Aliya bint Ali

{{Infobox royalty

|consort=no

| name =Aliya bint Ali

| image =Queen Aliya bint Ali of Hejaz.jpg

| succession = Queen of Iraq

| reign =25 January 1934 – 4 April 1939

| spouse =Ghazi of Iraq

| issue =Faisal II of Iraq

| full name = Aliya bint Ali bin Hussein

| royal house =Hashemite

| father =Ali of Hejaz

| mother = Nafisa Khanum

| birth_date = 19 January 1911

| birth_place = Mecca, Ottoman Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1950|12|21|1911|01|19|df=yes}}

| death_place =Baghdad, Iraq

| place of burial=Royal Mausoleum, Adhamiyah

}}

Aliya bint Ali of Hejaz ({{langx|ar|علياء بنت علي}}, "noble born"; 19 January 1911 – 21 December 1950), was an Arabian princess and a queen consort of Iraq. She was the spouse and first cousin of King Ghazi of Iraq and the queen mother of King Faisal II of Iraq.{{cite news| url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6511/is_2_49/ai_n29160130/|work=APS Diplomat Redrawing the Islamic Map| title=IRAQ – Resurgence In The Shiite World – Part 8 – Jordan & The Hashemite Factors|year=2005}} She was the second and last Queen of Iraq.

Early life

Queen Aliya was born on 19 January 1911 in Mecca, She was the second daughter of Ali bin Hussein of Hejaz and Princess Nafissa. She was born when her father was in a campaign outside of Mecca so she was raised by her grandfather Sharif Hussein.

When the Arab Revolt started in 1916, Sharif Hussein ordered his grandchildren to be taken to a palace in Shiʽb ʽAli where she and her brother 'Abd al-Ilah and several other family members stayed for the remainder of the revolt. they returned back to Mecca after the end of World War I.

In 1920, Aliya traveled to Damascus with her siblings and mother when her uncle Faisal was declared King of Syria in order to witness his coronation ceremony. She was headed back to Medina and then to Mecca due to fears of war between Syria and France.

When the Kingdom of Hejaz fell to the Saudis in 1925, Aliya and the rest of her family fled to Amman through the port of Jeddah where they were welcomed by emir Abdullah I of Jordan where they stayed in his palace. Meanwhile, her father Ali went to Baghdad to stay with his brother Faisal I who had become the King of Iraq, and after three months of his arrival, Faisal called for his nephew Abd al-Ilah and the rest of the family to come to Baghdad so they could reunite with their father. In Baghdad, Aliya and her sisters were educated by Iraqi teachers handpicked by their uncle Faisal and mother Nafissa.{{Cite book|author=Muhammad Hamdi Al Jaafari|title=الملكة عالية|publisher=Maktabat Lam|year=1991|pages=5–19|language=ar|trans-title=Queen Aliya}}

Queen of Iraq

On 25 January 1934, Aliya bint Ali married her first cousin, King Ghazi I of Iraq, in Baghdad, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq. They had one son, Faisal II.

Queen Aliya, possibly through her "adherents," was suspected by the British to have something to do with the death of a young servant of the palace in 1938. King Ghazi was suspected of having an extra-marital affair with a young male Iraqi servant. British sources wrote about the incident, that King Ghazi’s bad reputation was tarnished “further” when a “Negro youth,” who was employed at the Royal Al-Zuhour Palace, died by “accidentally” discharging his revolver when he did not remove it before his afternoon siesta.The National Archives of the UK, "1938, FO 406/76, telegram no. 31

An official police expert ruled that the Palace's explanation was consistent with the police examination, but the British suspected that one of the Queen's “adherents” might have killed the boy, as the boy was suspected to be “the King’s boon companion in debauchery” and the Queen, therefore, had a “deep aversion” to the boy. The King was in a panic after this incident, fearing imminent assassination.

Queen mother

Queen Aliya and King Ghazi lived separated at the time of the king's death.James DeFronzo:[https://books.google.com/books?id=g6HsDwAAQBAJ&dq=Queen+Aliyah+iraq&pg=PT38 The Iraq War: Origins and Consequences] When Ghazi died in a car crash on 4 April 1939, the politician Nuri as-Said was widely suspected of being implicated in his death. At the Royal funeral, crowds chanted: “You will answer for the blood of Ghazi, Nuri.” Nuri was suspected to have been in contact with the estranged Queen Aliya and plotted with the brother of the Queen, 'Abd al-Ilah, to depose the King.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/3929/42/ |title=Bitsofnews|access-date=2 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929172336/http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/3929/42/|archive-date=29 September 2011|url-status=dead}} Aliya supported the accession of 'Abd al-Ilah as regent for Ghazi's successor, Faisal II, who was still a minor. She stated that her late husband had wished her brother to act as regent if he died while his son was still a minor.James DeFronzo: [https://books.google.com/books?id=g6HsDwAAQBAJ&dq=Queen+Aliyah+iraq&pg=PT38 The Iraq War: Origins and Consequences]

During the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état by Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, when her brother the regent and Nuri as-Said left for Jordan, she remained in Iraq in order to protect her son's interests, and played an important role in refusing the conspirators to force the abdication of her son and the abolition of the monarchy.Nemir Kirdar :[https://books.google.com/books?id=gMTLFs7QGkkC&dq=Queen+Aliyah+iraq&pg=PT22 Saving Iraq: Rebuilding a Broken Nation]

Queen Aliya had treatment in London in Summer 1949 and returned to Baghdad in October 1950. She died of intestinal cancer in Baghdad in December 1950.{{cite news|title=Iraq's Queen Dies in Baghdad at 38|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/111555538|access-date=22 January 2021|work=The New York Times|date=22 December 1950|id={{ProQuest|111555538}} }}Alia Mamdouh:[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRONAgAAQBAJ&dq=Queen+Aliyah+iraq&pg=PT100 Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad]

Legacy

File:Martyrs (Formerly Queen Aliya bint Ali) Bridge of Baghdad under construction - 1939.jpg Bridge of Baghdad under construction - 1939]]

The Queen Aliya College for girls (1946–47) was named after her.

Honours

;National Honours

50px Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of the Hashemites.{{cn|date=June 2020}}

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel

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|1= 1. Princess Aliya bint Ali of Hejaz

|2= 2. King Ali of Hejaz

|3= 3. Nafissa Khanum

|4= 4. Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca

|5= 5. Abdiya bint Abdullah, Sharifa of Mecca

|6= 6. Abdullah bin Muhammad Pasha, Grand Sharif and Amir of Mecca

|7=

|8= 8. Ali Bey, Sharif of Mecca

|9= 9. Bezm-i Cihan, a Circassian.{{cite book|author1=Niḍāl Dāwūd al-Mūminī|title=الشريف الحسين بن علي والخلافة / ash-Sharīf al-Ḥusayn ibn 'Alī wa-al-khilāfah|date=1996|publisher=al-Maṭba‘ah aṣ-Ṣafadī|location=‘Ammān|language=ar}}

|10= 10. Abdullah Kamil Pasha, Grand Sharif of Mecca

|11= 11. Bazmi Jahan Khanum

|12= 12. Muhammad Pasha, Grand Sharif and Amir of Mecca

|13=

|14=

|15=

|16= 16. Amir Muhammad III bin Abdul Muin al-Aun, Grand Sharif and Amir of Mecca (= 20)

|17= 17. Sheikha Salha bint Gharam al-Shahar

|18=

|19=

|20= 20. Amir Muhammad III bin Abdul Muin al-Aun, Grand Sharif and Amir of Mecca (= 16)

|21=