Abdullah I of Jordan

Born in Mecca in 1882, Abdullah bin Hussein was the second son of the Sharif and sat in the Ottoman legislature before the world broke open. During the First World War he brokered secret talks with Britain and led guerrilla raids that fed the Arab Revolt his father commanded. In April 1921 he became Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate carved from imperial rubble. He kept faith with London through the Second World War and claimed his crown when independence arrived in 1946. Four years later he annexed the West Bank, a move that set Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt against him. On 20 July…