Encyclopedia of Islam

Husayn ibn Ali, Sharif of Mecca

 

(1854–

1931)  ruler of Mecca who allied with Great Britain 

and led the Arab revolt against Ottoman rule during 

World War I

A dynamic but ultimately flawed political leader, 

Husayn ibn Ali was a fundamental player in the 

breakdown of Ottoman 

aUthority

 over Arabia. 

Self-declared 

caliph

 of the Arabs, he lost his 

family’s centuries-old custodianship of m

ecca

and m

edina

 yet lived to see his sons take control 

of new Arab nations carved from the Ottoman 

Empire.

Husayn ibn Ali was born around 1854 in the 

Ottoman capital of i

stanbUl

 (Constantinople). 

A member of the Hashimite clan, his family 

had either ruled or held guardianship as sharifs

(descendants of m

Uhammad

) over the holy cit-

ies of Mecca and Medina since 1201. In 1908, 

Husayn himself became emir (commander, ruler) 

of Mecca. As the sharif and emir, he used his 

descent from the prophet Muhammad to legiti-

mate his authority over the holy cities and worked 

to keep the peace of the Hijaz for the ruling Otto-

man Empire. Despite his privileged position under 

the Turks, however, Husayn gained international 

attention with a variety of anti-Ottoman policies 

during World War I. In a series of letters between 

himself and Britain’s high commissioner of Egypt, 

Sir Henry McMahon, written between July 1915 

and March 1916 (known as the McMahon-Husayn 

correspondence), Husayn pledged to raise an 

army against the Ottomans in exchange for Brit-

ish assistance in establishing an independent Arab 

state after the war. Claiming to be the king of the 

Arabs, Husayn disagreed with McMahon about 

the boundaries of a future state but nevertheless 

raised an army that successfully displaced the 

Ottomans from most of the Hijaz in 1916.

The Arab revolt continued to the Red Sea at 

Aqaba in 1917 and on to d

amascUs

 in 1918. Led by 

his son Faysal (d. 1933), Husayn’s army was a deci-

sive factor in bringing the Ottomans to their knees 

in the region. However, at the San Remo Confer-

ence, Britain and France divided the Arab territo-

ries of the now-defunct Ottoman Empire between 

themselves, destroying Husayn’s idea of a united 

Hashimite Arab kingdom. His son Faysal was even-

tually made king of the newly created i

raq

, while 

his son Abd Allah (d. 1951) became king of the 

new nation of Transjordan (now J

ordan

).

Despite the new political landscape, Husayn 

declared himself caliph in March 1924 from his 

base in Mecca. However, by October of that year, 

he was forced to flee by the Saudi forces. Defeated, 

he made his way to Cyprus, where he lived in exile 

until 1930. For his final year of life, Husayn lived 

in Amman, the capital of Transjordan. It was there 

that he died, exiled from his family’s traditional 

place as custodians of the holy cities, in 1931.

See also 

colonialism

;  h

ashimite

 

dynasty

; 

o

ttoman

 

dynasty

; s

aUdi

 a

rabia

.

Nancy L. Stockdale