Rulers and custodians of the Hijaz and its
holy cities from 1201 until 1925, the Hashimites’
power base shifted to the newly formed nation of
Jordan once they were driven from Arabia by the
Saudi confederation. Through a combination of
their wealth, location, symbolic importance, and
political authority, the Hashimites have exercised
considerable influence in modern Middle Eastern
history.
The Hashimites of Jordan trace their lineage to
Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and her
husband ali (d. 661), the fourth Islamic caliph.
Rulers of Mecca from 1201 until the Ottoman
conquest of 1517, the Hashimites nonetheless
maintained their custodianship of the holy city
until 1924. Their status as sharifs, or descendants
of the Prophet, and their long guardianship over
the holy cities gave the Hashimites a certain
authority among Muslims.
In 1916, hUsayn ibn ali (d. 1931), then sharif
of Mecca, organized an army that successfully
pushed the Ottomans out of their remaining Arab
territories. Led by his son Faysal and assisted by
the legendary British adventurer T. E. Lawrence
(d. 1935), otherwise known as Lawrence of Ara-
bia, the troops operated under the assumption
that a British promise made to Husayn would
be fulfilled: that, at the end of World War I, a
united, independent Arab state would be created.
However, the British did not honor this promise.
Instead, they encouraged the League of Nations to
create several new mandate territories out of the
former Ottoman lands that they and the French
could incorporate into their empires.
The Hashimites, soon to be displaced from
their traditional leadership in Arabia, were given
command of some of these new mandate proto-
nations. After a brief stint ruling syria, Faysal
was driven out of damascUs by the French and
declared by the British to be king of the new
nation of iraq in 1921, while his brother Abdul-
lah was given control of the newly formed nation
of Transjordan. Hashimite rule in Iraq ended vio-
lently in 1958, but by 1946, Transjordan received
its independence and became the Hashimite King-
dom of Jordan.
Since establishing themselves in Jordan, the
Hashimites have worked to create a legitimate
and unified state in a region with severe tensions.
The Arab-Israeli conflict has brought hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian refugees to Jordan, and
the Israeli victory in the war of 1967 deprived the
Hashimites of their custodianship of the holy city
of Jerusalem. Cast out of their traditional leader-
ship of the holy cities of the Hijaz for nearly a
century and unable to rule over the holy sites of
Jerusalem since 1967, the Hashimites neverthe-
less entered the 21st century as important politi-
cal players in the Middle East, controversial yet
often-consulted rulers of a small nation wedged
between contentious neighbors.
See also colonialism; ottoman dynasty.
Nancy L. StockdaleFurther reading: Beverly Milton-Edwards and Peter
Hinchcliffe, Jordan: A Hashemite Legacy (London: Rout-
ledge, 2001); Mary Christina Wilson, King Abdullah,
Britain and the Making of Jordan (Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1990).heaven See garden; paradise.
Hegira See hijra.
Hekmatyar, Gulbuddin (1947– ) Afghan
Mujahidin leader and head of the Hizb-i Islami
(Islamic Party); although he received significant
support from Pakistan and the United States in the
1980s, he was officially recognized as a terrorist after
the events of September 11, 2001
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an ethnic Pushtun who
studied engineering in Kabul, aFghanistan, in the
1960s. Although he may have once been attracted
to Marxism, he fell under the spell of the IslamicHekmatyar, Gulbuddin 295 J