and neighboring Riyadh from the rival Rashid clan, which was allied with the Ottoman empire. Yet it was not until October 1953, a month before his death, that Abdul issued a decree appointing a council of ministers as an advisory body. At age 21 he departed Kuwait to subdue the two holy places: Mecca and Medina.
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Abdul Ghani, Abdul Aziz (1939- ): Yemeni political; North Yemeni prime minister, 1975-80, 1983-90, 1994-97 Born into a Shafii Sunni family in the Hujariya region of North Yemen, Abdul went to a teacher training college in Aden, South Yemen. He supported Salih in the civil war that erupted in May 1994 and was appointed premier after it ended in July. Following the 1997 parliamentary poll, Abdul was replaced as the prime minister by Faraj Said Ghanim.
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Abdul Hamid II (1842-1918): Ottoman sultan (1876-1909). He succeeded his brother Murad V and ruled until his deposition following the 1908 Young Turk revolution. His war with Russia (1877-78) was resolved by the Treaty of San Stefano (1878), subsequently modified by the congress of Berlin (1878).
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Abdul ilah ibn Ali (1912-1958): Iraqi regent, 1939-53; crown prince, 1953-58 Son of Sharif Ali ibn Hussein, King of Hijaz, Abdul moved to Baghdad along with the family when Hijaz fell to Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman al Saud in 1925. Following the death in 1939 of his cousin and brother in law, King Ghazi of Iraq, he became regent on behalf of four year old King Faisal II. After the seizure of power by anti British officers, led by Rashid Ali Gailani in April 1941, the pro British Abdul and the rest of the royal family fled. But two months later they returned to Baghdad following Gailani’s defeat by the British. When Faisal II came of age in 1953 and ascended the throne, he named Abdul crown prince. By then Abdul was widely regarded in Iraq as an agent of British imperialism. He was assassinated during the antimonarchist coup of 14 July 1958.
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Abdul Majuid, Esmat (1924- ): Egyptian diplomat and politician; secretary general of the Arab league. 1991-2001 Born into a middle class family in Alexandria, Abdul trained as a lawyer at universities in his native city and Paris. He joined the Foreign Service when he was twenty seven. In May 1991, following the expulsion of Iraq from occupied Kuwait, in which Egypt played an important role, Abdul was unanimously elected secretary general of the Arab league, the event signifying the restoration of Egypt as leader of the Arab world after twelve years of ostracization following its unilateral peace treaty with Israel in 1979. In 2001 he was succeeded by Amr Moussa.
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Abdul Rahman, Omar (1938- ): Egyptian Islamist leader Born into a poor peasant family in Gamaliya village, Daqaliya district, in the Nile delta, Abdul went blind in infancy as a result of diabetes. He was educated in local religious schools before joining al Azhar University in 1955. After securing a doctorate in literature in 1965 he became a lecturer in Islamic studies at the al Azhar’s branch at Fatyum in the Nile delta. Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York in February 1993 and the aborting of a plan to bomb the United Nations and other targets some weeks later, Abdul was arrested as a suspect, found guilty in October 1995, and sentenced to life imprisonment for seditious conspiracy for a bombing plot. In early 1999, from his high security jail in the US, he endorsed the unilateral cease-fire declared by al Gamaat al Islamiya.
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Abdullah I ibn Hussein al Hashem (1882-1951): Emir of Tran Jordan, 1921-46, King of Jordan 1946-51 Son of Sharif Hussein ibn Ali al Hashem of Hijaz, Abdullah was educated in Istanbul, where his father was kept under surveillance from 1891 until the coup by the Young Turks in 1908. From 1912 to 1914 Abdullah represented Mecca in the Ottoman parliament. He participated in the Arab revolt against the Ottomans that, led by his father, erupted in June 1916. When Sharif Hussein declared himself King of Hijaz in 1917, Abdullah became his foreign minister. Most of them considered Abdullah a traitor, a lackey of the British, who had made underhanded deals with the Zionists at the expense of Arab interests. In July 1951, Shurki Ashu, a young Palestinian, assassinated Abdullah as he entered al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem for Friday prayers. King of Jordan; assassinated in 1951.
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Abdullah al-Ma’mun (786-833): The question of political succession has often been a major stumbling block in Islamic political history. Keen to avoid a similar conflict after his death, the celebrated Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid took the unusual step of nominating his successor during his own lifetime. According to the agreement formulated by Harun, he was to be succeeded by his son, Muhammad, who became known as Caliph al-Amin. It also stated that al-Amin, in turn, was to be succeeded by his brother, Abdullah, who later became known as Caliph al-Ma’mun. Al-Ma’mun denounced his brother as a traitor and this set the two brothers against each other, leading to considerable political infighting and loss of life. Al-Ma’mun not only went on to become one of the Muslim world’s most prominent rulers, but also carved out an important place for himself in the intellectual history of Islam.
Abdullah al-Ma’mun ibn Harun al-Rashid was born in Baghdad after his father’s accession to the Abbasid throne at the age of twenty-two. The Caliph invited the leading scholars to come and teach al-Ma’mun. He thus received a thorough education in Arabic language, literature and aspects of Islamic sciences. Young al-Ma’mun acquired considerable knowledge of Islamic sciences and became thoroughly familiar with the Qur’an.
In 809, Caliph Harun al-Rashid died at the age of forty-three. During his reign of twenty-two years he completely transformed the fortunes of the Abbasid Empire. He restored peace, order and security throughout his vast empire. Under Harun’s patronage, Baghdad became one of the Muslim world’s most famous educational, cultural and architectural centers.
Al-Ma’mun was keen to reward his staff handsomely so as to prevent corruption, bribery and malpractice from rearing their ugly heads within his Government, and in this respect he was very successful. Like his father, al-Ma’mun transformed Baghdad into a thriving city. Under his stewardship, it became the world’s most dazzling capital city, being renowned for its schools, colleges, hospitals, markets, bookshops and libraries. As a generous patron of learning and education, he transformed the bait al-Hikmah (‘the House of Wisdom’), which was originally founded by his father Caliph Harun al-Rashid, into one of the Muslim world’s most famous libraries and research centers. He not only expanded its activities and renamed it as dar al-Hikmah (‘the Abode of Wisdom’), he also went out of his way to recruit some of the Muslim world’s brightest minds.
Al-Ma’mun chose to champion the views of the Mu’tazilites with the result that, during his reign, Mu’tazilism became the official creed of the State. Unlike the Islamic traditionalists, who argued that the Qur’an was the uncreated Word of God, al-Ma’mun – like the Mu’tazilites – considered it to be a created Word of God.
Caliph al-Ma’mun’s reign of two and a half decades came to an end when he was forty-seven. He died in the village of Budandun (in present-day Pozanti) during a military expedition he led against the Byzantines. His body was transferred to Tarsus where he was laid to rest following a simple funeral. His half-brother Abu Ishaq Muhammad Mu’tasim Billah succeeded him as Caliph.
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Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz al Saud (1923- ): Saudi Arabian crown Prince, 1982, son of Abdul Aziz al Saud and Asi al Shuraim of the Rashid clan, which was defeated by Abdul Aziz in 1921, Abdullah was born and educated in Riyadh. He started his career as governor of Mecca and became deputy defense minister and commander of the national Guard in 1963. When Khalid ibn Abdul Aziz acceded the throne in 1975 he appointed Abdullah as second deputy premier. Washington’s relations with Riyadh soured when it emerged that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers of 9/11 were Saudi nationals. Abdullah I (Abdullah ibn Husayn), 1882-1951, king of Jordan (1946-51), b. Mecca; son of Husayn ibn Ali of the Hashemite family.
