Faisal I of Iraq

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 of Iraq. For twelve years he worked to foster unity between Sunnis and Shias, pushing pan-Arab ambitions that reached beyond Iraq toward Syria and the Fertile Crescent. In 1932 he presided over Iraq's independence and its entry into the League of Nations. He died of a heart attack in Bern the following year, forty-eight years old, and his eldest son Ghazi took the crown.