Accession to the Iraqi throne Percy Cox and Lieutenant
Kinahan Cornwallis, to his left commander-in-chief of all British troops in the
Mesopotamia Commander General
Aylmer Haldane.In the winter of 1920, Iraqis gathered in sociable meetings in coffeehouses and tents to discuss which form of government and leader the new Iraqi state should have. The British government, mandate holders in Iraq, were concerned at the unrest in the colony. They decided to step back from direct administration and create a monarchy to head Iraq while they maintained the mandate. The idea was to set up a native leader who would be popular among the Iraqi people while still maintaining close relations with the British government. In March 1921, at the
Cairo Conference, the British decided that Faisal was a good candidate for ruling the
British Mandate of Iraq because of his apparent conciliatory attitude towards the Great Powers and based on advice from T. E. Lawrence, more commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia. In 1921, few people in Iraq even knew who Faisal was or had heard his name. With help of British officials, including
Gertrude Bell, he successfully campaigned among the Arabs of Iraq and won over the popular support of the minority Sunni. The Shia majority were at first lukewarm about Faisal, and his appearance at the port of Basra was met with indifference. From 23 April to 8 May 1921, Iraqis including most notably
Nuri Pasha al-Sa'id sent telegrams to Faisal, inviting him to Iraq as its prospective king. Between May and June, Faisal sent representatives to confirm his election. On 12 June 1921, Faisal left
Jeddah for Iraq alongside several Iraqi nobles and
Sir Kinahan Cornwallis on the RIMS Northbrook, and on 23 June, Faisal first landed in Iraq on the main port of
Basra. Faisal's arrival was met with a mixed response, while most Iraqis welcomed him in large numbers and groups, some people, especially the
Ulama' at
Najaf and the tribesman of Southern Iraq, including
Samawah, were either disappointed or hostile which shocked Faisal. Despite this, the Mayor of Baghdad at the time sent a telegram to greet Faisal. The city of
Hillah also welcomed him. When Faisal arrived in Baghdad on 26 June, he was widely welcomed by Baghdadis. The next day, an ovation was given to him in
al-Kadhimiyya, where he prayed at its
main mosque and was welcomed. Faisal became a candidate for King of Iraq alongside other candidates such as the
Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr, and
Ali Jawdat al-Ayyubi. Following a
plebiscite showing 96% in favor, Faisal agreed to become king. On 23 August 1921, he was made king of Iraq. Iraq was a new political entity created after World War I from
Ottoman Iraq, which had consisted largely of the Ottoman
vilayets (provinces) of
Mosul,
Baghdad and
Basra. Ottoman
vilayets were usually named after their capital, and thus the Basra
vilayet was southern Iraq. Given this background, there was no sense of Iraqi nationalism or even Iraqi national identity when Faisal took his throne. Anecdotally, the band present played
God Save the King, as Iraq did not yet have a
national anthem and would not have one until
1932.
Reign During his reign as King, Faisal encouraged
pan-Arab nationalism that envisioned ultimately bringing the French mandates of Syria and Lebanon together with the British mandate of Palestine under his rule. Faisal was keenly aware that his power-base was with the Sunni Muslim Arabs of Iraq, who comprised a significant minority. By contrast, if Syria, Lebanon and Palestine were incorporated into his realm, then the Sunni Muslim Arabs would comprise the majority of his subjects, making the Arab Shi'i Muslim and the ethnic Kurds of Iraq into minorities. The Arab Shi'i Muslims of Iraq at the time had traditionally looked towards
Persia for leadership, and the rallying cry of Pan-Arabism might unite the Arab Sunnis and Shi'a around a common sense of
Arab identity. In Iraq, a majority of the Arabs were Shi'i Muslims who had not responded to the call for Sharif Hussein to join the "Great Arab Revolt" as the Sharif was a considered a Sunni Muslim from the Hejaz, thus making him a double outsider. Rather than risk the wrath of the Ottomans on behalf of an outsider like Hussein, the Shi'i Muslims of Iraq had ignored the Great Arab Revolt. In the Ottoman Empire, the state religion was Sunni Islam and the Shi'i Muslim had been marginalized for their religion, making the Shia population poorer and less educated than the Sunni population. of
Transjordan in
Jerusalem,
Mandatory Palestine, 1933 Faisal himself was a tolerant man, proclaiming himself a friend of the Shi'i Muslim, Kurdish and Jewish communities in his realm. In 1928, he criticized the policy of some of his ministers of seeking to fire all Jewish Iraqis from the civil service. His policy of promoting
pan-Arab nationalism to further his personal and dynastic ambitions proved to be a disruptive force in Iraq, as it drew a wedge between the Arab and Kurdish communities. Faisal's policy of equating
wataniyya ("patriotism" or in this case Iraqiness) with being Arab marginalized the Kurds who feared that they had no place in an Arab-dominated Iraq, indeed in a state that equated being Iraqi with being Arab. Faisal also developed desert motor routes from
Baghdad to
Damascus, and Baghdad to
Amman. This led to a great interest in the
Mosul oilfield and eventually to his plan to build an oil pipeline to a Mediterranean port, which would help
Iraq economically. This also led to an increase in Iraq's desire for more influence in the Arab East. During his reign, Faisal made great effort to build
Iraq's army into a powerful force. He attempted to impose
universal military service in order to achieve this, but this failed. Some see this as part of his plan to advance his pan-Arab agenda. During the
Great Syrian Revolt against French rule in Syria, Faisal was not particularly supportive of the rebels partly because of British pressure, partly because of his own cautious nature, and mainly because he had reason to believe that the French were interested in installing a Hashemite to govern Syria on their behalf. In 1925, after the
Syrian Druze uprising, the French government began consulting Faisal on Syrian matters. He advised the French to restore
Hashemite power in Damascus. The French consulted Faisal because they were inspired by his success as an imposed leader in Iraq. As it turned out, the French were merely playing Faisal along as they wished to give him the impression that he might be restored as king of Syria to dissuade him from supporting the Syrian rebels, and once they crushed the Syrian revolt, they lost interest in having a Hashemite rule in Syria. Faisal saw the
Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 as an obstacle to his pan-Arab views, although it provided Iraq with a degree of political independence. He wanted to make sure that the treaty had a built-in end date because the treaty further divided Syria and Iraq, the former which was under French control, and the latter under British rule. This prevented unity between two major Arab regions, which were important in Faisal's pan-Arab agenda. Ironically,
Arab nationalists in Iraq had a positive reception to the treaty because they saw this as progress, which seemed better than the Arab situation in Syria and
Palestine. Faisal's schemes for a greater Iraqi-Syrian state under his leadership attracted much opposition from Turkey, which preferred to deal with two weak neighbors instead of one strong one, and from King
Fuad I of Egypt and
Ibn Saud of
Hejaz and Nejd, who both saw themselves as the rightful leaders of the Arab world. When
Nuri al-Said visited Yemen in May 1931 to ask the Imam
Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din if he was interested in joining the "Arab Alliance" under Faisal's leadership, the Imam replied with a confused look what would be the purpose of the "Arab Alliance" and to please explain the meaning of the phrase "Arab World", which he was unfamiliar with. == Public relationship with Iraqis ==