Take Lion Of Jordan: The Life Of King Hussein In War And Peace Crafted By Avi Shlaim File Pamphlet

Hashemite Heritage King Hussein of Jordan was a man of slight build who possessed a powerful personality and immense political stature He was in every respect except the physical a towering figure whose courage helped to earn him the popular title Lion of Jordan Hussein bin Talal was born on November in Amman He ruled over Jordan as an absolute monarch from , when he was only seventeen years old, until his death in at the age of sixty three Throughout his long reign Jordan was in the eye of the storm of Middle Eastern politics, constantly caught up in the turmoil and violence of the region, and Hussein himself emerged as a major player in regional and international politics He was also a leading actor in the Arab Israeli conflict, one of the most bitter, protracted and intractable of modern times Hussein s cardinal objective was the stability and survival of the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan, and in this he was successful against all the odds His other major objective was to find a peaceful solution to the Arab Israeli conflict, but in this his record is muchcontroversial Hussein s supporters see him as a man who consistently pursued a strategy of peace and ultimately succeeded in bridging the historic gulf by concluding a peace treaty with Israel His critics take a radically different view of his legacy of accommodation with Israel, seeing it as a surrender and a betrayal of the Palestinians In a region where the past is so powerful and ever present, the question of whether Jordan s rulers have betrayed or championed the Palestinians has been at the heart of a heated, ongoing dispute It is one of the tasks of this book to explore the realities behind these two positions thoroughly for the first timeWhatever opinion one takes of Hussein, the starting point for understanding his foreign policy is the Hashemite legacy The Hashemites are an aristocratic Arab family whose ancestral home was in the Hijaz in the western part of the Arabian Peninsula, along the Red Sea littoral They are descendants of the prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima, whose husband Ali was fourth of the caliphs The family took its name from Hashem, the great grandfather of the prophet and a prominent member of the Kureish tribe The Hashemites were religious, rather than temporal, leaders, the guardians of the Muslim holy places in Mecca and Medina during the centuries of Ottoman rule The title sharif of Mecca passed to the next in line within the family In Arabic the adjective sharif means distinguished, eminent, illustrious or noble, and the title sharif is reserved for the descendants of the prophetIn the early twentieth century, however, the Hashemites sought to translate their noble lineage into political power and gradually assumed the leadership of an Arab nationalist bid for freedom from the Ottoman Empire The break between the Hashemites and their fellow Muslim overlords in Istanbul began with the Young Turks Revolution of The Young Turks were a group of officers, officials and intellectuals who ruled the Ottoman Empire from the time of the revolution until the end of the First World War The shift they brought about in the ideology of the ramshackle empire from Islam to Turkish nationalism displeased and disturbed the Hashemites The decision of the Young Turks to join the war on the side of Germany then created an opportunity for a Hashemite alliance with Britain in accordance with the Arab adage My enemy s enemy is my friend This dramatic renversement des alliances transformed the Hashemites from Arab aristocracy into actors on the international stage Hussein bin Ali was an unlikely candidate to lead a nationalist Arab revolt against Ottoman rule He was fifty five by the time he was appointed sharif of Mecca in His main concern was to secure his own position and that of his family, and he was robust in resisting Ottoman attempts to encroach on their traditional authority There is no evidence to suggest that he was attracted to the ideas of Arab nationalism before the war on the contrary, by temperament and upbringing he was a conservative and inclined to view nationalist ideology as an unwelcome innovation, inconsistent with the principles of Islam Nor was the Hijaz a particularly fertile ground for the growth of nationalism A traditional society, bound by religious and tribal identities, it was short on the kind of intellectuals and radical army officers who are normally to be found in the vanguard of nationalist movements Hussein bin Ali had four sons Ali, Abdullah, Faisal and Zaid The two middle sons werepolitically ambitious than the other two and they played a major part in persuading their father to assume the leadership of the Arab Revolt Faisal was the principal commander of the Arab Army, and his association with the legendary T E Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia helped to spread his fame beyond Arabia Abdullah, however, was the chief architect, planner, schemer and driving force behind the revolt As Faisal himself confided to Lawrence, his liaison officer and the most renowned chronicler of the revolt in the desert, the idea of an Arab uprising against the Turks was first conceived by Abdullah As a small boy Abdullah had acquired the nickname Ajlan the hurried one and he remained true to this name for the rest of his life A profound faith that the Hashemites were destined to rule over the entire Arab world inspired Abdullah throughout a long and eventful political career that started in the Hijaz and later saw him amir of Transjordan and finally king of Jordan Born in Mecca in , Abdullah received his education and his military training in Istanbul and in the Hijaz Between and he was the deputy for Mecca in the Ottoman parliament, where he promoted his father s interests with energy and enthusiasm It was during this period that Abdullah was exposed to ideas of Arab nationalism and began to link his father s desire for autonomy in the Hijaz to the broader andradical ideas of Arab emancipation from Ottoman rule In February Abdullah returned to Mecca by way of Cairo, where he met Lord Kitchener, the British minister plenipotentiary, and tentatively explored the possibility of support in

