Salim II
| Salim II | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King of al-Fahraan Mukarrib of the Hasidhmawt Sultan of Amran and Khimyariyyah Emir of Zabral | |||||||||
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| Reign | 21 December 1916 - 3 May 1941 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Musa II | ||||||||
| Successor | Thamir ibn Salim as Regent | ||||||||
| Prime Minister(s) | |||||||||
| Born | 22 June 1868 Tel Imradhil, Fahran | ||||||||
| Died | 3 May 1941 (aged 72) Tel Imradhil, Fahran | ||||||||
| Spouse | Sahira Sultan | ||||||||
| Issue | List
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| House | Aidarus | ||||||||
| Father | Musa II | ||||||||
| Mother | Nafissa of Sulh | ||||||||
| Religion | Azdarin | ||||||||
Salim II (Gharbaic: سالم بن موسى العيدروس, Transliteration: Salim ibn Musa al-‘Aydarūs), commonly known by his regal name al-Mu'taṣim bi'Awasif (22 June 1868 - 3 May 1941), was the King of Fahran from 21 December 1916 until his death on 3 May 1941. He was the last of the rulers associated with the Tajdid Reforms, succeeding his father Musa II and his great uncle Sabah I in overseeing a period of rapid modernization and industrialization in Fahran.
While his predecessors had experimented with liberalizing reforms, including the enactment of the Constitution of 1870, Salim II broadened the political powers invested in the Majlis with the ratification of the Constitution of 1919, setting a new benchmark for democracy in the kingdom. His reign also played witness to generous government investment in railways and other crucial economic infrastructure as well as the growing importance of the country's nascent copper mining sector.
Salim II presided over several notable engineering projects, such as the completion Trans-Zabalan Railway and major expansions of the ports at Qhor as-Sadaf, Port Fatima, and Jabala. Funding for these projects often came directly from his own purse, especially later on in his reign as major recessions made the Majlis unwilling to approve the budgets submitted by his Prime Ministers.
The King also took a personal interest in the arbitration of the labor disputes that had boiled into the Mining Wars, a series of serious and violent labor disputes between mining conglomerates and striking trade unions that had become a serious obstacle to his economic programs by 1931. While Salim II often favored corporate management in negotiations and even went as far as criminalizing trade unions in 1933, he preferred to resolve strikes without violence. A common tactic he employed was the expansion of the grain dole and wa'ayid, or personal monetary gifts in the form of annual stipends, across vast swathes of rural as-Souhr. The policy both placated miners and brought them into the patronage system that had cemented royal authority in Khimyariyyah and Nalmoriyyah.
On social issues, the King remained a staunch conservative, and regularly corresponded with right-wing intellectuals associated with the Safk Movement such as Bahjat al-Asiri. His appointment of Dastgir Shah Haddad as the first Prime Minister of his reign revealed a genuine commitment to the modernizing nationalism that had begun to define the political attitudes of the educated urban middle-class, as did his dogged refusal to assume the office of Caliph. His resolve in this regard never wavered throughout his life.
Salim II was notable for his polygamy and had eighteen wives. He fathered fifty seven children, including twenty nine sons.
Title
His regal name al-Mu'taṣim bi'Awasif translates as "He Who Seeks Solace in Storms." It carried weighty religious connotations, demonstrating his affinity for the Ash'ari tariqa that had become the personal expression of faith for most members of the House of Aidarus beginning in the eighteenth century. It has been speculated that Salim II himself may have been the sheikh of the tariqa and he is said to have engaged in regular meditations on the eternal ephemeral under a dragon blood tree he had planted in the garden at the Palace of the Golden Gates.
Salim II had been awarded the title Emir of Tirmidh by his father Musa II to distinguish him as the heir apparent in 1890 and carried it throughout his reign. Upon his ascension to the throne in 1916, Salim II began claiming the traditional titles of King of al-Fahraan, Sultan of Amran and Khimyariyyah, Emir of Zabral, and Dhu Nurayn, though, in personal correspondences, he often elected to refer to himself more simply as His Sublime Highness the King of Fahran. In 1918, the Bedouin aristocracy of the Hasidhmawt formally elected him as Mukarrib, an office he promptly assumed while on pilgrimage to Nutum Inyaru, hosting a ceremonial feast at al-Hajjar before returning to Haqara.
