Interregnum (Transjordan)

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The Interregnum (between rulers) period in Transjordan was a short period during which Transjordan had no established ruler or occupying power that lasted from the end of the Franco-Syrian War on 25 July 1920 until the Establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in April 1921.[1]

Transjordan was in the British sphere of influence, but the British did not send an army or administration, and the government of the Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Syria under Prince Faisal had collapsed after being defeated by the French during the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920.[2] British High Commissioner for Palestine Herbert Samuel wrote that the area was "left politically derelict";[3][4] the region was extremely poor, sparsely populated, and widely considered ungovernable.[5]

The British administration in the neighbouring Mandatory Palestine were split over whether to influence the region or not. The World Zionist Organization tried and failed to have the area added to Mandatory Palestine and be included in the Balfour Declaration. The efforts of High Commissioner for Palestine Herbert Samuel to place the region under direct British rule were overruled by the British Foreign Minister Lord Curzon.[6][7][8][9]

Prince Abdullah entered Transjordan in November 1920 and set about expanding his influence and gained control over most of the Transjordan region by March 1921. With the declared goal of liberating Syria from French rule, he built alliances with Arab nationalists who fled Damascus following Maysalun and local tribes.[5] Having established himself in Amman, Abdullah agreed with British Colonial Secretary, during the March 1921 Cairo Conference, on a six months trial, which was later extended indefinitely. Abdullah's establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in April 1921, a British protectorate with independence but suzerainty to the British Empire, marked the beginning of the Jordanian monarchy. Britain's support to establishing Arab monarchies led by sons of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca in former territories of the Ottoman Empire, became known as the "Sharifian Solution".

  1. ^ Dann, U. (1969). The Beginnings of the Arab Legion. Middle Eastern Studies,5(3), 181-191. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4282290 Archived 2019-06-07 at the Wayback Machine "...the interregnum between Faysal's departure from Syria and 'Abdallah's installation at 'Amman."
  2. ^ Norman Bentwich, England in Palestine, p. 51, "The High Commissioner had ... only been in office a few days when Emir Faisal ... had to flee his kingdom" and "The departure of Faisal and the breaking up of the Emirate of Syria left the territory on the east side of Jordan in a puzzling state of detachment ... His Majesty's Government were unwilling to embark on any definite commitment, and vetoed any entry into the territory by the troops. The Arabs were therefore left to work out their destiny."
  3. ^ Pipes, Daniel (26 March 1992). Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition. Oxford University Press. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-0-19-536304-3.
  4. ^ Edward W. Said; Christopher Hitchens (2001). Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question. Verso. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-1-85984-340-6.
  5. ^ a b Salibi 1998, p. 91 and blurb.
  6. ^ Paris 2003, p. 155.
  7. ^ Sicker 1999, pp. 158.
  8. ^ Aruri 1972, p. 17-19.
  9. ^ Wilson 1990, p. 46–48.