• DOI:10.1017/S0020743800000052
• Corpus ID: 163677445

A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine

@article{Mousa1978AMO,
  title={A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine},
  author={Suleiman Mousa},
  journal={International Journal of Middle East Studies},
  year={1978},
  volume={9},
  pages={183 - 194}
}

• Suleiman Mousa
• Published 1 May 1978
• History
• International Journal of Middle East Studies

On the whole, King Hussein of the Hijaz, sharif of Mecca, has fared badly at the hands of British historians. To most of them he was an obstinate old man, so overambitious for himself, and so overconfident about his following in the Arab world, that he was a poor judge of his powers and unrealistic to a great extent. Examination of the papers in the British Public Record Office, in conjunction with his own letters and other sources, offers another image. It shows quite a different man – consistent in his beliefs and policy, stubborn about questions of principle, and wholly set on pursuing with dignity the rights that he reckoned the British to have promised to all Arabs ‘liberated’ from the yoke of the Turks.