The Arab Syrian Kingdom was toppled by the French in 1920 and an Emirate over Transjordan was then established in early 1921 by the Hashemite Emir Abdullah of the Hejaz as a British protectorate. Tal returned to Transjordan and worked as an Arabic literature teacher in the city of Karak where he met Al-Oudat for the first time. Al-Oudat wrote in Tal's biography: