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King Abdullah I

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The Palgrave Handbook of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Abstract

With the help of Britain, King Abdullah I’s regime strengthened, and state institutions were built. If he was dependent on Britain, the latter protected the Hashemite regime from external and internal threats. The strategic alliance between the two, reflected in the World War II, enabled Britain to support King Abdullah’s political ambitions, leading to the military occupation of the West Bank and its annexation later to Jordan to prevent the establishment of an Arab state in Palestine.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Peake wrote in his memoirs: “We must not forget the assistance given to us by Hussein, King of the Hejaz, and his sons…for service against the Turks…”, Frederick G. Peake, “Trans-Jordan”, Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, Vol. 26 (1939), p. 376.

  2. 2.

    See for example: Efraim Karsh and Inari Karsh, “Myth in the Desert, or Not the Great Arab Revolt”, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2 (April 1997), pp. 267–312.

  3. 3.

    Abdullah ibn Hussein, Muthakarati (Jerusalem: Beit al-Maqdis, 1945), pp. 190–191.

  4. 4.

    Mary C. Wilson, King Abdullah, Britain, and the Making of Jordan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 74–75; Benjamin Shwadran, Jordan: A State of Tension (New York: Council for Middle Eastern Affairs Press, 1959), p. 146; Suleiman Musa and Madi Munib, Ta’arikh al-Urdun fi al-Qarn al-Ishrin (Amman: Dar al-Muhtasib, 1996), Vol. I, pp. 203–204.

  5. 5.

    The full text of the agreement see: “Agreement: The United Kingdom and Transjordan”, J. C. Hurewitz, Diplomacy in Near and Middle East: A Documentary Record (New York: Octagon Books, 1972), pp. 156–159.

  6. 6.

    Antonius first published the text of the agreement in 1938. George Antonius, The Arab Awakening (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938), pp. 437–439.

  7. 7.

    On the relations between King Abdullah to the Zionists see: Yoav Gelber, Jewish–Transjordanian Relations 1921–1948 (London: Frank Cass, 1996); Ronen Yitzhak, “A Short History of the Secret Hashemite-Zionist Talks: 1921–1951”, Midstream, Vol. LIII (2007), pp. 9–12.

  8. 8.

    Abdullah ibn Hussein, al-Takmila min Muthakarat Hadrah Sahib al-Jalalah al-Hashemiya al-Malik Abdullah ibn Hussein (Amman: n.p., 1951), p. 39.

  9. 9.

    Bevin to Kirkbride, “Conversation with the Transjordan Prime Minister,” 9 February 1948, National Archives (London), FO 371/68366.

  10. 10.

    “The Greater Syria Movement,” 10 January 1948, National Archives (London), FO 371/6149.

  11. 11.

    William W. Haddad and Mary M. Hardy, “Jordan’s Alliance with Israel and Its Effects on Jordanian-Arab Relations”, in Efraim Karsh and P. R. Kumaraswamy (eds.), Israel, the Hashemites, and the Palestinians: The Fateful Triangle (London: Frank Cass, 2003), p. 36.

  12. 12.

    Avi Shlaim, Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988).

  13. 13.

    Golda Meir, My Life (Jerusalem: Steimatzky, 1975), p. 218.

  14. 14.

    Quoted in Yona Bendman, “Haligion Ha’aravi Likrat Milhemet Ha’atzmaut” (The Arab Legion toward the War of Independence, Hebrew), Ma’archot, 294–295 (1984), p. 42.

  15. 15.

    The Jordanian political position and the military activities in the 1948 war are described in few books which were written by Jordanians. However, the most important is the book written by the Jordanian historian Suleiman Musa, Ayyam la Tunsa, al-Urdun fi Harb 1948 (Amman: Dar al-Muhtasib, 1997). The commander of the Arab Legion General Glubb Pasha also wrote his memoirs of the war under the title A Soldier with the Arabs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1957).

  16. 16.

    Glubb, A Soldier with the Arabs, p. 258.

  17. 17.

    About the peace negotiation between Israel and Jordan in 1949–1950 see: Mordechai Gazit, “The Israel-Jordan Peace Negotiations (1949–1951): King Abdullah’s Lonely Effort”, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 23 (1988), pp. 409–424.

  18. 18.

    Foreign Office: News to Israeli delegations in the World, 24 July 1951, Israel Defence Forces Archive (Tel Hashomer), 40/68/1955; Laurie A. Brand, “Palestinians and Jordanians: A Crisis of Identity,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Summer 1995), pp. 46–61, 47.

  19. 19.

    Foreign Office: News to Israeli delegations in the World, 24 July 1951, Israel Defence Forces Archive (Tel Hashomer), 40/68/1955; Research Department, 31 August 1951, Israel State Archives (Jerusalem), 2565/11.

  20. 20.

    Foreign Office: News to Israeli delegations in the World, 24 July 1951, Israel Defence Forces Archive (Tel Hashomer), 40/68/1955.

  21. 21.

    Filastin (Jerusalem), 24 July 1951; Glubb to Melville, 6 August 1951, National Archives (London), FO 371/91838.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel

    Ronen Yitzhak

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  1. Ronen Yitzhak
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Correspondence to Ronen Yitzhak .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Studies, CWAS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    P. R. Kumaraswamy

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Yitzhak, R. (2019). King Abdullah I. In: Kumaraswamy, P.R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9166-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9166-8_13

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