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A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Suleiman Mousa
Suleiman Mousa
Affiliation:
Amman, Jordan
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Extract

On the whole, King Hussein of the Hijaz, sharif of Mecca, has fared badly at the hands of British historians. To most of them he was an obstinate old man, so overambitious for himself, and so overconfident about his following in the Arab world, that he was a poor judge of his powers and unrealistic to a great extent. Examination of the papers in the British Public Record Office, in conjunction with his own letters and other sources, offers another image. It shows quite a different man – consistent in his beliefs and policy, stubborn about questions of principle, and wholly set on pursuing with dignity the rights that he reckoned the British to have promised to all Arabs ‘liberated’ from the yoke of the Turks.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 1978 , pp. 183 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 HMSO, Cmd. 5957, London, 1939, pp. 10–13.

2 PRO, FO, 882/2, The Arab Question.

3 PRO, Cab. 27/37, pp. 4 and 8.

4 PRO, FO 882/13, Memo on British Committments to King Hussein (E.C. 2201), p. 9.

5 PRO, Cab. 27/24.

6 PRO, FO 371/3054, Foreign Office to High Commission, Cairo, tel. no. 24, dated 4 Jan. 1918.

7 PRO, FO 371/6237, No. 131, Summary of Historical Documents, dated 26 Oct. 1916, p. 13. Italics are mine.

8 Documents on British Foreign Policy (hereafter DBFP), 1st ser., vol. XIII, Curzon to Cairo, tel. no. 735, 15 Aug. 1920, pp. 340–350.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., tel. no. 834, 16 Aug. 1920, p. 341.

10 PRO, FO 686/63 and 882/22.

11 DBFP, tel. no. 835, pp. 348–349.

12 PRO, FO 686/26, Jeddah Report, 20–30 NNov. 1920.

13 PRO, FO 686/27, Jeddah Report, 20 Feb. 1921, p. 16.

14 BDFP, Allenby to Curzon, tel. no. 1094, 16 Nov. 1920, p. 388.

15 BDFP, FO memo on possible negotiations with the Hijaz, 29 Nov. 1920, pp. 392–470. It will be remembered that the term ‘the Arab Kingdom’ was repeated twice in McMahon's third letter of 14 Dec. 1915.

16 Papers of the Amir Zaid, letter dated 19 Jan. 1921.

17 Ibid., tel. dated 16 Dec. 1920.

18 PRO, FO 686/45, tel. dated 19 Dec. 1920.

19 PRO, FO 686/74.

20 Ibid., report of conversation, 20 Jan. 1921.

21 Papers of the Amir Zaid, letter dated 25 Jan. 1921. (Papers are in possession of his son H.R.H. the Amir Ra'ad, Amman, Jordan.)

22 PRO, FO 686/74, letter dated 27 April 1921 (Arabic text).

23 Ibid., Curzon's letter and draft of treaty and declaration.

24 Said, Amin, Al-Thawrat al-Arabiyat al-Kubra (The Great Arab Revolt), vol. 3 (Cairo, 1934), p. 158.Google Scholar

25 PRO, FO 686/74 and 686/93, contains this and subsequent telegrams exchanged between Lawrence and FO.

26 When I told the late HRH Amir Zaid of this incident in London on 30 Sept. 1968, he said that he learned for the first time, and with astonishment, about the incident.

27 Papers of the Amir Zaid, letter from Muhammad al-Saqqaf, 23 Oct. 1921.

28 PRO, FO 686/74, no. 33, 29 Aug. 1921.

29 Wahbeh, Hafez, Jazirat al-Arab fi al-Qarn al-Ishrin (Arabia in the Twentieth Century) (Cairo, 1935), p. 414.Google Scholar

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31 PRO, FO 686/74, tel. no. 95, 34 Nov. 1921.

32 Ibid., tel. of 16 Nov. 1921.

33 al-Hussein, Abdullah Ibn, Al-Amali al-Siyasiya (Political Dictates) (Amman, 1939), p. 26.Google Scholar

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35 PRO, FO 686/74, letters of 5 and 6 Feb. 1922.

36 Ibid., no. 50, letter from King Hussein to British agent, 30 Jan. 1922.

37 PRO, FO 686/112, tel. no. 6, 21 Feb. 1922, conveyed to king on 24 Feb.

38 Command 1700.

39 Hansard, , House of Commons, vol. 156, pp. 1033–1034.Google Scholar

40 PRO, FO 686/74, report of conversation, 20 Jan, 1921.

41 PRO, FO 686/110 contains this correspondence.

42 A1-Qiblah, no. 555, 26 Jan. 1922. This important statement was in PRO, FO 371/3380, no. 163 R, 4 Feb. 1918.

43 PRO, FO 686/75, letter no. 510 of 3 Feb. 1923.

44 PRO, FO 686/74, memo and letter from Dr. Behr dated 2 and 13 July 1922.

45 PRO, FO 686/75, letter (in Arabic) dated 19 Aug. 1922.

46 Ibid., memo of Amir Abdullah of 13 Nov. 1922 and FO letter of 11 Jan. 1923.

47 HMSO, Cmd. 5957, p. 12. The Arabic text of McMahon's letter contains one more word ( or ‘their deliverance’) than the English translation and is more specific with the addition. It reads:

48 PRO, FO 686/74, tel. no. 9 of 16 Oct. 1922.

49 PRO, FO 686/75, tel. London to Jiddah, 27 Dec. 1922 and 5 Jan. 1923.

50 Ibid., Anglo-Hijazi Treaty, Article 2, 16 April 1923.

51 See Said, Amin, Al-Thawrat Al-Arabiya, pp. 166–167,Google Scholar for text of statement; PRO, FO 686/75, report by British agent to London, tel. no. 31, 17 May 1923.

52 PRO, FO 686/75, FO to British agent, tels. no. 15 and 16 of 8 May 1923.

53 Ibid., tel. no. 32, 19 May 1923.

54 Ibid., official statement issued in Jerusalem, 18 May 1923.

55 Ibid., FO letter no. E7974/46/91 of 9 Aug. 1923.

56 PRO, FO 686/76, FO memo, 16 May 1924.

57 Ibid., H.C. in Jerusalem to Colonial Office, tel. no. 52E of 13 Feb. 1924.

58 Ibid., Clayton's report to H.C. in Jerusalem, 23 Jan. 1924.

59 Ibid., FO to Jiddah, tel. no. 11, 4 April 1924.

60 PRO, FO 686/77, FO to Jiddah, tel no. 21, 7 April 1925.

61 PRO, FO 686/74, Jiddah, tel. no. 274, 24 Oct. 1921.

62 An Awakening (Tavistock, Devon: University Press of Arabia, 1971), p. 116.Google Scholar