Faisal I of Iraq

1st king of Hashemite Iraq from 1921 to 1933

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Lived 1885–1933, aged 48Turkey

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Wikipedia
64 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1885–1933
Aged 48
Awards
11
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-08-24

He led the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans, was crowned king of Syria and ejected by France four months later, then installed by Britain as Iraq's first king — a throne shaped less by the man who held it than by the empires that needed him there.

Biography

About

Born in Mecca in 1885, the third son of the Grand Sharif, Faisal was raised in Istanbul before returning to play a central role in the Great Arab Revolt from 1916 to 1918, fighting the Ottomans with British backing. He set up an Arab government in Damascus and led his delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, but when the Syrian National Congress proclaimed him king in 1920 and rejected the French Mandate, France invaded and forced him into exile within months. In August 1921, following the Cairo Conference, the British arranged for him to take the throne of the newly created Kingdom o…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Faisal I of Iraq

Faisal I of Iraq

said1920

Iraq is a kingdom ruled by a Sunni Arab government founded on the wreckage of Ottoman rule.

— The Making of State and Nation Since 1920, p. 71

Faisal I of Iraq

saidundated

We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement.... We will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.

— From correspondence with American Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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