Faisal I of Iraq in the context of "Sharifian solution"

The Arab Union is a theoretical political union of the Arab states. The term was first used when the British Empire and French empire promised the Arabs a united independent state in return for revolting against the Ottoman Empire, with which the United Kingdom and France was at war. It never came to fruition following the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Despite this, many in the Arab world have since called for the creation of a pan-Arab state. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser made several unsuccessful attempts to unite Egypt with other Arab countries (including Iraq and North Yemen), and briefly succeeded in forming the United Arab Republic with Syria in 1958, which dissolved in 1971. The union is considered as one of the solutions to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Similar attempts were made by other Arab leaders, such as Hafez al-Assad, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Faisal I of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Gaafar Nimeiry and Anwar Sadat.

The State of Damascus (French: État de Damas; Arabic: دولة دمشق Dawlat Dimashq) was one of the six states established by the French General Henri Gouraud in the French Mandate of Syria which followed the San Remo conference of 1920 and the defeat of King Faisal's short-lived monarchy in Syria.

The other states were the State of Aleppo (1920), the State of Alawites (1920), the State of Jabal Druze (1921), the Sanjak of Alexandretta (1921), and the State of Greater Lebanon (1920), which later became the modern country of Lebanon.

The Franco-Syrian War took place during 1920 between France and the Hashemite rulers of the newly established Arab Kingdom of Syria. During a series of engagements, which climaxed in the Battle of Maysalun, French forces defeated the forces of the Hashemite monarch King Faisal, and his supporters, entering Damascus on July 24, 1920. A new pro-French government was declared in Syria on July 25, headed by 'Alaa al-Din al-Darubi and the region of Syria was eventually divided into several client states under the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. The British government, concerned for their position in the new mandate in Iraq, agreed to declare the fugitive Faisal as the new king of Iraq.

The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq (Arabic: الانتداب البريطاني على العراق, romanized: al-Intidāb al-Brīṭānī ʿalā l-ʿIrāq), was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolution against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 undertaking by the United Kingdom to the League of Nations to fulfil the role as Mandatory Power.

Faisal ibn Husayn, who had been proclaimed King of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. Faisal was then granted by the British the territory of Iraq, to rule it as a kingdom, with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) retaining certain military control, but de facto, the territory remained under British administration until 1932.

The title King of Syria appeared in the second century BC in referring to the Seleucid kings who ruled the entirety of the region of Syria. It was also used to refer to Aramean kings in the Greek translations of the Old Testament, mainly indicating the kings of Aram-Damascus. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the region came under the rule of France, the United Kingdom and Prince Faisal of Hejaz, who was proclaimed King of Syria on 8 March 1920. Faisal's reign lasted a few months before he was overthrown by France and the title fell out of use.

The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of October 1922 was an agreement signed between the British and Iraqi governments. The treaty was designed to allow for Iraqi self-government while giving the British control of Iraq's foreign policy. It was intended to conclude an agreement made at the Cairo Conference of 1921 to establish a Hashemite Kingdom in Iraq.

In the aftermath of the First World War, the former possessions of the Ottoman Empire were divided between France and Britain, with the remainder becoming the present-day country of Turkey. The former Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra were proposed to become a League of Nations Class A mandate under direct British rule, known as the British Mandate for Mesopotamia. The general public in the region reacted negatively to the mandate, resenting the imposition of British control; this led to the Iraqi revolt of 1920, which caused the British to instead decide that the mandate territories would instead become the Kingdom of Iraq. On 23 August 1921, Faisal ibn Hasayn was crowned as Faisal I, King of Iraq.

Maysalun (Arabic: ميسلون) is a mountainous region in southwestern Syria located on the eastern slopes of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains about 12 kilometers west of Damascus, in the Rif Dimashq Governorate and has an elevation of about 1090 meters. The area is situated on the ancient route between Damascus and Lebanon and has long been famous for its khans and rest-stops. The closest town in the area is al-Dimas.

Maysalun is enshrined in Syrian history as the last stand of the short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria, which was ruled by King Faisal. The kingdom briefly controlled Syria after the Ottomans left and before the French took over control of Syria in the aftermath of the First World War. On 24 July 1920, a group of 2,000 Syrian volunteers gathered at the caravansary of Maysalun. There they faced the French Army, which drew on troops from its colonial territories, meaning Senegalese, Algerian, and Moroccan men made up the force. Yusuf al-'Azma, the Minister of War, died in the fighting. After the French forces defeated the Syrian defenders, they moved on to Damascus, where they began a 26-year occupation of the country. The Battle of Maysalun lingers in Syrian memory more broadly as symbol of, in the words of historian Eugene Rogan, "the betrayal of Britain's wartime promises, the bankruptcy of U.S. president Woodrow Wilson's vision of national self-determination, and the triumph of British and French colonial self-interest over the hopes and aspirations of millions of Arabs."

The Sharifian Army (Arabic: الجيش الشريفي), also known as the Arab Army (Arabic: الجيش العربي), or the Hejazi Army (Arabic: الجيش الحجازي) was the military force behind the Arab Revolt which was a part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. Sharif Hussein bin Ali of the Kingdom of Hejaz, who was proclaimed "Sultan of the Arabs" in 1916, led the Sharifian Army in a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire with the ultimate goal of uniting the Arab people under an independent government. Aided both financially and militarily by the British, Hussein's forces gradually moved north through the Hejaz and, fought alongside the British-controlled Egyptian Expeditionary Force, eventually capturing Damascus. Once there, members of the Sharifian Army set up a short-lived monarchy known as the Arab Kingdom of Syria led by Faisal, a son of Hussein.