the event of an uprising against the Ottomans Soon after his return home, Abdullah became his father s political adviser and foreign minister It was only gradually, and under constant prodding from Abdullah, that the conservative sharif of Mecca raised his sights from the idea of home rule in his corner of Arabia inside the Ottoman Empire to complete independence for all its Arab provinces from Yemen to Syria While Abdullah became convinced of the necessity to break up the empire at the beginning of , Hussein would become a separatist only after he had tried and failed to attain his limited political objectives within the framework of the Ottoman Empire A further difference, one of ideology, separated father from son Hussein s idea of nationalism was based on the traditional concept of tribal and family unity whereas Abdullah s was based on the theory of Arab pre eminence among Muslims Whatever the source of their aspirations or their ultimate aims, the indigent rulers of the Hijaz province had to have the backing of a great power to have any chance of success in mounting an open rebellion against the mighty Ottoman Empire That power could only be the British Empire, which had its own designs on Arabia This posed a problem The guardian of the Muslim holy places in Mecca could not easily bring himself to embrace a Christian power in his struggle against fellow Muslims Divided counsels within his own family did nothing to ease his predicament Faisal emphasized the risks and pleaded for caution Abdullah wanted to play for high stakes and urged his father to raise the standard of an Arab revolt Hussein warily plotted a middle course he continued to negotiate with the Turks while making secret overtures to the British Turkish rejection of his demands for a hereditary monarchy in the Hijaz made him tilt further in the direction of Britain The outbreak of war in August made the Britishreceptive to these overtures, and to Abdullah fell the task of weaving together the threads of this unholy alliance against the Sublime Porte Between July and March a number of letters were exchanged between Hussein and Sir Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Egypt, discussing the terms under which Hussein would ally himself with the British In his first note Hussein, speaking in the name of the Arab nation, demanded British recognition of Arab independence in all of the Arabian peninsula and the area covered by present day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and part of Iraq To this claim, which reflected Abdullah s grandiose territorial ambitions, was added a request for British approval of a proclamation of an Arab caliphate of Islam Britain accepted these principles but could not agree with Hussein s definition of the area claimed for Arab independence In his note of October McMahon excluded certain areas The districts of Mersin and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, cannot be said to be purely Arab, and must on that account be excepted from the proposed delimitation After a year of desultory negotiations, Hussein undertook to join the Allies by mounting a rebellion against the Ottomans The correspondence, conducted in Arabic, was shrouded in ambiguity, vagueness and deliberate obscurity It reveals a continuous thread of evasive pledges by Britain and opaqueness, if not obtuseness, on the part of Hussein It is difficult to tell how much Hussein was moved by dynastic interests and the desire to extend the power of his family and how much by the wish to represent the Arabs in their pursuit of independence A powerful, richly researched history Fascinating Passionately engaged Nuanced and human Shlaims blow by blow account of Husseins career reads as a somberly addictive saga King Husseins whole life was spent in foreign affairs, and his story becomes the story of the Middle East over half a century New York BooksKing Hussein was a leader of remarkable vision, commitment and humanity Shlaim brilliantly lays out Husseins search for tranquility for his country and his neighbors, and the obstacles his negotiating partners put in his way The Washington PostAn absorbing diplomatic chronicle Shlaims authority, and tenacity, are undeniable His narrative is gripping Shlaim details every move, much like a crime reporter covering an interminable gang war, marveling at the young bosss ability to play for a draw or make his own luck Step by step, he guides us through the opportunities the players did not miss a chance to miss The NationExcellent A particularly valuable account of Husseins relations with Israel and the Palestinians The New York Times Book Shlaim is an Iraqi born academic, reared in Israel and long resident in Britain, who writes about the Middle East with exceptional wisdom and insight He tells the story extremely wellMax Hastings, Sunday Times London The most authoritative biography of King Hussein He emerges from under Shlaims microscope as honest, fundamentally decent and, in a region noted for its brutality and treachery, notably merciful and kind In his personal dealings, most strikingly with the Israelis, he was especially gracious Without his relentless diplomacy conducted often along those secret channels , the region might be even bloodier than it is already The EconomistA thrilling, masterful biographySimon Sebag Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph London , Book of the YearRiveting Artful Thoroughly informed Wall Street JournalA highly readable account of the courageous, astute and sometimes impulsive leader of an impecunious and insignificant desert kingdom Financial TimesRemarkable Shlaim tells this story , for all its complicated scholarship and historical allusion, with genuine compassion He has worried his way through subterfuge and mendacity, terrorist threat and open warfare, to establish Husseins credentials as a genuine champion of peaceJan Morris, Guardian London All would be Middle East peacemakers should read Lion of Jordan For Shlaim shows not only how attempts at peacemaking in the region have failed, but also why Sunday Telegraph London Shlaim is the sort of historian every country needs An exposer of national myths, he is the supreme scholar of Arab Israeli negotiations For many years Lion of Jordan will remain the standard work on King Hussein The SpectatorSuperb Shlaim not only has the twists and turns of the Arab Israeliconflict at his fingertips but understands better than most why it has twisted or turned New StatesmanIf one wishes to personalise the political history of the Middle East in the second half of the th century, there is no better choice of subject than Hussein bin Talal Lion of Jordan captures well the noble aspirations of its subject Daily Telegraph London Shlaims stinging critique of Israel might stir controversy, but his comprehensive, nuanced account of Husseins life illuminates the tragic complexities of Middle Eastern politics Publishers WeeklyWide ranging and well documented Shlaims book gives us a better understanding of a major politician The Observer London From the Trade Paperback edition some of his books are a fascination for readers like in the Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace English Edition book, this is one of the most wanted Avi Shlaim author readers around the world.
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