For centuries in the western region of Arabia where the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina are located), power was strongly centralized in the hands of the family of the sharif.

[3] Dissatisfied with his limited power, Sharif Husayn began discussions with tribal leaders in the region, Arab nationalists, and the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon.

The British support that was pledged in the Husayn-McMahon Correspondence caused Husayn to emerge from these talks with a strengthened belief in his right to claim both the caliphate and sovereignty over Arab lands in the area.

[citation needed] Although the British could not promise a few districts that they had already pledged to give the French, the pieces seemed to be falling into place for Sharif Husayn, and he prepared to launch the Arab Revolt.

[citation needed] On June 9, 1916, the Ottomans sent Faysal to Medina to get the armed forces that Husayn had been organizing, but when he arrived, he escaped with his brother ‘Ali.

By the end of the summer, the Arab forces under the control of Sharif Husayn had managed to overtake coastal cities as far north as Yanbu and as far south as Qunfudhah.

Irregular forces refer to largely untrained Arabs who joined the revolt for a short period of time when the fighting was taking place near their home.

While this made things more difficult for the Sharifian Army, Faysal's strong negotiating skills won many tribal chieftains over, giving the Hashemites the support they needed to challenge the Ottomans.

The fact that Faysal worked alongside Lawrence of Arabia gave him access to more British intelligence, which is a large part of the reason he was the most successful.

Following the capture of Damascus at the end of the Arab Revolt, Faysal set up a Kingdom in Syria and ruled there until the French won the Franco-Syrian War on July 24, 1920, and ousted him from the country.

While the question of Palestine was never resolved, in Cairo, in 1921, the British decided to name Husayn's son Abdullah as the emir in the newly created state of Transjordan.

[10] Many other officers from the Sharifian Army, including Nuri al-Said, Jafar al-Askari, Jamil al-Midfai, Ali Jawdat al-Aiyubi, and Jamal Baban, played a prominent role in King Faysal's Iraq.

Officers from the Sharifian Army continued to play an important role in Iraqi politics until the 1963 coup led by Colonel Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr.