The Adwan Revolt

Anderson

· Motivated by favoritism

· Demanded democracy

o How does democracy solve inter-tribal rivalry?

· Abdullah’s initial course of action was to appease the

· the Adwan (August 1923) became increasingly resentful of Abdullah’s favoritism toward the Bani Sakhr

· Sultan al-‘Adwan marched 700 of his men to the outskirts of Amman in September 1923, presenting a petition demanding the immediate promulgation of a constitution and the election of a Transjordanian parliament

· Royal Air Force crushed this rebellion; Sultan and his followers were arrested and accused of conspiracy against the state

Robins

• Led a taxes movement against the government
• Sympathy of Britain towards the Adwan
• Rationalizes the behavior of the British

• Led a ‘taxes movement’ against the central government which was levying dues and trying to recovering outstanding funds from the 1918-20 period
• The Bani Sakhr had been excluded from the taxes
• Made the mistake of taking up arms
• British deployed armored cars; Abduallah rallied traditional support, mostly from the Bani Sakhr
• Adwan were put to flight, only to be reconciled 6 months later

Shryock (the Adwan themselves)

• Turkey was an oppressor-Britain defeated them
• Consulted each other and agreed on Abdullah
• Dates are wrong-tribal history is not diachronic; doesn’t follow a rigid sequence of dates
• Jordan is tribes and their sheikhs
• Fabricate a lot of the story (conversation with Hussein)
• Details that aren’t found in the traditional accounts
• Story about the shift from one period to another

• Brought the “Age of Shaikhs” to an end
• British and Arab Amirs revolted together against Turkish oppressors
• Abu Hunayk became the Britihs representative and “bought” all the tribe Shaykhs
• Shaykh Sultan of the ‘Adwan was wealthy at the time, and the British could not buy him
• Went to Abdullah to complain about the oppressive taxes the British were imposing
• The entire Balga rose up with Sultan; claimed the Britihs had brought Abdullah, wanted to have their own rulers and a state ruled Majid al-Adwan
• Speak to him as their key to Britain
• Abdullah told them he would do as he said
• Sultan gathered the Balga tribes and marched toward Amman; British troops rallied and the Adwan were unable to resist
• Husayn, father of Abdullah, heard about the disturbances, and came; becomes convinced that the ‘Adwan are the Shaikhs of the Shaikhs and yells at his son for being stupid
• Abdullah calls for Sultan and Majid, they refuse to enter without their weapons and Husayn allows them to enter with their weapons
• Work out an alliance that they would not attack one another again; the ‘Adwan would be leaders of the tribes, Abdullah would control the government, the laws, and relations with other states; the sheikhdom and the tribal leadership belonged to the ‘Adwan
• This was the end of Adwan’s history accounts