Mithqal Al Fayez

Mithqal Sattam Fendi Al Fayez (Arabic: مثقال الفايز , (c. 1885 – 1967) was a historical Jordanian political and tribal figure whose work helped the establishment of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Mithqal was one of the two leading sheikhs of Bani Sakhr,[1] he took power in the early twentieth century, and headed the Al-Twaga half of the Bani Sakhr tribe, which consisted of the Al-Ghbein, Al-Amir, Al-Ka'abna, Al-Hgeish, Al-Saleet, and Al-Taybeen clans. He also headed his own clan, Al-Fayez.[2]

Mithqal Sattam Al-Fayez
DiedApril 14, 1967(1967-04-14) (aged 86)
Resting placeUm Al-Amad, Madaba, Jordan
OccupationPolitical and tribal leader
Years active1921–1967
TitlePasha (Given by Mehmed V)
Sheikh of Sheikhs (Given by Abdullah I of Jordan
Sheikh of Bani Sakher
RelativesSattam Al-Fayez (Father)

Fendi Al-Fayez (Grandfather) Akef Al-Fayez (Son)

Faisal Al-Fayez (Grandchild)

Early life

Mithqal Sattam Al-Fayez was born into the family of the leading shaykhs of the Bani Sakhr tribal confederacy around the year 1880. For two generations, his immediate family had led the confederacy,[3] one of the largest and strongest nomadic tribal groups in the Syrian Desert. Mithqal's childhood was spent with the Kawakbeh family of the Ruwallah tribe, his mother's tribe, where he learned to ride and battle. He also adopted their accent and it stayed with him the rest of his life. Mithqal would only come back to the Bani Sakher around the year 1900, and the first written evidence of him was in 1906 when he was already a prominent Sheikh in the family at the age of 21.[4]

Rise to power
Mithqal riding in 1927, taken by W.B. Seabrook

Mithqal quickly made a name for himself as a leader of raids. His success in battle has quickly earned him a reputation which helped to provide him with the springboard to the position of leadership.

Mithqal's elder brother, Fawwaz Al-Fayez, was the leader of the Bani Sakher before him, however a newspaper report from 1913 implies that the two shaykhs were acting as partners in the leadership of the Bani Sakhr under Ottoman patronage. By that time, they were generally known for their friendship with the government and faced internal opposition for that reason.

Upon Fawwaz's death in the summer of 1917, Mithqal made a bid on becoming the next Sheikh of the Clan, however, Mithqal lost to his seventeen-year-old nephew, Mashour, Fawwaz's son. The tribal council preferred the young Mashhur, who was a graduate of a school in Damascus, to the illiterate Mithqal, even though the latter was more mature and experienced. Mithqal did not agree with his younger cousin taking the position, in return, he was given the title of Pasha by the sultan, and was the Arabian Sheikh to ever get this title from the Ottomans.[5]

After Mashour's death four years later in a tribal conflict, Mithqal was an uncontested choice for the title.[6][7][8]

Relationships and Alliances

Mithqal himself was born from a calculated strategic alliance between the Beni Sakher and the Ruwalla, and over the course of his lifetime he built strong mutually beneficial relations with other important figures in Arabia and abroad.

King Abdullah I

Then Emir Abdullah I has a personal, political, and financial relationship with Mithqal. Their first meeting was in 1920, when Mithqal accepted Abdullah's invitation to a meeting in Ma'an, agreeing to ally himself and his tribe with Abdullah and inviting him to Amman. With the support of Mithqal and his father-in-law Mayor Saeed Pasha Khayr, Amman turned into the Hashemites focal point in Jordan.[9] Mithqal was Abdullah's most important and powerful ally in Jordan, and in return Abdullah exempted Mithqal and his family from taxes and granted them the land that the Ottoman's confiscated to build the Hijaz railway and gifts such as the car he gave to Mithqal.[10][11]

