Ali Jawdat al-Ayyubi

1885? - 1969

Friend and retainer of Faisal I ibn Hussein during the Arab revolt of World War I; politician in Iraq, 1920s - 1958.

Ali Jawdat was born in Mosul (Iraq) during the Ottoman Empire, to a family who practiced Sunni Islam. His father was a military man, chief sergeant in the gendarmerie, and Ali's education was basically military. During World War I, he joined the Arab revolt against the Ottomans under Sharif Husayn ibn Ali and became a trusted friend of the sharif's son Faisal, who in 1920 became king of Syria (until the French mandate), then king of Iraq in 1921 under the British mandate.

Ali Jawdat was appointed military governor and head of several government ministries (finance, interior, and foreign affairs) during the early years, when Iraq tried to gain independence from the British. In 1932, the British mandate was ended, but Britain kept troops there until the mid-1950s. During the 1930s, Ali Jawdat became a chief administrative and diplomatic officer, representing Iraq in London, Paris, and Washington. He was made prime minister of Iraq in 1934 and 1935, 1949 and 1950, and during 1957 (just before the government was overthrown by a leftist military coup in 1958, headed by Abd al-Karim Qasim). In 1967, Ali Jawdat published his memoirs in Beirut, covering the years 1900 to 1958.

Bibliography

Ayyubi, Ali Jawdat al-. Memoirs of Ali Jawdat, 1900 - 58. Beirut, 1967. In Arabic.

Batatu, Hanna. The Old Social Classes and the RevolutionaryMovements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of Its Communists, Baʿthists, and Free Officers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978.

— AHMAD ABDUL A. R. SHIKARA