Hachémites

The Dynasty of the Hachémites (hāšimīy, rear RTL هاشمي), or Banû Hâchim (banū hāšim rear RTL بنوهاشم, the clan of Hâchim, the descendants of Hâchim ) traditionally designates a clan of the tribe of the Quraychites. Hachémites were a long time the guards of the Holy City of Mecque, they are today the royal family reigning in Jordan.

Origins

Originating in the Arabic peninsula, the Hachémites are, according to the tradition, the descendants in right-hand side line of the back grandfather of Mahomet, Hashim ibn Abd Al-Manaf (death in 510), pertaining like him to the tribe of the Quraychites, rich person and commercial, who dominated Mecque at the 7th century and to which short a sourate of Coran is dedicated.

Since the 10th century, the sherifs and emirs of Mecque were of Hachémites, indicator to follow one another the empires Fatimide, Seldjoukide, Ayyoubide, Mamelouk, and especially Othoman, while preserving their authority.

The First World War and the Arab revolt

At the time of the First World War, French and the British sought to be combined with Arabic to fight against the Ottoman Empire. It was the object of the correspondence Hussein - Mac-Mahon; Hussein Ibn Ali being Sherif of Mecque and Sir Henry Mac-Mahon being the British High-Commissioner in Cairo. The Chérif, which was more and more in opposition with the Young person-Turks, started the Arab Révolte in 1916 with the assistance of its sons (see on this subject the role of Thomas Edward Lawrence), against the promise of an Arab kingdom after the victory. The wire of Hussein, Fayçal at the head, succeeded in the exploit to join together the Arab tribes of the Hedjaz until the Syria to reach Damas on October 1st, 1918 with the English troops of the general Allenby. Fayçal became in 1920 Fayçal Ier, king de Syrie.

Consequently, Hachémites and the Arabs in general were confronted with the wills European imperialists, and were gradually marginalized.

Post-war period at our days

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Hussein became king of Hedjaz independent with the tacit agreement of the Foreign Office. English continued nevertheless to maintain another ally, Ibn Seoud, enemy of Hussein, with the conquète of the peninsula. In 1925, Ibn Seoud took Mecque, putting fine at almost a millenium of chérifat Hachémite.

Fayçal was thus proclaimed king of Large Syria in 1920, but it was without counting on the Accords Sykes-Barb: the conference of Sanremo placed the Syria under French mandate, which leads to the battle of Maysaloun. Fayçal had to be exiled in England. The British government which managed Iraq decided to establish there a kingdom and he became king d' Iraq in 1921. He succeeds in making this country fully independent in 1932, before dying in 1933. Its grandson Faycal II was deposited and assassinated at the time of the coup d'etat of the general Kassem on July 14th, 1958. The Hachémite dynasty of Iraq is today still claiming with the throne, the Cheykh Hussein being the chief of the Party Monarchist Hachémite Parlementaire Iraqi created after the war of Iraq of 2003.

Abdallah Ier of Jordan, another of wire of Hussein Ibn Ali, went up on the throne of the emirate of Transjordanie in 1921, which became in 1946 the kingdom of Jordan, where Hachémites still reign in 2007, represented by the king Abdallah II. The double dynasty hachémite was put at evil by the history: Great Britain sapped the authority of Abdallah while praising itself to handle it (Churchill was praised one day to have creates Jordan with a pencil one afternoon in Cairo).

It is in this difficult context that the action of Abdallah is, king de Jordanie, who, eager to give again their prestige in Hachémites, solved of launching the " Arab Legion " with the conquest of Jerusalem (Al Qods in Arabic) at the time of the War of Palestine of 1948. It wished that this holy place, the third of Islam, be managed by its dynasty whereas the two first, Mecque and Médine, were from now on with the hands of the Séoud. For this reason, extremely to have been able to resist the attacks of the army israëlienne, Abdallah, winner and Master of Jerusalem, but also of the the West Bank, to you he proclaimed it birth of the palestino-Jordanian unit, entity gathering Jordan and the West Bank. This initiative was fatal for him: the annexation de facto of the West Bank to its kingdom raised the anger of the Palestinians, who assassinated it in Jerusalem in 1951 whereas he visited the Mosquée Al-Aqsa.

In spite of the defeat of the the Six Day old War in 1967 and the loss of Jerusalem and the West Bank which followed, Hachémites of Jordan always supervise the Waqf which manages all the mosques of Palestine, of which that of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. In 1924, territorial portions of Saudi Arabia concerned with Hedjaz theirs were yielded: the area of Maan and the town of Aqaba.

Is there a political vision common to Hachémites?

It is obviously difficult to answer such a question, but some points must be underlined:

Hachémites were overall favorable to a modern Islam, pre-schismatic, in opposition for example to the Wahhabisme of Séoud.
Lawrence underlined the romantic vision of Fayçal of a new Arab prestige (" the nostalgia of the gardens of Cordoue" , by referring to the Empire omeyyade which extended to Spain.) Fayçal as Abdallah Ier always defended the Panarabisme.
Hachémites were not opposed on arrival Jews in Palestine, massive and officialized by the declaration Balfour. At the time of a agreement signed with Chaim Weizmann, Fayçal launched the bases of a coexistence and a collaboration between Jews and Arabic in the area. The agreement, resting on reciprocal engagements, was an example of religious tolerance and good will of the two parts, and was even presented to the conference of Paris charged to organize the post-war period with the the Middle East. Unfortunately, the European competitions took again the top, and the document remained dead letter.

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