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Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, amīr (known in Western sources as Grand Sharif) of Mecca from 1908 to 1916, and king of the Ḥijāz from 1916 to 1924, proclaimed the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, and sought the title of caliph, but lost his kingdom to the Saudi dynasty. Ḥusayn was a member of the ʿAwn branch of the Meccan Hāshimite sharīfs who, as descendants of the prophet Muḥammad, shared rule in Mecca and parts of the Ḥijāz with the Ottoman governors of that province. Born in Istanbul in 1853 or 1854, Ḥusayn passed his youth partly in the Ḥijāz and partly in Istanbul, where after 18…

The Hāshimīs (Hashemites) were a dynasty of Ḥasanī descendants of the prophet Muḥammad (sharīfs) who ruled Mecca as amīrs almost without interruption from the fourth/tenth century until 1924. After the First World War, the dynasty provided kings for Syria and Iraq, which later became republics, and gave its name to the territory that became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The dynasty was named after Hāshim b. ʿAbd Manāf, the paternal great-grandfather of the prophet Muḥammad. The majority of the Shīʿa recognised as their Imāms descendants of ʿAlī’s younger son al-Ḥusa…

The Ḥijāz Railway was built starting in 1900 by order of the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II (ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd II, r. 1876–1909) with the purpose of encouraging and safeguarding the travel of pilgrims from Damascus southward to Mecca and Medina. The railway would be a practical example of the pan-Islamic policies of Abdülhamid, who aspired to the leadership of the whole Muslim world. In addition, the railway could be used to transport troops, so as to subdue the tribes of the region and the amīrs of Mecca, thereby bringing the Ḥijāz under direct Ottoman rule. Unlike other Ottoman ra…

The Arab Revolt of 1916 in the Ḥijāz against the Ottoman Empire began as a military campaign and led, ironically, both to the independence of several Arab states and the growth of British influence in the Middle East. Arab nationalism had started during the late nineteenth century in Ottoman Lebanon and Syria. Even so, the Arab Revolt in 1916 was a response not to Arab nationalism, but rather to the attempts at centralisation by the Committee of Union and Progress, which spurred local leaders toward rebellion. In Mecca, the capital of the Ḥijāz province, the Hāshimite sharīf al-Ḥusayn b. ‘…

ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (1879–1935), last of the Hāshimite sharīfs to rule the Muslim holy cities in the Ḥijāz, was the eldest son of al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, amīr of Mecca (r. 1908–16) and king of the Ḥijāz (r. 1916–24). In the revolt against the Ottomans during the First World War, ʿAlī was a leader of the Arab army and nominal prime minister of the Ḥijāz, although his father was actually in control. After the First World War, Ḥusayn rejected ʿAlī’s advice to accept a British treaty and compromise with ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd (commonly known as Ibn Saʿūd, r. 1932–53). As Grea…