Mandatory Iraq

Kingdom of Iraq under British administration
الانتداب البريطاني على العراق (Arabic)
1921–1932
Anthem: (1924–1932)
السلام الملكي
As-Salam al-Malaki
"The Royal Salute"
Location of Iraq
StatusLeague of Nations mandate
Capital
and largest city
Baghdad
Common languagesArabic · Kurdish
Neo-Aramaic
Religion
Islam · Christianity
Judaism · Yazidism
Mandaeism
Demonym(s)Iraqi
High Commissioner 
• 1921–1923
Percy Cox
• 1923–1929
Henry Dobbs
• 1929–1932
Francis Humphrys
King 
• 1921–1932
Faisal I
Prime Minister 
• 1920–1922 (first)
Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani
• 1930–1932 (last)
Nuri al-Said
LegislatureParliament
• Upper Chamber
Senate
• Lower Chamber
Chamber of Deputies
Historical eraInterwar period
25 April 1920
23 August 1921
• Coronation of Faisal I
23 August 1921
24 July 1923
5 June 1926
30 June 1930
• Independence
3 October 1932
CurrencyIndian rupee
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Baghdad Vilayet
Basra Vilayet
Mosul Vilayet
Al-Muntafiq
Kingdom of Iraq
Today part ofIraq
Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq (Arabic: الانتداب البريطاني على العراق, romanizedal-Intidāb al-Brīṭānī ʿalā l-ʿIrāq), was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolution against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 undertaking by the United Kingdom to the League of Nations to fulfil the role as Mandatory Power.[1][2]

Faisal ibn Husayn, who had been proclaimed King of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. Faisal was then granted by the British the territory of Iraq, to rule it as a kingdom, with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) retaining certain military control, but de facto, the territory remained under British administration until 1932.[3]

The civil government of postwar Iraq was headed originally by the High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, and his deputy, Colonel Arnold Wilson. British reprisals after the capture and killing of a British officer in Najaf failed to restore order. The British occupiers faced the growing strength of the nationalists, who continued to resist against the British authority. British administration had yet to be established in Iraqi Kurdistan.

  1. ^ Wright, Quincy. “The Government of Iraq.” The American Political Science Review, vol. 20, no. 4, 1926, pp. 743–769. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1945423. Accessed 21 Jan. 2020
  2. ^ See original documents here
  3. ^ Ethnicity, State Formation, and Conscription in Postcolonial Iraq: The Case of the Yazidi Kurds of Jabal Sinjar. JSTOR [1]