ABDULLAH

born 1882, Mecca died July 20, 1951, Jerusalem in full 'abd Allah Ibn Al-husayn statesman who became the first ruler (1946-51) of the independent Arab kingdom of Jordan. Abdullah, the second son of Husayn ibn 'Ali, the ruler of the Hejaz, was educated in Istanbul. After the Turkish Revolution of 1908 he represented Mecca in the Ottoman Parliament. Early in 1914 he joined the nationalist Arab movement, which sought independence for Arab territories in the Ottoman Empire. In 1915-16 he played a leading role in clandestine negotiations between the British in Egypt and his father that led to the proclamation (June 10, 1916) of the Arab revolt against the Ottomans. With dubious legality Abdullah was proclaimed constitutional king of Iraq on March 8, 1920, by the so-called Iraqi Congress in Damascus. But he declined the Iraqi throne, which in August 1921 was given to his brother Faysal I. After French troops drove Faysal out of Damascus (July 1920), Abdullah occupied Transjordan and threatened to attack Syria. He was successful in gradually negotiating the legal separation of Transjordan from the Palestine mandate. The creation of a united Arab kingdom encompassing Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan was Abdullah's ambition. During World War II, he actively sided with Great Britain, and his army-the Arab Legion-took part in the British occupation of Syria and Iraq in 1941. In 1946 Transjordan became independent, and he was crowned in Amman on May 25, 1946. He was the only Arab ruler prepared to accept the United Nations' partitioning of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states (1947). In the war with Israel in May 1948, his armies occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River and captured Old Jerusalem. Two years later he annexed the West Bank territory into the kingdom of Jordan, a move that angered his former Arab allies, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, which wanted to see the creation of a Palestinian Arab state on the West Bank. His popularity at home declined, and he was assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist.