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'Faisal bin Al Hussein Bin Ali El-Hashemite ' ( ''Fayṣal ibn Ḥusayn''; May 20, 1883 – September 8, 1933) was for a short time king of Greater Syria in 1920 and king of Iraq from August 23 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty and therefore allegedly a descendant of Muhammad.
He was born in Ta'if (in present-day Saudi Arabia) in 1883, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, the Grand Sharif of Mecca.
In 1913 he was elected as representative for the city of Jeddah for the Ottoman parliament.
In 1916, on a mission to Istanbul, he visited Damascus twice. On one of these visits he received the Damascus Protocol, joined with the Al-Fatat group of Arab nationalists, and his father became king of Hijaz.
Faisal also worked with the Allies during World War I in their conquest of Greater Syria and the capture of Damascus, where he became part of a new Arab government in 1918.

He led the Arab delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and, with the support of the knowledgeable and influential Gertrude Bell, argued for the establishment of independent Arab emirates for the area previously covered by the Ottoman Empire. His role in the Arab Revolt was described by T.E. Lawrence in ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'', although the accuracy of that book has been criticized by historians.
On January 3, 1919 Faisal and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist Organization signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, in which Faisal conditionally accepted the Balfour Declaration based on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of independence to the Arabs. These were not kept. ^{[1] [2]} Weizmann argued that the fulfillment was kept eventually and therefore the agreement still held.
On March 7, 1920 he was made king of Greater Syria by the Syrian National Congress. However, in April 1920 the San Remo conference gave France the mandate for Syria, which led to the battle of Maysalun on July 24, 1920. Faisal was expelled from Syria by the French and went to live in the United Kingdom in August of that year.
The British government, mandate holders in Iraq, were concerned at the unrest in the colony. They decided to step back from direct administration and create a monarchy to head Iraq while they maintained the mandate. Following a plebiscite showing 96% in favor, Faisal agreed to become king. In August 1921 he was made king of Iraq.
He was instrumental in making his country fully independent in 1932.
He died on September 8, 1933 when he had a heart attack whilst he was staying in Berne, Switzerland. He was succeeded on the throne by his oldest son Ghazi.

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Film

References

Film

He has been twice portrayed on film: in David Lean's epic ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), played by Alec Guinness, and in the unofficial sequel to ''Lawrence'', '' (1990) by Alexander Siddig.

References

1. Faisal's Acceptance of the Balfour Declaration Jewish Virtual Library
2. Official records of the Second Session of the General Assembly (A/364/Add.2 PV.21), United Nations, July 8, 1947