Aref al-Aref’s Diaries in the Emirate of Transjordan 1926–1929

Description

The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies has published Aref al-Aref’s Diaries: In the Emirate of Transjordan, 1926–1929. These diaries are a record of Aref al-Aref’s daily life as Secretary-General of the Transjordanian government, on secondment from the British Mandate government of Palestine, during the period 1926–1929. The diaries were compiled by historian Ali Mahafza, Professor of History at the University of Jordan, and Muhannad Mubaideen, Professor of Modern History at the University of Jordan and Director-General of the Royal Jordanian Hashemite Documentation Center. These diaries are among the earliest political diaries written about that period. In them, al-Aref describes the decision-making process under the British Mandate in Transjordan and how the country was governed between Prince Abdullah I and the British officials. The diaries (276 pages, medium format, documented and indexed) are divided into four chapters. The first chapter contains diaries from 1926, the second chapter from 1927, the third chapter from 1928, and the fourth chapter from 1929. The period covered by these diaries witnessed the rise of the Jordanian national movement, the establishment of the first political parties, the signing of the Anglo-Jordanian Treaty in February 1928, the convening of the first Jordanian National Congress, and the subsequent political and popular activism.