Ghazi of Iraq

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Ghazi of Iraq
File:Ghazi3.jpg
King of Iraq
Reign 8 September 1933 – 4 April 1939
Predecessor Faisal I
Successor Faisal II
Born (1912-05-02)2 May 1912
Mecca, Emirate of Mecca, Ottoman Empire
Died Error: Need valid death date (first date): year, month, day
Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq
Burial Royal Mausoleum, Adhamiyah[1]
Spouse Princess Aliya bin Ali
Issue Faisal II
Full name
Ghazi bin Faisal
House Iraq
Dynasty Hashemite
Father Faisal I
Mother Huzaima bint Nasser
Religion Sunni Islam[2]

Ghazi bin Faisal (Arabic: غازي ابن فيصل‎‎ Ġāzī bin Fayṣal) (2 May 1912 – 4 April 1939) was the King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq from 1933 to 1939 having been briefly Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Syria in 1920. He was born in Mecca (in present-day Saudi Arabia), the only son of Faisal I,[3] the first King of Iraq.

Early life

Ghazi was the only son of Faisal (later to become King Faisal I of Iraq) and Huzaima bint Nasser. In his childhood Ghazi was left with his grandfather, Hussein bin Ali, the Hashemite Grand Sharif of Mecca and head of the royal house of Hashim, while his father was occupied with travel and in military campaigns against the Ottomans. The Hashemites had ruled the Hijaz within the Ottoman Empire, before rebelling with British assistance, in the later stages of World War I.

Unlike his worldly father, Ghazi grew up a shy and inexperienced young man. Following the defeat of his grandfather's army by Saudi forces in 1924, he was forced to leave the Hijaz with the rest of the Hashemites. They travelled to Transjordan where Ghazi's uncle Abdullah was King. In the same year Ghazi joined his father in Baghdad and was appointed as crown prince and heir to the Kingdom of Iraq. His father had been crowned King Faisal I of Iraq following a national referendum in 1921.

The flying carpet

When Ghazi was a sixteen-year-old school-boy, he met the traveller-adventurer Richard Halliburton and his pilot Moye Stephens during their round-the-world flight (shortly after Charles Lindbergh's celebrated transatlantic flight). Ghazi was taken for his first flight by Halliburton and Stephens in a biplane named 'The flying carpet'. They flew down to see the ruins of ancient Babylon and other historical sites, and flew low over the prince's own school so that his schoolmates could see him in the biplane. An account of young prince Ghazi's experience flying over his country can be found in Richard Halliburton's The Flying Carpet.[4]

Simele Massacre

The crown prince Ghazi himself came to the city of Simele to award 'victorious' colours to those military and tribal leaders who on 11 August 1933 participated in the massacres of Assyrians and the looting of their homes.[5]

As King of Iraq

On 8 September 1933, King Faisal I died, and Ghazi was crowned as King Ghazi I. On the same day, Ghazi was appointed Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Iraqi Navy, Field Marshal of the Royal Iraq Army, and Marshal of the Royal Iraqi Air Force. A staunch pan-Arab nationalist, opposed to British interests in his country,[6] Ghazi's reign was characterized by tensions between civilians and the army, which sought control of the government. He supported General Bakr Sidqi in his coup, which replaced the civilian government with a military one. This was the first coup d'état to take place in the modern Arab world. He was rumoured to harbour sympathies for Nazi Germany and also put forth a claim for Kuwait to be annexed to Iraq. For this purpose he had his own radio station in al-Zuhoor royal palace in which he promoted that claim and other radical views.[7]

Ghazi died in 1939 in an accident involving a sports car that he was driving.[7] According to the scholars Ma'ruf al-Rusafi and Safa Khulusi, a common view amongst many Iraqis at the time was that he was killed on the orders of Nuri al-Said, because of his plans for unification of Iraq with Kuwait.[8]

Faisal, Ghazi's only son, succeeded him as King Faisal II. Because Faisal was under age, Prince Abdul Ilah served as Regent until 1953.

Marriage and children

File:Queen Aliya bint Ali of Hejaz.jpg
Queen Aliya of Iraq

On 25 January 1934 Ghazi married his first cousin, Princess Aliya bint Ali, daughter of his uncle King Ali of Hejaz in Baghdad, Iraq. They had only one son:[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Royal Ark
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Historynet
  5. ↑ Stafford 2006, p. 188
  6. ↑ Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2000, p.81.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tripp, p.98.
  8. ↑ Safa Khulusi, Ma'ruf Al-Rusafi (1875–1945). The Muslim World, Hartford Seminary Foundation, LXVII No.1, 1977.

External links

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Ghazi of Iraq
Born: 12 March 1910 Died: April 4 1939
Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Iraq
8 September 1933 – 4 April 1939		 Succeeded by
King Faisal II
Titles in pretence
Preceded by — TITULAR —
King of Syria
8 September 1933 – 4 April 1939
Reason for succession failure:
Kingdom abolished in 1920		 Succeeded by
King Faisal II

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