Sharifian Solution

The Sharifian or Sherifian Solution (Arabic: الحلول الشريفية) was an informal name for post-Ottoman British Middle East policy and French Middle East policy of nation-building. As first put forward by T. E. Lawrence in 1918, it was a plan to install the three younger sons of Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi (the Sharif of Mecca and King of Hejaz) as heads of state in newly created countries across the Middle East, whereby his second son Abdullah would rule Baghdad and Lower Mesopotamia, his third son Faisal would rule Syria, and his fourth son Zeid would rule Upper Mesopotamia. Hussein himself would not wield any political power in these places, and his first son, Ali would be his successor in Hejaz.^[2]

Given the need to rein in expenditure and factors outside British control, including France's removing of Faisal from Syria in July 1920, and Abdullah's entry into Transjordan (which had been the southern part of Faisal's Syria) in November 1920, the eventual Sharifian solution was somewhat different, the informal name for a British policy put into effect by Secretary of State for the Colonies Winston Churchill following the 1921 Cairo conference. Faisal and Abdullah would rule Iraq and Transjordan respectively; Zeid did not have a role, and ultimately it proved impossible to make satisfactory arrangements with Hussein and the Kingdom of Hejaz. An underlying idea was that pressure might be applied in one state to secure obedience in another;^[3] as it transpired, the inherent assumption of family unity was misconceived.^[4]

Antonius' The Arab Awakening (1938) later disparaged Lawrence's claim in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) that Churchill had "made straight all the tangle" and that Britain had fulfilled "our promises in letter and spirit".^[5]

Abdullah was assassinated in 1951, but his descendants continue to rule Jordan today. The other two reigning branches of the dynasty did not survive; Ali was ousted by Ibn Saud after the British withdrew their support from Hussein in 1924/25, while Faisal's grandson Faisal II and Ali’s son 'Abd al-Ilah were executed in the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état.