In this video, I'm going to show you the family
trees of the Hashemite and Saudi dynasties,
the two most important royal houses in the
Middle East today. I'll be referring to my
Asian Royal Family Trees chart, which shows
the connection between the Hashemites and
the prophet Muhammad. But mostly I'll be starting
with the events that occurred after the fall
of the Ottoman Empire and then tracing these
two families to the current generation.
This video is part of a two-part collaboration
with Hikma History, who will be going into
more detail on the events that followed the
fall of the Ottomans. You can find a link
to his video in the description or on screen
at the end of this one.
Intro
So there are currently seven countries in
the Middle East that can be classified as
monarchies. The two that we are going to look
at today are both kingdoms: the Kingdom of
Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There
is one other kingdom and that is Bahrain.
However, Bahrain is more the size of an emirate
(which is what is was prior to 2002) so that’s
why it’s shown with a smaller crown symbol.
On the other hand, I’ve shown Oman with
a large crown symbol even though it’s not
a kingdom. That’s because it’s a sultanate
and a Sultan is pretty much the equivalent
of a king. So really, these are three larger
sized monarchies and these are the smaller
ones. Kuwait and Qatar are both independent
emirates headed by an emir which is basically
the equivalent of what’s called a sovereign
prince in Europe. And then there are the United
Arab Emirates, which consist of seven emirates
but is considered a single country.
About one hundred years ago, the situation
was quite a bit different. The Ottoman Empire
had dominated the Middle East for about 500
years but by the time World War I rolled around,
it was on its last legs. This map, made by
Syawish from the Al Muqaddimah channel, shows
the borders of the Ottoman Empire at the start
of the war and then this one shows the situation
at the end of the war.
This area here, called the Hejaz, includes
the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. It broke
free from the Ottomans during what’s called
the Arab Revolt. That revolt was led by Shareef
Hussein, the founder of the Hashemite dynasty.
He declared himself King of the Arab Countries
as well as later, the new Caliph. But in reality,
he was only the King of Hejaz. Palestine,
Jordan, and Iraq were actually controlled
by the British and Syria was controlled by
the French.
Additionally, a new power was starting to
grow in an area known as Nejd. The emir of
that region was a man named Ibn Saud, the
founder of the modern Saudi dynasty.
So, with that background, let’s now go to
the family tree. So the Saudis are shown in
green and the Hashemites are shown in red.
At the top are the two men that I just mentioned.
Hussein, who was originally the Shareef of
Mecca but became the King of Hejaz after the
Arab Revolt; and Ibn Saud, the Emir of Nejd.
Let’s start with the Hashemites. The Hashemites
are supposedly direct male-line descendants
of Hasan, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
If we go to the simplified version of this
tree, shown on my Asian Royal Family Trees
poster, we can trace this dotted line all
the way up to the top and see how it connects
into Muhammad’s family.
So, Muhammad did not have any biological sons
who lived into adulthood. And the only daughter
of his who is known to have had descendants
is Fatima. She married Muhammad’s cousin
and close companion Ali. Sunni Muslims consider
Ali to have been the fourth caliph and Shi’ite
Muslims consider him to have been the first
imam. Fatima and Ali had two main sons, Hasan
and Husayn. Hasan, who was the eldest, is
the ancestor of the Hashemite dynasty (which
we are looking at today), whereas Husayn became
the ancestor of the Fatimid dynasty as well
as the modern-day Aga Khans.
So let’s go back to the House of Hashim.
Hussein had four sons, all of whom were involved
in the Arab Revolt and the subsequent fall
of the Ottoman Empire. Faisal was the first
to be offered his own crown and was declared
King of Syria in 1920. Interestingly, he was
portrayed in the famous movie Lawrence of
Arabia by the same actor who played the original
Obi Wan Kenobi. Anyway, Faisal’s reign in
Syria was extremely short as the French ended
up taking full control of Syria just a few
months later. The British therefore offered
him the title King of Iraq instead, although
the British still retained some control over
the country throughout most of his reign.
Meanwhile, his brother Abdullah had been named
Emir of Transjordan, which was initially a
British Protectorate. He had actually been
offered the throne of Iraq prior to Faisal
but he turned it down. He did however become
king in 1946, when Transjordan became independent
and was renamed the Kingdom of Jordan.
Hussein’s eldest son, Ali, was not offered
a separate crown because he was his father’s
heir in Hejaz. Ali became king there in 1924
when his father stepped down. But, his reign
was a short one. There had already been conflict
between the Hashemites and the growing Saudi
state of Nejd, which was now a sultanate.
And in 1925, the Saudis officially conquered
Hejaz and incorporated it into their territory.
At that point, Ibn Saud took the title King
of Nejd & Hejaz – the two kingdoms which
then merged in 1932 to become Saudi Arabia.
After the conquest, Hussein moved to Jordan
and Ali moved to Iraq. Both men died in the
1930s and after the death of Hussein, no one
has seriously claimed the title of caliph.
