214 • 13 THE ROOTS OF ARAB BITTERNESS
Faysal ibn al Husayn
F
aysal (1883-1933) was the third son of Husayn ibn Ali, sharif and amir of
Mecca. Following a local custom, Faysal was sent to spend his early child¬
hood among the bedouin of Arabia. From 1891 to 1909 he lived with his father
in Istanbul. Upon returning to Mecca in 1909 he gained military experience by
participating in his father's wars against rival Arab tribes. As a military com¬
mander, if not as a politician, Faysal would prove quite successful.
In early 1916, while on a visit to Damascus, Faysal was drawn into a secret
Arab society called Al-Fatat. This society wanted to liberate Arab lands from
Ottoman rule and believed that the best way to do this was to encourage the
British and the Turks to compete for Arab loyalty. Faysal returned to Mecca
with a document known as the Damascus Protocol that outlined which Arab
lands should be independent after the war. His father, Amir Husayn, was to
use this document as a guideline in his bargaining with the British. Believing
that he had Britain's commitment to support an independent Arab state,
Husayn declared the Arab Revolt in June 1916 and led his northern legions
against the Turks.
Although aided in this task by the famous Lawrence of Arabia, Faysal was
the one who united and effectively led an army made up of Arab regulars,
independent-minded bedouin irregulars, and a few European auxiliaries. This
army served as the mobile right wing of General Allenby's Egyptian Expedi¬
tionary Force as it invaded Palestine and Syria. On 3 October 1918 Faysal forces
occupied Damascus, where he took charge of the Arab occupation forces hold¬
ing Syria. At this point, Arab plans started to go downhill due to circumstances
over which Faysal had no control.
When Faysal, again advised by Lawrence, attended the Paris Peace Confer¬
ence, he demanded that the British fulfill the promises made to his father,
Husayn: they should create an independent state that would include the Arab
lands of the Middle East. However, the British, who during the war had made
contradictory Middle East pacts, decided to honor those made with their fel¬
low Europeans: the French and the Zionists. In order to accommodate them,
the British abandoned most of their promises to the Arabs.
The Arabs considered this an act of betrayal, and they have never forgotten
it. The British sought to compensate Husayn with rule of the Hijaz. Faysal
ruled in Syria until 1920 when, abetted by the British, French forces occupied
the country and forced Faysal to flee. In 1921, the British made him king of
Iraq. Despite his dependence on the British, Faysal was seen as a leader by the
Arab nationalists in the interwar period. He was the only Arab leader who was
able to deal with all sides. Thus his sudden death of a heart attack in 1933
came as a shock to the Arabs, who mourned his passing as a devastating loss
to the cause of Arab nationalism.