The Sharif of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, first attacked Medina on 6 June 1916 CE or 4 Sha'aban 1334 AH, in the middle of World War I. Four days later, Husayn held Medina in a bitter 3-year siege, during which the people faced food shortages, widespread disease and mass emigration. Fakhri Pasha, governor of Medina, tenaciously held on during the Siege of Medina from 10 June 1916 and refused to surrender and held on another 72 days after the Armistice of Moudros, until he was arrested by his own men and the city was taken over by the Sharifate on 10 January 1919. Husayn largely won the war due to his alliance with the British. In anticipation of the plunder and destruction to follow, Fakhri Pasha secretly dispatched the Sacred Relics of Muhammad to the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. As of 1920, the British described Medina as "much more self-supporting than Mecca." After the Great War, the Sharif of Mecca, Sayyid Hussein bin Ali was proclaimed King of an independent Hejaz. Soon after, the people of Medina secretly entered an agreement with Ibn Saud in 1924, and his son, Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz conquered Medina as part of the Saudi conquest of Hejaz on 5 December 1925 (19 Jumada I 1344 AH) which gave way to the whole of the Hejaz being incorporated into the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.