While working on our Spring 2025 Maastricht Showcase Auction, a collection of Iraqi banknotes came across my desk that featured portraits of King Faisal II at different ages. Faisal II became the last King of Iraq at a young age and served in that role until his untimely death due to a coup in 1958. In this blog we will look at his life and what led to the coup that ended his reign.
Faisal II took the crown at the age of three after his father, King Ghazi, died in a mysterious vehicle accident on April 4, 1939. Since the new monarch was so young, Prince Abd al-llah acted as regent until 1953, when Faisal came of age. Faisal II and his mother were evacuated to the United Kingdom during World War II, and he studied at the Harrow School with his second cousin, who would become King Hussein I of Jordan. To combat what they saw as the “threat” of communism and left-leaning forms of pan-Arab nationalism, the two youngsters allegedly planned to combine their two kingdoms early on.
In 1952, at age 17, Faisal traveled to the United States to see development projects, including land reclamation programs, canal systems, power projects, and agricultural projects. Faisal would later inform the New York press that the irrigation projects were “very much needed in our country.” With little experience and amid a shifting political and social landscape in Iraq that was made worse by the burgeoning pan-Arab nationalism, Faisal celebrated his 18th birthday on May 2, 1953.
Faisal soon began extensive plans for the capital, Baghdad, and its modernization. This enormous initiative aimed to construct and improve housing and infrastructure, supply necessary public structures, reform the building industries, and educate future Iraqi architects to build without assistance from the west. Negotiations with the British-controlled Iraq Petroleum Company in 1952 resulted in an equitable share of oil rights and a significant increase in Iraq’s earnings, which further boosted the economy and made it possible to build plans for Greater Baghdad.
The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1948 and the Baghdad Pact of 1955, which were signed by his regent and then reaffirmed by Faisal, allowed the United Kingdom to continue to have a role in Iraqi politics. As news of each of these agreements spread, there were ever-greater demonstrations, which led to hundreds of protesters dying and a growing decline in support for the Iraqi Kingdom.
In 1956, Faisal’s political circumstances worsened due to rebellions in various cities in Iraq, including Najaf. In the meantime, the public’s distaste for the Baghdad Pact and, consequently, Faisal’s rule was only worsened by Israel’s invasion of Egypt, which was planned in conjunction with Britain and France in retaliation for Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal.
In 1958, Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic, which Iraq refused to acknowledge. A similar coalition, known as the Hashemite Arab Federation, was formed by the Hashemite Kingdoms of Jordan and Iraq in response, although it was not widely recognized. When United Arab Republic forces moved to the Syrian border in summer 1958, the Hashemite Arab Federation mobilized its troops to oppose the advance. The Nationalist Officers Organization was a group of Iraqi army officers who planned to overthrow the monarchy within their own country. They were motivated by the 1952 overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers Movement. Iraqi troops under the command of Colonel Abd al-Karim Qasim and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif were passing through Baghdad in July 1958 as they headed to the Jordanian-Syrian border. They used this as an opportunity to launch their plan to overthrow the monarchy because the troops had a valid reason for being in Baghdad.
The sound of gunfire woke Faisal II at the al-Rihab Palace in Baghdad on July 14, 1958. The royal guards failed to locate the source of the shooting. Then a servant heard the news of a revolution on the radio. Prince Abdul Ilah, the uncle of Faisal II, summoned the royal guards outside the palace to look into the matter from a neighboring balcony. The head of the royal guards notified King Faisal II that troops of the rebel army had seized key parts of Baghdad, proclaimed a republic, and asked the royal family to surrender. After declaring his surrender, King Faisal II was requested to depart al-Rihab Palace with his family and the staff.
Captain Abdul Sattar Sabaa Al-Ibousi, in charge of the rebel attack group, gave King Faisal II and his entourage the order to assemble in the palace courtyard. As they passed the kitchen garden, they came under fire from a line of rebel forces. They shot King Faisal II in the head and neck. Princess Abadiya, Queen Nafisa, and Prince Abdul Ilah were all shot and died instantly. The only royal family member to survive was Princess Hiyam, who was shot in the upper leg; a Turkish cook and a member of the royal guard were also hurt but made it out alive.
Afterward, the survivors and the dead were driven to the Ministry of Defense. According to reports, King Faisal II passed away en route, and the vehicles were halted. Prince Abdul Ilah’s body was desecrated, carried through the streets, and burned, while the King’s body was hanged. To confirm King Faisal II’s demise, his body was then taken to Al-Rashid Military Hospital. The King’s body was buried that evening in a grave dug close to the hospital, signifying the fall of Iraq’s 37-year-old Hashemite monarchy and the beginning of the Iraqi Republic.
As King Faisal’s appearance changed with him growing up, so did his portrait on the paper money of Iraq. His first portrait is of him as a young boy, followed by a short-lived portrait of him in his early teens. As he reached adulthood in the 1950s three more portraits appeared of him on the nation’s currency (not counting small subvarieties). To view several notes with King Faisal II’s portrait in our upcoming Maastricht auction and a note with the portrait of his grandfather, King Faisal I, please check StacksBowers.com.
