by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2020
On July 20, 1951, King Abdullah I was shot and killed while attending prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Jordan. He was succeeded by his eldest son, King Talal.
King Abdullah I of Jordan. source: Wikipedia
King Abdullah I
King Abdullah was the first King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He was born in February 1882 to the Emir of Mecca and his first wife. Following the Great Arab Revolt in 1916, Abdullah was named King of Iraq but he refused the throne. The Iraqi throne went instead to his brother Faisal. In 1921, Abdullah was recognized by the United Kingdom as Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate. In 1946, Transjordan ceased to be a British protectorate and became the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan (later renamed Jordan in 1949), with Abdullah as its first King. He had three wives and five children, including his successor, King Talal. The only Arab ruler to accept the UN’s plan for Palestine, Abdullah later took part in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, annexing the territories of the West Bank captured by Jordanian troops in Palestine. He later entered into secret peace negotiations with Israel, which likely led to his assassination.
For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: King Abdullah I of Jordan
The Assassin – Mustafa Shukri Ashu
Mustafa Shukri Ashu was a 21-year old tailor’s apprentice, who was described as a “former terrorist” and had been recruited to kill the King. While he was the one who pulled the trigger, ten men were tried for the part in the assassination, including Colonel Abdullah at-Tell who had been the Governor of Jerusalem, and Musa Ahmad al-Ayubbi, a vegetable merchant. At-Tell and al-Ayubbi were found guilty and sentenced to death, despite having fled the country.
The Assassination
Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. photo: By Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29652325
On July 16, 1951, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Riad Bey Al Solh, was assassinated in Amman, Jordan. Four days later, on July 20, King Abdullah – accompanied by his grandson, the future King Hussein – traveled to Jerusalem to attend Al Solh’s funeral at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. While waiting for Friday prayers to begin, the king was approached by a Palestinian activist, Mustafa Shukri Ashu, who fired three shots, hitting the king in the chest and head and killing him instantly. The young Hussein was also caught in the gunfire – miraculously escaping harm when a bullet ricocheted off a medal he was wearing at his grandfather’s insistence.
What happened to King Abdullah?
The mausoleum of King Abdullah I (center)
The King died instantly from his wounds. His body was returned quickly to Amman, where his funeral and burial took place. As his son and successor, Talal, was in a hospital in Switzerland being treated for mental illness, Abdullah’s second son, Naif, was appointed as Regent until Talal could return to Jordan. Naif, along with the Regent of Iraq, presided over the funeral services, after which Abdullah’s body was interred in a mausoleum at the Royal cemetery near Raghadan Palace.
Abdullah’s grandson, King Hussein, circa 1953. source: Wikipedia
Just a year later, Talal was forced to abdicate due to his mental illness and was succeeded by his eldest son, King Hussein, who was just 16 years old at the time.
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