Faisal II فيصل |
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King of Iraq | |||||
Reign | 4 April 1939 – 14 July 1958 | ||||
Regency ended | 2 May 1953 | ||||
Predecessor | Ghazi I | ||||
Successor | Monarchy abolished Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i, President of Iraq |
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Prime Minister |
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Regent (1939–1953) |
Prince Abdullah | ||||
Born |
Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq |
2 May 1935||||
Died | 14 July 1958 Baghdad, Arab Federation (Now Iraq) |
(aged 23)||||
Burial | Royal Mausoleum, Adhamiyah | ||||
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House | Hashemite | ||||
Father | Ghazi I | ||||
Mother | Aliya of Hejaz | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Full name | |
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Faisal bin Ghazi bin Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali |
Faisal II (Arabic: الملك فيصل الثاني Al-Malik Fayṣal Ath-thānī) (2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was executed during the 14 July Revolution together with numerous members of his family. This regicide marked the end of the thirty-seven-year-old Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which then became a republic.
Faisal was the only son of Iraq's second king, Ghazi, and his wife Queen Aliya, second daughter of 'Ali bin Hussein, King of the Hijaz and Grand Sharif of Mecca. Faisal's father was killed in a mysterious car crash when he was three years old; his uncle 'Abd al-Ilah served as regent until Faisal came of age in 1953.
King Faisal was the model used by Belgian comic writer Hergé for his character Prince Abdullah of Khemed in The Adventures of Tintin. He suffered from asthma.
Faisal's childhood coincided with World War II, in which Iraq was formally allied with the British Empire and the Allies. In April 1941, his uncle 'Abd al-Ilah was briefly deposed as Regent by a military coup d'état which aimed to align Iraq with the Axis powers. The 1941 coup in Iraq soon led to the Anglo-Iraqi War. German aid that was promised however never materialised, and 'Abd al-Ilah was restored to power by a combined Allied force composed of the Jordanian Arab Legion, the Royal Air Force and other British units. Iraq resumed its British alliance, and at the end of the war joined the United Nations.