In Iraq, Faisal I was eventually succeeded
by his only son Ghazi, who reigned for six
years before dying in a car accident at age
27. He had only one son, who was 4 years old
at the time, so Abdullah, the only son of
Ali, took over as regent until he came of
age. But, in 1958, there was a coup in Iraq
and both Faisal II and Abdullah, the former
regent, were assassinated - thus ending these
two branches of the Hashemite dynasty. From
1958 onwards, Iraq has a republic. However,
monarchists consider the line to have passed
to Hussein’s youngest son, Zeid. Zeid has
a son, named Ra’ad, who is still living
and is currently the Hashemite heir to both
the thrones of Iraq and Syria. After he dies,
his titles will pass to his eldest son, Zeid
Ra’ad, who is currently a law professor
in the States with a high profile career as
a diplomat. He recently served both as President
of the UN Security Council and as the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights.
Let’s now look at Jordan, which is the only
country where the Hashemite dynasty still
reigns. The first king, Abudallah I, was assassinated
by a Palestinian in 1951, a few years after
the State of Israel was declared. During the
Arab-Israeli War, Jordan had managed to capture
the West Bank and Abdullah was keen on simply
incorporating the Palestinian areas into Jordan
rather than helping to create a separate Palestinian
state. It was rumoured that he was engaged
in secret peace talks with Israel and this
is likely what led to his death.
He was succeeded by his son Talal, but then
Talal was deposed after just one year due
to a mental illness, which was likely schizophrenia.
His eldest son, Hussein, was just 16 at the
time and ruled initially with a regency council.
Hussein was actually with his grandfather
the day Abdullah I was assassinated and even
took a bullet. However, it deflected off a
medal he was wearing and therefore he survived.
In fact, he ended up having a long, 46-year
reign. During that time, he married four times
and had children with all four. Only his eldest
son is shown here, the current king of Jordan
– Abudallah II.
Hussein’s first two marriages ended in divorce.
Dina went on to marry a prominent member of
the PLO and she passed away just last year.
Muna, who is still living, is British by birth
and was originally named Antionette. Alia
died in a helicopter crash and Queen Noor,
who is also still living, is American by birth
and was originally named Lisa. Her father
was an important figure in early commercial
aviation history.
The current king is married to Queen Rania,
who was born in Kuwait and is of Palestinian
descent. They have two sons and two daughters.
Their eldest child is Crown Prince Hussein,
who is currently 25.
Okay, let’s now turn our attention to the
Saudi dynasty. Although he is usually referred
to as Ibn Saud, the founder’s regnal name
was actually King
Abdul-azeez. He reigned until 1953 and since
then, every king of Saudi Arabia has been
one of his sons. This makes it a rather unique
monarchy. If you follow this channel regularly,
you’ll know that most monarchies follow
some form of primogeniture, which usually
means that succession proceeds vertically,
from eldest son to eldest son, and so forth.
In contrast, the Saudi dynasty uses agnatic
seniority, which means that succession proceeds
horizontally, from eldest brother, to next
eldest brother, and so forth, until there’s
no one left in that generation. Only then
does the throne pass to the most senior male
from the next generation.
Anyway, Ibn Saud is thought to have had 22
wives and about 40 sons. Now, the succession
did not always go in strict birth order. Sometimes
individuals were skipped at the discretion
of whoever was the current king. Things were
particularly messy at the very beginning.
There was a rivalry between the two eldest
surviving sons and eventually Faisal took
control through political manoeuvring and
had Saud deposed. He then ended up assassinated
by one of his own nephews. However, things
stabilized during the reigns of the next two
kinds, Khalid and Fahd, and during their tenures,
oil money poured in and the country became
very wealthy.
During the reign of the sixth king, Abdullah,
a special counsel was formed and new rules
were set for choosing a successor. Basically,
all the sons and grandsons of Ibn Saud now
got to vote on who the crown prince would
be. Abdullah actually ended up outliving two
of his crown princes, one of whom was Prince
Nayef, and therefore it was his third crown
prince, his younger brother Salman, who ended
up succeeding him.
Salman is the current king of Saudi Arabia
and is currently 84 years old. Initially,
the son of former crown prince Nayef, named
Muhammad, was named the new crown prince.
However, in 2017, King Salman removed Muhammad
and named his own son, also named Mohammed,
as the new crown prince.
The special counsel formally voted to approve
the change but it seems like this was something
that the king simply decreed. It also appears
as though the new crown prince, nicknamed
MBS, is the real power behind the throne so
if and when he becomes the new king, there
might be more changes ahead. Anyhow, it would
be the first time that a grandson of Ibn Saud,
as opposed to a son, would be king.
Finally, I should mention that these two families
are custodians of some of the world’s most
holy religious sites. When Ibn Saud took control
of the Hejaz, he became the new custodian
of Mecca and his successors continue to hold
this role to this day.
But the Hashemites are custodians of the holy
sites in Jerusalem, including both the Muslim
holy sites and the Christian ones, such as
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have
held that position since 1924.
Okay, so that was a look at the two most important
Islamic dynasties in the world today. Make
sure you follow the link on the screen at
the end to check out Hikma’s video.
Thanks for watching.
