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The title King of Syria and Queen of Syria appeared in the second century BC in referring to the Seleucid kings who ruled the entirety of the region of Syria. It was also used to refer to Aramean kings in the Greek translations of the Old Testament; mainly indicating the kings of Aram-Damascus.
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Following the defeat of the (Ottoman Empire) in World War I, the region came under the rule of France, United Kingdom and prince Faisal of Hejaz who was proclaimed King of Syria on 8 March 1920. Faisal's reign lasted a few months before he was overthrown by France and the title fell out of use.
Background
The term Syria was first applied by Herodotus in the 5th century BC to indicate a region generally extending between Anatolia and Egypt. With the advent of the Hellenistic period, Greeks and their Seleucid dynasty used the term "Syria" to designate the region between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. The usage of the name in referring to the region during the Iron Age (ended 586 BC) is a modern practice.
Seleucid dynasty
The Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great defeated the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the Battle of Panium (200 BC); he annexed the Syrian lands controlled by Egypt and united them with his Syrian lands, thus gaining control of the entirety of Syria. Starting from the 2nd century BC, ancient writers, such as Polybius and Posidonius, began referring to the Seleucid ruler as the king of Syria. The evidence for this title's usage by the kings is provided by the inscription of Antigonus son of Menophilus, who described himself as the "admiral of Alexander, king of Syria" (Alexander refers either to Alexander I Balas or Alexander II Zabinas).
Hashemite dynasty
Following the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, Faysal bin Hussein of the House of Hashim was proclaimed King of the Kingdom of Syria on 8 March 1920 in Damascus, following the Arab revolt against the Ottomans of 1916–1918.
His accession was not recognized by France or the United Kingdom who became the new imperial powers in the region, and on 23 July 1920, the French moved 9,000 troops towards Damascus, resulting in the Battle of Maysalun. Faisal was expelled from Syria on 25 July and went into exile in the United Kingdom. On 10 August, the Treaty of Sèvres divided the region into League of Nations mandates governed by France and the United Kingdom.
Biblical usage for Aramean kings
In the first translation of the Old Testament into Greek written during the third century BC (called the Septuagint), Aram and Arameans were often translated as Syria and the Syrians; hence the king was referred to as the king of Syria, or the king of the Syrians, and this was carried on by many English translations. Aram in the Hebrew Old Testament and Syria in the translation indicated the kingdom of Aram-Damascus most of the times. Occasionally, other Aramean regions were also referred to as Syria; an example is the character known as "the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian" where Syria does not designate Aram-Damascus but rather Paddan Aram in Mesopotamia.
According to W. Edward Glenny, the rendering of Aram by Syria might be explained by an anti-Syrian bias, since at the time of the translation, Syria belonged to the Seleucids; the Jews' main enemy. Aram-Damascus was the Jews' enemy during its Iron Age prime in the 9th century BC.