Ali bin Hussein al-Hashimi

Ali bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi (born at Mecca in 1879 – died at Baghdad on 13 February 1935) was King of Hejaz and Grand Sharif of Mecca from October 1924 until he was deposed by Ibn Saud in December 1925, and the eldest son of King Hussein bin Ali, as the English article describes him. ^{1 2} He remained his father's heir in the Hejaz while his brothers Abdullah and Faisal were made kings of Transjordan and Iraq; when his father abdicated to him as Ibn Saud advanced, he defended what remained of the kingdom at Jeddah and Medina until it fell, fled to Iraq, and died at Baghdad and was buried in the royal cemetery at Adhamiyah. ^{1 2}

The eldest son of Hussein, Ali was born in Mecca in 1879 to Sharif Hussein bin Ali and Sharifa Abdiyya bint Abdullah; he received lessons in Arabic, the Quran and other sciences at Mecca, and his mother died of typhoid in 1887 at the age of twenty-seven, as the Arabic article recounts. ^{2 3} He was raised for a time among Bedouin, in the custom of the Ashraf, was schooled with his brothers Faisal and Abdullah in Turkish reading and writing, and after his father's enforced residence at Istanbul from 1893 completed his studies there, including military sciences; the English article says he was educated at Ghalata Serai College (Galatasaray High School) in Istanbul. ^{2 1} In 1906 he married Nafissa Khanum, daughter of Emir Abdullah bin Muhammad Pasha, a former Grand Sharif of Mecca; they had one son and four daughters, among them Princess Aliya, who married her cousin King Ghazi I and became Queen of Iraq, and Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah, who became regent of Iraq during the minority of King Faisal II. ¹

In 1916 Ali became one of the leaders of the Arab Revolt against Turkish rule; following its success Hussein made himself the first King of Hejaz with British support, Abdullah and Faisal were made kings of Jordan and Iraq, and Ali remained the heir to his father's lands in Arabia. ¹ As Hussein became embroiled in fighting with the House of Saud based in Riyadh and suffered military defeats by Abdulaziz ibn Saud, he abdicated all his secular titles to Ali in October 1924 — the Arabic article dates the start of Ali's reign to 2 October 1924 and the English article the abdication to 3 October 1924, a one-day difference the museum states rather than merges — and with the kingship Ali also became heir to the title of caliph, which his father had assumed in March 1924, but he did not adopt the office or the style of caliph. ^{2 1} His forces held Medina, Yanbu, al-Wajh, Umluj and Jeddah, and the tribes around those cities kept their loyalty to him, while he hoped for volunteers from Transjordan and Iraq, as the Arabic article recounts; in December 1925 Saudi forces overran what remained of the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz, which was eventually incorporated into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Ali and his family fled to Iraq, where he settled at Baghdad until his death in 1935. ^{2 1}

Ali died at Baghdad on 13 February 1935 and was buried in the royal cemetery at Adhamiyah, on the Arabic article, the death date agreeing with the English article's lead; Wikidata gives his death on 14 February 1935, and the museum states both readings. ^{2 1 3} His name lived on in monarchist Iraq through his son Abd al-Ilah as regent and his daughter Aliya as queen, and through the ambivalent portraits his contemporaries left of him. ^{1 2}

This section is read as a presentation of positions reported from the sources, not as a verdict of the museum.

Contemporary descriptions of Ali, carried by the Arabic article, are divided: Lawrence of Arabia described him as courteous; Eric Kennington portrayed him as a worried-looking man, thin-faced and frowning, with sad eyes and a black moustache; a Briton who met him once said that fate had missed its road with Ali, that he was made not for kingship but for sanctity; and some thought him prone to tuberculosis and described him as sickly and cold in temperament. ² The English article says only that he inherited the claim and did not adopt the office or style; the two-sentence Urdu stub adds nothing on the point, gives no dates at all, and errs in calling him the first king of the Hejaz kingdom, where the fuller articles make his father the first king and Ali the second. ^{1 4} The sources differ in details the museum states rather than merges: his reign opens on 2 October 1924 in the Arabic article and on his father's abdication of 3 October 1924 in the English, and his death falls on 13 February 1935 in the English and Arabic articles and on 14 February in Wikidata. ^{2 1 3} His faith is recorded as unknown as to school in his data record: none of the three articles states a religion or school for him, and Wikidata's single value is Islam generically, which names no school; his Hashemite descent is family background and never counts, so the value stays unknown under the two-source rule and the doubt rule. ^{1 2 3}

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
• Later translations and edits of this article need periodic review with clear update dates.