Abdullah I of Jordan
King
Abdullah I of Jordan (
1882 –
July 20,
1951) (
Arabic: عبد الله الأول), also known as
Abdullah bin al-Husayn (
Arabic: عبد الله بن الحسين), was, successively,
Emir of
Trans-Jordan (
1921–
1946) under a British Mandate, then King of
Transjordan (
May 25,
1946–
1949), and finally King of the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan (
1949–
1951). He is also frequently called King
Abdullah the Founder (عبدالله المؤسس), since he was the founder of Jordan.
The son of the
Hashemite Husayn ibn Ali, he has two sons and three daughters: (1)
H.M King Talal bin Abdulla; (2) H.R.H Prince Nayef bin Abdulla; (3) H.R.H Princess Hayd bint Abdulla; (4) H.R.H Princess Munera bint Abdullah; (5) H.R.H Princess Maqbouleh bint Abdulla. Abdullah fought as a pro-British partisan in
World War I, and received Trans-Jordan as a fief under
British protection in
1921. He embarked on negotiations with the British to gain independence, resulting in the announcement of the Emirate of Trans-Jordan's independence on
May 25,
1923. This date is Jordan's official independence day. His brother
Faisal became
King of Iraq.
Prime Ministers under Abdullah formed 18 governments during the 23 years of the Emirate.
Abdullah, alone among the Arab leaders of his generation, was a moderate with a modestly pro-Western outlook. He would actually have signed a separate peace agreement with Israel, but for the
Arab League's militant opposition. Because of his dream for a Greater Syria comprising Jordan, Syria, and Iraq under a Hashemite dynasty, many Arab countries distrusted Abdullah, and the rivals of the Hashemites, the
Saudis most of all.
On
July 20,
1951, Abdullah was visiting
Jerusalem. When entering the
Al Aqsa Mosque Abdullah was shot dead by Mustapha Shukri Usho. On July 16,
Riad Bey al-Solh, a former Prime Minister of
Lebanon, had been assassinated in Amman, where rumors were circulating that Lebanon and Jordan were discussing a joint separate peace with Israel. The assassin passed through apparently heavy security. Abdullah was in Jerusalem to give a eulogy at the funeral and was shot while attending Friday prayers at the
Dome of the Rock in the company of his grandson, Prince
Hussein. The Palestinian gunman, motivated by fears that the old king would make a separate peace with Israel, fired three fatal bullets into the King's head and chest. Abdullah's grandson,
Prince Hussein Ibn Talal was at his side and was hit too. A medal that had been pinned to Hussein's chest at his grandfather's insistence deflected the bullet and saved his life.
The assassin was a Jerusalem tailor, and a member of the Arab Dynamite Squad involved in Arab-Jewish fighting. Ten conspirators were accused of plotting the assassination and were brought to trial in Amman. The prosecution named Colonel
Abdullah Tell, ex-Military Governor of Jerusalem, and Dr.
Musa Abdullah Husseini as the chief plotters of "the most dastardly crime Jordan ever witnessed". The Jordanian prosecutor asserted that Col. Tell had given instructions that the killer, made to act alone, be slain at once thereafter to shield the instigators of the crime. Tell and Husseini fled to protection in Egypt and four local co-conspirators were sentenced to death in Amman. Jerusalem sources added that Col. Tell had been in close contact with the former "
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem",
Amin al-Husayni, and his adherents in Arab Palestine.
Abdullah was succeeded by his son
Talal; however, since Talal was mentally ill, Talal's son – the aforementioned Prince Hussein – became the effective ruler as
King Hussein at the age of seventeen. Hussein was in turn succeeded by his half-English son,
King Abdullah II.
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Details of Abdullah's assassination