When in 1930, Mithqal's eldest son Sultan died of illness, Mithqal refused to leave his grave after the funeral; only to be persuaded by Emir Abdullah.[12] In 1924, Mithqal and Emir Abdullah went together to Mecca to perform the Hajj.[11] Mithqal would publicly support Abdullah in his attempt to unify the country,[13] this helped cement the Emir's position in Jordan which was still governed tribally at the time.[14] Mithqal's support of Emir Abdullah (and later kings) is also noted as one of the reasons of Jordan's relative stability and its sovereign integrity as King Faisal Al Saud have noted that "if it wasn't for Beni Sakher, our borders would reach Palestine".[15] Emir Abdullah would help lend Mithqal money to cultivate his land,[16] and when the Emir's own funds were lacking, he and Mithqal would secure land deals and mortgage both of their lands to foreign bankers as the added size of both Mithqal's and the governments land helps leverage the deals to their favor.[17]

King Faisal I of Iraq

Mithqal maintained a friendly relationship with King Faisal I after 1919, he knew Faisal before he became King of Iraq and famously hosted him in Um Al-Amad in 1923, where Faisal stayed the night. Mithqal also attended the reception of Faisal in Alexandria, and the ceremony of the death of King Faisal's son Ghazi.[18]

Role in Jordan's agriculture

Mithqal inherited his father's, Sattam Al-Fayez, interest in agriculture, and further developed and cultivated the lands in Jordan for barely, wheat, lentils, olives, and other vegetables. Mithqal's role in Jordan's agriculture was crucial for the well-being of the country, as he was the first person to import a mechanical tractor and plough in the country's history. The effect of this purchase has helped the country out of a poverty-stricken famine in the mid-1930s as the production of wheat and barely has increased from 40,000 tons and 16,000 from 1936 to 113,000 tons and 53,000 tons in 1937;[19] this effectively tripled the food supply of the land and helped in feeding its inhabitants. This increase in production has also tripled Jordan's food exports during those years, which opened the much needed revenue for the poverty stricken Transjordan of that time.

Ambush of the 1930s

Mithqal was riding his mare in the desert accompanied by only one man. It was during the winter season, and the Bani Sakhr had migrated east towards Wadi Sirhan. Suddenly, Mithqal and his escort were surprised by an ambush set by members of an enemy tribe. A bullet grazed the side of Mithqal's head, almost killing him, and he was hit in the shoulder. Mithqal and his escort fired back and managed to drive off their attackers, but Mithqal was badly wounded. His escort tied a piece of cloth around his bleeding shoulder, pulled him over his mare, and rode on quickly to seek aid.

They arrived in the nearby camp of a Bani Sakhr tribesman and asked for his help in fetching a car to take Mithqal to a hospital. He sent one of his men by camel to the encampment of Shaykh Haditha Al-Khraisha, who in turn sent a messenger to Amman. A car finally arrived, but in the meantime, Mithqal was suffering from loss of blood and in great pain. Mithqal spent twenty days in an Amman hospital. He survived, but the damage was irreversible. For the rest of his life, he could hardly use that arm, which dangled nearly lifeless from his shoulder.[7]

Imprisonment of Major General Fredrick Peake
Mithqal in Jerusalem, 1933.

In 1919, over a decade long land dispute, Major General Fredrick Peake pursued a meeting with Mithqal to discuss the dispute. However, Mithqal choose to stay in his family's headquarters in Um Al Amad, which then prompted Peake to approach him unarmed to avoid a large conflict. Initially, Mithqal agreed to his request, however the day after Mithqal ordered the arrest of the Major General, which led to Peake to stay in the stables of the Al-Fayez for at least a day.[20][7] It is unclear why Mithqal ordered the arrest of Peake, and although Peake rights unfavorably of Mithqal in an undermining manner in his books, he reportedly "bore no grudge" according to C.S. Jarvis's biography of the Peake.

Last years

Mithqal's health soon began deteriorating soon after the death in 1962 of his favorite wife ‘Adul, which was a severe blow to Mithqal. In the last five years of his life, he suffered from progressively declining health. Though he was fortunate enough to receive superb medical treatment in Cairo, Beirut, and Europe, diabetes and other age-related illnesses brought about his death in his late eighties in April 1967.

Mithqal's Legacy

The mourning period was over and the dignitaries and ordinary people left Mithqal’s house. The bereaved family was left to deal with the huge void created by Mithqal’s demise. It was undisputed that the elder son, Akef Al-Fayez, would become the head of the family and the main bearer of his father’s legacy.

