ʿAbd al-Ilāh (1913-58), regent of Iraq from 1939 to 1953, was the son of King ʿAlī of the Ḥijāz and the grandson of Sharīf Ḥusayn of Mecca. He became regent (al-waṣī) after his cousin King Ghāzī died unexpectedly in 1939, leaving as heir a four-year-old son, Fayṣal II, who came of age in 1953. ʿAbd al-Ilāh and Nūrī al-Saʿīd together came to embody many of the shortcomings of the ancien régime. He and Nūrī fled to Jordan in April 1941 when the pro-