On July 14, 1958, the last Iraqi king, Faisal II, was assassinated. – after he and his machine gun cousins were shot at by revolutionaries in Baghdad. His assassination marked the end of the monarchy in Iraq and the end of the rule of the Hashemite dynasty in that country. Recall that Iraq became a kingdom in 1921, after the losing Ottoman Empire was dismantled after the First World War.
A dynasty called the Hashemites gained power in several newly formed Arab states after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Namely, this dynasty had held the respectable position of sheriff and emir of Mecca (the world’s most important Muslim center) for centuries. Sheriff Hussein of Mecca (great-grandfather of the aforementioned Faisal II) took the royal title as well as the title of caliph. As many as Hussein’s three sons became kings – the eldest Ali became the king of Hejaz (today part of Saudi Arabia), the middle Abdullah became king of Jordan, and the youngest Faisal I became king of Syria and then Iraq. Faisal II. he was the grandson of the said Faisal I and the third ruler of Iraq.
Faisal II. he became king when he was only 3 years old. It is interesting that he was educated for a time in England, together with his cousin Hussein, the future king of Jordan. In the end, the two of them even connected their kingdoms Iraq and Jordan into a kind of federation, and the head of that supranational creation became Faisal II, as a senior member of the Hashemite dynasty.
On the day described, revolutionaries (coup plotters) broke into the royal palace in Baghdad. King Faisal II. and other members of the royal family were ordered to come to the courtyard of the palace. They were lined up facing the wall and shot by machine guns. The king, Crown Prince Abd al-Ilāh and several princesses were killed in the massacre. Let us mention that the Hashemite dynasty still rules in Jordan today (they were overthrown everywhere else).
