Style His Majesty Last monarch Faisal II Abolition 14 July 1958 | First monarch Faisal I Formation 23 August 1921 | |
Residence Royal Palace, Baghdad, Iraq | ||
The King of Iraq (Arabic: ملك العراق, Mālik al-‘Irāq) was Iraq's head of state and monarch from 1921 to 1958. He served as the head of the Iraqi monarchy—the House of Hashim. The King was addressed as His Majesty (صاحب الجلالة).
History
After World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the three provinces (vilayets) of Ottoman Iraq came under the control of the United Kingdom. Under British occupation, the people rebelled and Iraq showed itself a hard land to govern. In order to establish a pro-British client regime, a dynasty of Hashemite kings from Saudi Arabia was established, beginning with Faisal I who was the son of Hussein bin Ali. As a family originating in the Hejaz, the House of Hashim was foreign to Iraq. The British Government appointed them as Iraq's royal family after a rigged plebiscite. The Hashemites were largely opposed by the majority Iraqi Shi'is and Kurds. The Kingdom of Iraq existed until an Iraqi nationalist coup d'état in 1958 known as the 14 July Revolution established the Republic of Iraq.