Ibrahim Hashem

Hashem was born in Nablus to a family which claimed to have descended from the Prophet. There are claims that he moved to Istanbul to receive education in 1904, when he was 16 years of age.[3] In 1906, he enrolled at the Law School in Istanbul and graduated in 1910. After graduation, Hashem worked as an assistant to the Prosecutor General of Beirut, and as a judge in Jaffa until the outbreak of World War One. Though Hashem was enlisted as an Ottoman reserve officer during the War, he chose to flee after six months of service, owing to the massacre of Arab activists by Jamal Pasha. Like many other nationalist turncoats, Hashem became a member of the secret Fatat party. He was imprisoned by the Jamal Pasha in Jabal al-Druze and sentenced to death for desertion.[4] Once again, Hashem managed to get away from the Ottomans. He hid in Nablus until 1918. Throughout the War, Hashem covertly participated in the Great Arab Revolt. He is said to have had "many secret meetings with Emir Shakir Bin Zayd" and to have "actively ventured in enlisting many chiefs, activists and tribal leaders to the Arab Revolt".[5] Around this time, he pledged allegiance to the Arab Istiqlalist party.

During the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria, he held the positions of the Prosecutor General of the Syrian Court of Appeal and the President of the Court of Appeal. He taught penal law at the law faculty of Damascus University. Though he moved to Jordan following the French occupation of Syria,[6] Hashem continued to publish books on Penal Law which were taught at the Damascus law faculty until the mid-1920s.

At only 34 years of age, Hashem was appointed to the position of "Judicial Adviser" (Minister of Justice) during the first government of Rida al-Rikabi. When Abdullah and Rikabi departed to London for mandate negotiations on 3 October 1922, Shakir bin Zayd was appointed as the acting prime minister, with Hashem as his assistant. A favourite of Emir Abdullah, Hashem was regularly sought out and selected for the Ministry of Justice portfolio in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1922 and 1938, he held this position for 5 times, for a span of no less than 12 years. In 1933, he was appointed as the Prime Minister of Jordan, a position which he held until 1938. Hashem was appointed honorary Commander of the British Empire in the 1938 New Year Honours List.[7]

Hashem oversaw negotiations for a new Anglo-Jordanian treaty, and was the inaugural Prime Minister when independence was declared on 25 May 1946. Following the Arab-Israeli War and the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, Abdullah was assassinated in 1951. The tenure of his son, Talal I as king was short-lived, owing to a mental illness. At the time, his successor, Hussein bin Talal had not attained his majority of 18 years and was unable to accede to the throne. Then President of the Senate, Hashem was appointed as a member of a three-man interim Throne Council which acted for the absent sovereign. This was dissolved when Hussein acceded to the throne in 1953.

In 1955, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan joined the United Kingdom in forming the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), a military alliance, popularly known as the Baghdad Pact. Much like Syrians and Egyptians, populations in the West Bank and East Bank (i.e. within Jordan) were strongly opposed to this treaty owing to its colonial overtones. A decree disallowing an opposition meeting in early January was met with violent demonstrations throughout Amman. The army was called in and a curfew was imposed.

Egged on by Cairo's "Sawt al-Arab" radio station, widespread demonstrations persisted throughout the country. This prompted King Hussein to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies on 19 December 1955. Constitutionally, a decree dissolving the Chamber required the signature of the King, the Prime Minister (then Hazza al-Majali), and the Minister of Interior. However, the decree was issued after the Minister of Interior, Abbas Mirza, had resigned. With a view to holding new elections, Hazza' al-Majali's government was asked to resign, and on 21 December 1955, Hashem was asked to form a government, and he only reluctantly accepted. Hashem sought diplomacy to root out the propaganda attacks emanating from Cairo. On 10 January, he sent a letter to Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had been opposed to the Baghdad pact, asking him to halt his radio campaign.

In spite of these arrangements, parliamentary delegates of the dissolved Chamber objected that the royal decree was unconstitutional, since it did not include the signature of the Minister of the Interior, as was required by the Jordanian Constitution. When the Supreme Council for the Interpretation of Law gave a ruling that the decree was unconstitutional, Hashem's government resigned.[8] Hashem was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister in Samir al-Rifa'i's subsequent government.

The impermanent Arab Federation, concocted to counter the United Arab Republic of Nasser and the Baathists, was negotiated and declared during Hashem's final term as Prime Minister between 1957 and 1958. After his resignation in May 1958, he was appointed as the Federation's Vice-President. Hashem had been visiting Baghdad when the 14 July Revolution flared up. Seen as royalist politicians, Ibrahim Hashem, Suleiman Toukan, the Federation's Minister of Defence, and Khlusi Al Khairi, the Federation's Minister of State for external affairs, were assassinated at the outset of the Revolution. The British Ambassador to Jordan claims that they were killed by a mob in front of the Iraqi Ministry of Defence.[2] Other sources state that they were attacked by revolutionaries near the Baghdad airport.[9][10]

With few interruptions, Ibrahim Hashem was president of the Jordanian Senate between 1951 and 1956.

Little is known about Hashem's personal life. He was known to have one son named Qais.[11] Hashem's niece Hanan was the mother of Queen Alia of Jordan.

• • Grand Cordon with Brilliants / Special First Class of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance
  • Grand Cordon / First Class of the Order of Independence (Jordan)

• Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq:
  • Grand Cordon / First Class of the Order of the Two Rivers
•  Lebanon:
  • Extraordinary Grade of the Order of Merit
•  Kingdom of Greece:
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece)
•  United Kingdom:
  • Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire

• List of prime ministers of Jordan
• Honorary Knight Commander

• Prime Ministry of Jordan website