Faisal,
third son of Emir Hussein, the son of Sharif Husain of Mecca, was
born in 1885. Faisal lived in Constantinople and later sat in the
Ottoman parliament as deputy for Jidda.
During
the First World War Faisal served with the Turkish
Army. In 1916 he changed sides and began working closely with
T. E. Lawrence. He became the leading
Arab military commander and led the troops into Damascus on 3rd October
1918.
Feisal
attended the Paris Peace Conference and on 10th
March 1920 declared himself the King of Syria and Palestine. When
he was deposed four months later by the French the British authorities
agreed that he could become King of Iraq.
He took office on 23rd August 1921. The Kurds in the north of the
country were unhappy with this arrangement and were involved in several
uprisings against his rule.
The
British mandate for Iraq came to an end in October, 1932 and Iraq
now entered the League of Nations as an
independent state. However, Britain bound Iraq closely to the British
Empire by a 25 year military alliance. Britain retained military
bases in Iraq and exerted a strong political influence in the country.
This included ensuring that the concession for oil exploration and
exploitation to the Iraq Petroleum Company, a conglomerate of British,
French and United States interests.
During
the 1930s there were seven military coups. These all failed but the
king's rule came to an end when he was killed in a car accident in
1939. He was now replaced by his son Faisal
II.
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