The Ikhwan raids on Transjordan were a series of attacks by the

Ikhwan The Ikhwān (, ), commonly known as Ikhwān man Aṭāʿa Allah (, 'Brethren of those who obey God'), was a Wahhabism, Wahhabi religious militia made up of traditionally nomadic tribesmen which formed a significant military force of the ruler Ibn ...

, irregular Arab tribesmen of

Najd Najd is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in Al-Jawf Province, al-Jawf to the north, ...

, on the

Emirate of Transjordan The Emirate of Transjordan (), officially the Amirate of Trans-Jordan, was a British protectorate established on 11 April 1921,Wahhabi Wahhabism is an exonym for a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other ...

incursions from Najd into southern parts of his territory were the most serious threat to Emir Abdullah I's position in Transjordan.Salibi, Kamal S. ''The modern history of Jordan''. p. 104. The emir was powerless to repel these raids by himself, thus the British maintained a military base, with a small

air force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

, at Marka, close to

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

. The British military force was the primary obstacle against the Ikhwan, and ultimately helped Abdullah to secure his rule over Transjordan.

Background

With the defeat of the

Hashemites The Hashemites (), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921–1958). The family had ruled the city of Me ...

in the Nejd–Hejaz War of 1919, and a failure to establish a Hashemite domain over the region of Syria, the British hoped to secure Transjordan and Iraq as Hashemite kingdoms, and did put a significant effort into securing them from external and internal threats. The military assistance of the British to Emir

Abdullah I of Jordan Abdullah I (Abdullah bin Hussein; 2 February 188220 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan and its predecessor state Transjordan from 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate, until 1946, when h ...

helped to suppress a local rebellion at Kura and a later rebellion by Sultan Adwan in 1921 and 1923, respectively. They also played a crucial role in the major invasions by the Wahhabi tribesmen of Najd (the Ikhwan). While Transjordan experienced internal stability during 1922–1923, a new external threat emerged from the southeast of the country. The Wahhabi

movement, supported by King

Ibn Saud Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted as 1876, although a few sources give it as 1880. According to British author Robert Lacey's book ''The Kingdom'', ...

as a tool of territorial expansion, advanced northwards and westwards and arrived at the undemarcated borders of Transjordan in the summer of 1922. The Ikhwan were a cross-tribal striking force, whose religious fervour combined with the support of the King proved too strong a military challenge for the Arabian tribes. The Wahhabi threat brought forward a merger of interests between the nomadic tribes within Transjordan and the Transjordanian government, and for the first time since its establishment the latter was in a more balanced position vis-à-vis these tribes.

First major raid

The

initiated their first attack on Transjordan by massacring the inhabitants of two villages belonging to the tribe of Bani Sakhr, approximately 12 miles south of Amman. In a two-day battle, the tribesmen of the Hadid tribe alongside the remnants of the Bani Sakhr managed to defeat the raiders. The raiders were intercepted by British armored cars and planes only after they had begun to withdraw.Peter W. Wilson, Douglas Graham. ''Saudi Arabia: The Coming Storm''. M. E. Sharpe, 1994: p. 143.

Second major raid

In August 1924, a larger

militia force, numbering some 4,500 raiders,Noel Joseph Guckian. ''British Relations with Trans-Jordan, 1920–1930''. University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. PhD Thesis: pp. 217–218. May 1985. travelled 1,600 kilometers from

(in modern-day

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

) to attack Transjordan, a

British protectorate British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status wh ...

. Fifteen kilometers south of Amman, the raiders engaged again with the villages of the Bani Sakhr, but were attacked by the British

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF). The Ikhwan army suffered heavy casualties, with the death toll reaching 500. The raided villages suffered 130 dead.

Aftermath

Other

raids occurred during the 1927–1930

Ikhwan Revolt The Ikhwan revolt was an uprising in the Arabian Peninsula from 1927 to 1930 led by the Ikhwan. It began in 1927, when the tribesmen of the Otaibah, Mutayr and Ajman rebelled against the authority of Ibn Saud and engaged in cross-border raids ...

against the authority of

. The Ikhwanis raided southern Iraq in November 1927 and

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

in January 1928, in which they stole camels and sheep. On both occasions, though they raided brutally, they suffered heavy retaliations from the RAF and Kuwaitis.Peter W. Wilson, Douglas Graham. ''Saudi Arabia: the coming storm ''. M. E. Sharpe, 1994: p.45. The Ikhwan were eventually defeated by Ibn Saud's regular forces and their leadership slain. The remnants were incorporated into regular Saudi units.

References

{{reflist, 2 History of Najd Conflicts in 1922 Conflicts in 1923 Conflicts in 1924 1922 in Transjordan 1923 in Transjordan 1924 in Transjordan Ikhwan Saudi Arabian war crimes

Background

First major raid

Second major raid

Aftermath

See also

References