One of the first things the family did was to gather to distribute Mithqal’s huge landholdings. By the time of his death, Mithqal had accumulated at the very least 120,000 dunams (30,000 acres) in Jordan, mostly around south Amman and Madaba. Several years later, the family sold a large portion of that land to the Jordanian government. Today, Amman International Airport stands on what used to be Mithqal’s fields.[3]

Mithqal was a main character and the paramount character in the first half of William Seabrook's Adventures in Arabia when William sought to find Mithqal and experience the Arabian lifestyle in the late 1920s.

In early 2018, a TV Drama Series following Mithqal's life was announced to be in the works by the Al-Hijjawi production company.

On May 22, 2019, Al-Mamlaka broadcast a 50 minute documentary on their television channel that follows events from Mithqal's life. The documentary has also been uploaded to their Youtube channel

See also

References
  1. Kamāl Sulaymān, Aṣ-Ṣalībī (2010). The Modern History of Jordan. I.B. Tauris.
  2. Bin Muhammad, Ghazi (1999). The tribes of Jordan at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Amman, Jordan: Jamʻīyat Turāth al-Urdun al-Bāqī. ASIN B00069WNGO.
  3. Lieber, Dov (3 September 2016). "How Jordan's 'Sheikh of Sheikhs' Negotiated with Zionists, Founded a Kingdom". The Times of Israel.
  4. Lieber, Dov (3 September 2016). "How Jordan's 'sheikh of sheikhs' negotiated with Zionists, founded a kingdom". The Times of Israel.
  5. Alon, Yoav (20 July 2016). The shaykh of shaykhs : Mithqal al-Fayiz and tribal leadership in modern Jordan. Stanford, California. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8047-9934-8. OCLC 948961339.
  6. Peake, Pasha (1958). A History of Jordan and Its Tribes. University of Miami Press.
  7. Alon, Yoav (2016). T H E S H A Y K H OF SHAYKHS Mithqal al-Fayiz and Tribal Leadership in Modern Jordan. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 9780804799348.
  8. Adair, John (2010). The Leadership of Muhammad. Kogan Page. p. 53. ISBN 978-0749460761.
  9. Alon, Yoav (20 July 2016). The shaykh of shaykhs : Mithqal al-Fayiz and tribal leadership in modern Jordan. Stanford, California. pp. 49–51. ISBN 978-0-8047-9934-8. OCLC 948961339.
  10. Untold histories of the Middle East : recovering voices from the 19th and 20th centuries. Singer, Amy., Neumann, Christoph K., 1962-, Somel, Selçuk Akşin. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 2011. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-0-203-84536-3. OCLC 658189067.CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. Alon, Yoav (20 July 2016). The shaykh of shaykhs : Mithqal al-Fayiz and tribal leadership in modern Jordan. Stanford, California. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-0-8047-9934-8. OCLC 948961339.
  12. Alon, Yoav (2016). The Shaykh of Shaykhs. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780804799348.
  13. Alon, Yoav (20 July 2016). The shaykh of shaykhs : Mithqal al-Fayiz and tribal leadership in modern Jordan. Stanford, California. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-8047-9934-8. OCLC 948961339.
  14. Untold histories of the Middle East : recovering voices from the 19th and 20th centuries. Singer, Amy., Neumann, Christoph K., 1962-, Somel, Selçuk Akşin. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 2011. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-203-84536-3. OCLC 658189067.CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. Torczyner, Jim (2020). Rights-Based Community Practice and Academic Activism in a Turbulent World. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. ISBN 978-1000318524.
  16. Alon, Yoav (20 July 2016). The shaykh of shaykhs : Mithqal al-Fayiz and tribal leadership in modern Jordan. Stanford, California. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-8047-9934-8. OCLC 948961339.
  17. Israel's clandestine diplomacies. Jones, Clive, 1965-, Petersen, Tore T., 1954- (First ed.). Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-936544-9. OCLC 867049783.CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. Alon, Yoav (20 July 2016). The shaykh of shaykhs : Mithqal al-Fayiz and tribal leadership in modern Jordan. Stanford, California. pp. 39, 141. ISBN 978-0-8047-9934-8. OCLC 948961339.
  19. Abu Nowar, Maan (2006). Development of Trans-Jordan 1929–1939. United Kingdom: Ithaca Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-86372-303-2.
  20. Abū Nūwār, Maʻn, 1922- (2006). The development of Trans-Jordan 1929-1939 : a history of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan (1st ed.). Reading, U.K.: Ithaca. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4294-7928-8. OCLC 156914596.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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