KING GHAZI I OF IRAQ ---- AN UNFULFILLED DESTINY.

KING GHAZI I OF IRAQ – AN UNFULFILLED DESTINY.

Ghazi bin Faisal (Arabic: فيصل ابن  غازي ‎ 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, the first King of Iraq. 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.

On 8 September 1933, King Faisal I died, and Ghazi was crowned as King Ghazi I. King Faisal sent Ghazi, his only son to a MILITARY SCHOOL, NOT FOR OFFICERS, BUT FOR NON-OMMISSIONED OFFICERS (SERGEANTS/CORPORALS).

The subject of this article is King Ghazi and whether, on 5 April 1939, he died aged 27, BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN. But what may be described as a historical ‘WHODUNIT’ (BRITISH WITH THE COMPLICITY OF NURI EL SAID) also constitutes the peg on which a broader tale hangs: the story of Iraqi politics in the months and years before and after the king's death. Above all, my intent is to convey some idea of the conditions in which politics have taken place in Iraq and the wider Middle East. This episode offers an opportunity to observe the clash of British and Iraqi versions of historical truth and discover, if we choose to believe the Iraqi version, an example of how British officials and British or pro‐British witnesses and historians have denied fabricated, omitted or diverted attention from the facts.

King Ghazi I shaking hand with a soldier.

At age 18, King Ghazi was a competent flyer.

King Ghazi at the wheel of the special

Mercedes given by Chancellor Hitler. 

 Like a growing number of others in the Islamic world at the time, KING GHAZI WAS A PAN-ARAB NATIONALIST. The Pan-Arab movement looks to unify the Islamic world as if it were one state. Pan-Arabism is generally secular, often socialist in nature, and opposes western influence in Arab nations. The British still exercised strong influence in Iraq and Ghazi's pro-Arab unity, anti-colonial, anti-western views became an increasing thorn in their side. It is of course my personal opinion, but I AM CONVINCED THAT HAD KING GHAZI LIVED, HE WOULD HAVE PLANTED THE SEED FOR THE END OF BRITISH COLONIALISM and BROKEN THE BRITISH IRON-CLAD GRIP IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA.

 His government worked towards a union of Arab countries under the Pan-Arab movement. He signed Treaties and non-aggression pacts with Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. Although the British had helped install his father as King, Ghazi often acted against British interests in Iraq. He angered the British with Pro-Arab national broadcasts to the people delivered through his private radio station. During his short but RELATIVELY POPULAR RULE OF ROUGHLY SIX YEARS, Ghazi fostered the nationalist and military movements that would eventually bring the monarchy to a brutal end. His reign was marked by improvements to Iraqi infrastructure in the form of new roads, irrigation, railroads and schools. His reign is also noted as being a time of expanded exploitation of Iraqi oil reserves resulting in new pipelines and resulting in greater oil revenues.

For this purpose he had his own radio station in al-Zuhoor royal palace in which he promoted that claim and other radical views.

On 25 January 1934 Ghazi married his first cousin, Princess Aliya bint Ali, daughter of his uncle King Ali of Hejaz. Queen Aliya eventually separated from King Ghazi.

 

 

When Ghazi died in a car crash on 4 April 1939, the politician Nuri as-Said was widely suspected of being implicated in his death. At the royal funeral crowds chanted: “YOU WILL ANSWER FOR THE BLOOD OF GHAZI, NURI.”. Nuri as-Said was suspected to have been in contact with queen Aliya, who lived, separated from her husband and plotted with the brother of the queen, 'Abd al-Ilah, to depose the King. Nuri supported the accession of 'Abd al-Ilah as regent for Ghazi’s successor.

 

 

During World War II, Iraq was on the British side, but did not take part in the war. When in 1941, an Iraqi nationalistic military coup sympathetic to the Nazis removed regent Abdul Ilah, a brief Anglo-Iraqi war broke out. Faisal’s mother, Queen Aliya, then divorced from King Ghazi, fled with young Faisal II to Abdullah I in Jordan. The British restored order with the help of Jordanian forces, and Abdul Ilah was put back in power. Faisal II and his mother returned, but the Queen died in 1950. Faisal II went to school in England, together with his second cousin Hussein of Jordan and they became close friends. 

 

Queen Aliya - estranged wife of King Ghazi I - was the only and last Queen of Iraq. She died in 1950, aged 39.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prince Abdul Illah, brother of Queen Aliya and Regent of Iraq

 

 

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NOW, I urge everyone - it is a must - to listen to the interview of the last princess of Iraq – Princess Badeea bint Ali al-hashimi – the younger sister of Queen Aliya. Their father was Ali ibn Hussein, the last KING of Hejaz 1924-1925 - a very honorable & talented man who had only ONE WIFE. King Ali & Grand Sherif of Mecca (1879-1935) was the ELDEST BROTHER of Future Kings Abdullah of Transjordan and Faisal I of Iraq. It is difficult to understand her because she uses the FORMAL - LITTERARY Arabic lexicon and not the modern popular e.g. the verb to go is ZAHABA (formal) and not RAH (popular).

For those who understand Arabic - literary Arabic (not the modern popular) CLICK ON WEBSITE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhaIYV5I_K0

الاميرة بديعة ابنة الملك " علي ابن الشريف حسين " ملك الحجاز 1924-1935

اخت الامير عبد الاله الوصي على عرش العراق .

 اخت ملكة العراق الملكة عالية زوجة الملك غازي

(c) copyright Wafaa' Mahmoud Al-Natheema, 2008

Princess Badeea with her son, Al Sharif Mohammed

 

Born in Syria in 1920, Badeea bint Ali al-Hashimi* is the last surviving princess of IRAQ. She has been living in London for more than three decades. At the time of this interview she was 88 years old. Let me put her in perspective: She is 1. The GRANDDAUGHTER of Grand Sherif Hussein of Mecca, the leader of the Arab revolt in 1916 (Lawrence of Arabia), 2. Her FATHER - Sherif Ali ibn Hussein - was the last KING of HEJAZ, 3. Her UNCLES were King Abdallah of Transjordan & King Faisal I of Iraq, 4. Her SISTER -Princess Aliya bint Ali – The last & only QUEEN of Iraq - was the wife of KING GHAZI I of Iraq, 5. Her BROTHER - Prince Abdul ILLah – was the REGENT of Iraq, 6. Her nephew was King Ghazi I, 7. Her grandnephew – King Faisal II – was the murdered last King of Iraq … SHE LIVED AND WITNESSED ALL THE MAJOR EVENTS OF THE LAST 100 YEARS IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA ... INCREDIBLE!

 P.S. Princess Badee’a came with her family to Iraq in 1927 and left it in 1958 after hiding for one month following the July 14 revolution. King Faisal I was her uncle and Prince Abdul Ilah (who was killed in the 1958 revolution with PM Nouri Saeed and King Faisal II) was her brother. She has three sons.