Cairo conference. Hussein bin Ali had five sons: •
Ali, who briefly succeeded to the throne of Hejaz before its loss to the
Saud family in 1925. •
Abdullah, became the emir of
Transjordan in 1921 and king of
Jordan in 1946, and whose
descendants continue to rule the kingdom known ever since as the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. •
Faisal, briefly proclaimed King of the
Arab Kingdom of Syria in 1920, became
King of Iraq in 1921. •
Prince Zeid bin Hussein, who moved to Jordan when his brother's grandson, King
Faisal II of Iraq, was overthrown and murdered in a
coup in 1958. • Hassan, died at a young age. Hussein bin Ali continued to rule an independent Hejaz, of which he proclaimed himself king, between 1916 and 1924, after the collapse of Ottoman power, with the tacit support of the British
Foreign Office. His supporters are sometimes referred to as "Sharifians" or the "Sharifian party". Hussein bin Ali's chief rival in the Arabian Peninsula, the king of the
Najd (highlands),
Ibn Saud, annexed the Hejaz in 1925 and established his own son,
Faysal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as governor. The region was later incorporated into
Saudi Arabia. In
Transjordan, the British government
granted its independence in 1921 with Abdullah as ruler. The degree of independence that was afforded to the Arab states by colonial powers was an ongoing issue at the time, however in the case of Transjordan, the independence enjoyed was limited; with substantial influence and control reserved by
British government in London. In domestic affairs the local ruler was given a considerable amount of power nonetheless; but these powers were exercised in an autocratic manner by the Hashemite family while remaining under the superintendence of the
British Resident in
Amman, as well as the British
high commissioner in Jerusalem. Abdullah
was assassinated in 1951, but his descendants
continue to rule Jordan today. In Iraq, the Hashemites ruled for almost four decades, until Faisal's grandson
Faisal II was executed in the
1958 Iraqi coup d'état. == Members and family tree ==