# Ikhwan raids on Transjordan

The Ikhwan raids on Transjordan were a series of attacks by the Ikhwan, irregular Arab tribesmen of Najd, on the Emirate of Transjordan between 1922 and 1924. The repeated Wahhabi incursions from Najd into southern parts of his territory were the most serious threat to Emir Abdullah I's position in Transjordan. The emir was powerless to repel these raids by himself, thus the British maintained a military base, with a small air force, at Marka, close to Amman. The British military force was the primary obstacle against the Ikhwan, and ultimately helped Abdullah to secure his rule over Transjordan.

## Background

With the defeat of the Hashemites in the Nejd–Hejaz War of 1919, and a failure to establish a Hashemite domain over the region of Syria, the British hoped to secure Transjordan and Iraq as Hashemite kingdoms, and did put a significant effort into securing them from external and internal threats. The military assistance of the British to Emir Abdullah I of Jordan helped to suppress a local rebellion at Kura and a later rebellion by Sultan Adwan in 1921 and 1923, respectively. They also played a crucial role in the major invasions by the Wahhabi tribesmen of Najd (the Ikhwan). While Transjordan experienced internal stability during 1922–1923, a new external threat emerged from the southeast of the country. The Wahhabi Ikhwan movement, supported by King Ibn Saud as a tool of territorial expansion, advanced northwards and westwards and arrived at the undemarcated borders of Transjordan in the summer of 1922. The Ikhwan were a cross-tribal striking force, whose religious fervour combined with the support of the King proved too strong a military challenge for the Arabian tribes. The Wahhabi threat brought forward a merger of interests between the nomadic tribes within Transjordan and the Transjordanian government, and for the first time since its establishment the latter was in a more balanced position vis-à-vis these tribes.

## First major raid

The Ikhwan initiated their first attack on Transjordan by massacring the inhabitants of two villages belonging to the tribe of Bani Sakhr, approximately 12 miles south of Amman. In a two-day battle, the tribesmen of the Hadid tribe alongside the remnants of the Bani Sakhr managed to defeat the raiders. The raiders were intercepted by British armored cars and planes only after they had begun to withdraw.

## Second major raid

In August 1924, a larger Ikhwan militia force, numbering some 4,500 raiders, travelled 1,600 kilometers from Najd (in modern-day Saudi Arabia) to attack Transjordan, a British protectorate. Fifteen kilometers south of Amman, the raiders engaged again with the villages of the Bani Sakhr, but were attacked by the British Royal Air Force (RAF). The Ikhwan army suffered heavy casualties, with the death toll reaching 500. The raided villages suffered 130 dead.

## Aftermath

Other Ikhwan raids occurred during the 1927–1930 Ikhwan Revolt against the authority of Ibn Saud. The Ikhwanis raided southern Iraq in November 1927 and Kuwait in January 1928, in which they stole camels and sheep. On both occasions, though they raided brutally, they suffered heavy retaliations from the RAF and Kuwaitis. The Ikhwan were eventually defeated by Ibn Saud's regular forces and their leadership slain. The remnants were incorporated into regular Saudi units.