ʿAbd al-Ilāh

ʿAbd al-Ilāh (born 1913, aṭ-Ṭāʾif, Arabia—died July 14, 1958, Baghdad) was the regent of Iraq (1939–53) and crown prince to 1958.

Son of the Hāshimite king ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn of the Hejaz (northwestern Arabia), who was driven from Arabia by Ibn Saʿūd, ʿAbd al-Ilāh accompanied his father to Iraq in 1925. Upon King Ghāzī’s death in 1939, he was appointed regent for his four-year-old nephew, Fayṣal II. ʿAbd al-Ilāh ruled Iraq for 14 turbulent years, loyally serving the throne and supporting the Allies during World War II. In April 1941, faced with an uprising of army officers led by Rashīd ʿĀlī al-Gaylānī, who was sympathetic to Germany and Italy, the regent was forced to leave Iraq. With British assistance, however, the revolt was suppressed by the end of May, and ʿAbd al-Ilāh returned to Baghdad. Thereafter, in close collaboration with Nuri as-Said, he pursued a policy of moderate Iraqi nationalism and maintained strong ties with the West. When King Fayṣal reached legal age on May 23, 1953, the regent relinquished his functions but remained as the young king’s chief adviser and companion until both were killed during the Iraq revolution of 1958.