Abdullah ibn Hussein

Abdullah ibn Hussein (b. 1880, d. 20 July 1951). Emir of Transjordan 1921–48, King of Transjordan/Jordan 1948–51 Son of Hussein ibn Ali, Sherif of Mecca, with his brother Faisal he led the Arab Revolt of 1916. In 1921 he was made Emir of the province of Transjordan, a territory created by the Sykes–Picot Agreement and made a British protectorate in 1923. He spent the next decades creating a sense of identity and unity in his quite arbitrarily defined kingdom, establishing state institutions such as a parliament, a constitution, and a police force through the creation of the Arab Legion. He became King upon his country's independence from Britain in 1948. During the first Arab–Israeli War (1948–9), he used the Arab Legion to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which he united with Transjordan as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1950. After he engaged in secret negotiations with Israel, he was assassinated by an Arab nationalist.