FAISAL I OF IRAQ 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd ii 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd iiii 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM F A I S A L I OF I R A Q ALI A. ALLAWI YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd iiiiii 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM Copyright © 2014 Ali A. Allawi All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: US office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com Europe Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data Allawi, Ali A., 1947– Faisal I of Iraq / Ali A. Allawi. pages cm ISBN 978-0-300-12732-4 (hardback) 1. Faysal I, King of Iraq, 1885–1933. 2. Iraq—Kings and rulers—Biography. 3. Iraq—Politics and government—1921–1958. I. Title. DS79.5.A45 2014 956.704 1092—dc23' [B] 2013021873 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd iivv 1111//1111//1133 77::4488 PPMM The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me? I have lived my life, and that which I have done May He within himself make pure! Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King – The Passing of Arthur 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd vv 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd vvii 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix List of Illustrations xii List of Maps xiv Key Personalities xv Chronology of Events xviii Prologue – September, 1933: Death of a King xx Part I  An Empire Disintegrates: The Ottoman Era (1833–1914) 1 From the Desert to the Metropolis 3 2 Return to Mecca 21 3 Prelude to War 31 Part II  Breaking the Bonds: The First World War and the Arab Revolt (1914–1918) 4 The Road to the Rising 43 5 The Arab Revolt I: Consolidating the Revolt 70 6 The Arab Revolt II: Breaking Out 87 7 The Arab Revolt III: Railroad War 107 8 To Damascus! 124 Part III  A Shattered Dream: Syria and the Paris Peace Conference (1918–1921) 9 The Rudiments of a State 151 10 First Footsteps in Europe 174 11 At the Paris Peace Conference I 192 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd vviiii 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM viii contents 12 At the Paris Peace Conference II 210 13 The Struggle for Syria 229 14 The Collapse of the Kingdom of Syria 258 15 Adrift 295 16 A King in Waiting 314 Part IV  A New Beginning: Iraq (1921–1933) 17 From Mesopotamia to Iraq 339 18 King of Iraq 361 19 Faisal, Cox and the Rise of the Opposition 382 20 The Rebellion of the Ayatollahs 410 21 Assemblies, Treaties, Constitutions 433 22 Oil and the Mosul Question 450 23 Struggling to Break Free 471 24 Towards Independence 488 25 Vindication at Last 515 26 A Calamitous End 534 Epilogue: Faisal the Great 561 Notes 563 Index 606 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd vviiiiii 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea of writing a biography of Faisal of Iraq had been germinating in my mind since 1998. In that year my father passed away in London and I was responsible for editing his papers, which later formed the basis of a book of memoirs. My father was the first of his generation of our family to attend a school with a modern curriculum, and later to graduate in the first cohorts of the newly established Baghdad medical college. His youth and university education in the 1920s were spent in the period when Faisal reigned in Iraq. His recollections of that period were replete with the sense of unbounded possibilities and optimism about the future of Iraq that he and his generation felt. He and many others like him enthusiastically took to the challenges of building a modern country which, in those days, were inextricably linked to the leadership that Faisal brought to this task. Their career paths often led to the pinnacles of their professions and to high public office, and would have been inconceivable without the modern institutions that Faisal so assiduously championed. My father’s respect and admiration for Faisal was mirrored by nearly all who shared with him their formative experiences in Iraq of the 1920s. My first debt of gratitude therefore goes to my late father, Dr ‘Abd al-Amir Allawi, who first kindled my interest in Faisal. Closely following are two of my father’s colleagues and friends. They, in their London exile, formed the band who, together with my father, were affec- tionately known as ‘The Three Musketeers’, elder statesmen of the Iraqi exile community who brought caution, foresight and wisdom to the business of opposing the regime of Saddam Hussein. They were also products of the Faisalian era: patriotic, proficient and dedicated men. ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Dalli was a former Iraqi minister of agriculture and ambassador; ‘Abd al-Karim al-Uzri was monarchical Iraq’s last minister of finance and an authority on modern Iraq’s history. Both were driven into exile after the 1958 revolution that did away with Iraq’s monarchy and the kingdom that Faisal had 44115577__tteexxtt..iinndddd iixx 0055//1111//1133 22::5566 PPMM