One office Salim II refused repeatedly throughout his life was that of Caliph. This followed a precedent set by his father who had prevaricated on accepting his own election as Caliph by the Yen Ulema and the Ashraf of Sulh. This was almost certainly a political tactic intended to temper the growing republican sentiments of the urban middle-classes. The office was viewed by many Gharbiyyun, especially the educated, as antiquated and unrepresentative of the interests of the Kingdom's subjects. A rhetorical question published by the nationalist journalist and statesman Abd as-Saleh Bawazir in his editorial The Banner in 1885, and often repeated thereafter, asked "How can a Caliph who, in truth, belongs to the whole world belong to Fahran and shepherd her flocks?"
The full royal title of Salim II was the following:
By the Wisdom of Rahmanan and in the Light of Nuhayyan, His Sublime Highness, as-Sultan Abu Qawmiyyah al-Mu'taṣim bi'Awasif Salim ibn Musa ibn Abgar Al Aidarus, King of al-Fahraan, Sultan of Amran and Khimyariyyah, Mukarrib of the Hasidhmawt, Emir of Zabral, Emir of Tirmidh and Qarnan, Suzerain of Nimanher and of Nalmoriyyah, Dhu Nurayn, Defender of the Faithful, Shepherd of the People, and Lighthouse on the Near Shore of Ardha
Early Life
Salim II was born in the new palace at Tel Imradhil on 22 June 1868, during the reign of his great uncle Sabah I. He was the first Eidrusid prince in over three centuries to be born and raised outside the Qasr al-Harir near the oasis of Zabral. His father Musa ibn Abgar was a scion of the House of Aidarus and the only son of Abgar I, and would eventually succeed Sabah as king. At the time of Salim's birth, Musa had been under house arrest for around a decade as a result of the palace coup instigated by Sabah against his father, and it was widely assumed that Musa would be passed over for succession in favor of his cousin al-Husayn ibn Sabah. His mother, Nafissa bint al-Walid al-Anmari, belonged to the House of Anmar, the ruling clan of the Khindar tribe. The Khindar were one of the seven great tribes of Sulh who had, historically, refused to entertain marital alliances with the House of Aidarus, viewing them as beneath them in dignity and renown. The union between Salim and Nafissa, a genuine love match, had broken that long tradition, and King Sabah regarded the birth of their child as cause for ample celebration, declaring a week of festivities in honor of the couple when he heard that Nafissa had gone into labor.
The prince's birth was difficult, prompting his mother to recite a sharaba expressing gratitude that "like a crane coming to shore amid a storm, halcyon, unflustered, so has this little one set his foot upon Arda's shore safely." Nafissa had previously lost two children, a boy who had been stillborn and a girl who had survived only three days before dying in the night.
He benefited from a modern education inspired by the Arthuristan model. As a young man, he took an avid interest in engineering and railroads. Spurred on by his aunt Yabtasim Sultan, Salim would embark upon his grand tour of Belisaria in 1889 and the Ozeros in 1891 to much fanfare.
Heir Presumptive
Grand Tour
Assassination of Evîndar Sohrabi
On 15 March 1911, the Karduene Prime Minister Evîndar Shah Sohrabi was assassinated while giving a speech in Ghalilah by Ya'qub Banna and Ghawrath Raqani, members of the Beiyadi Archery Society. The political murder, the culmination of a flurry of nationalist political activity that began in response to the Grim Friday Massacre of 1904, alarmed Salim's usually conciliatory father. In response, an edict was issued on 18 March, banning newsletters such as Al-Lafita and 'Aghura. Shortly thereafter, on 22 March, local police in Raphaat raided student clubs at Sabkhah College and the King Abgar Institute of Technology and Sciences, arresting prominent nationalists, among them Anwar Khaddouri and Hikmat al-Lihyani.
While officers of the Karduene Guard petitioned the King to appoint the prime minister's brother to replace him in the Diwan, Prince Salim spoke out against the move, believing it would spark greater civil unrest, and persuading his father to appoint the moderate Umayr ibn Khalid al-Allasi, a Gharib, to the office instead.
Reign
Constitution of 1919
Growth of Mining Sector
Philanthropy
Religion
Marriage and Family
Salim II pursued a policy of peace through marriage, employing the traditional kinship bonds that tied together the disparate tribal groupings of the Hasidhmawt as a means of keeping the Bedouin nobility on cordial terms with the Crown. This had become a central pillar of the royal family's ruling philosophy following the refusal of his father, Musa II, to assume the office of Caliph. As a result, Salim II took no fewer than eighteen wives, including his principal consort Sahira Sultan, and fathered fifty seven children in total.