Arab Legion

The Arab Legion was the police force and later the regular army of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, and subsequently of the independent Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It began in October 1920 as a 150-man Mobile Force under Captain Frederick Peake, recruited largely from the local Chechen community, and in 1923 it was merged with the police and named Al Jeish al Arabi, always rendered in English as the Arab Legion. It was financed by Britain and commanded by British officers, first to keep order among the tribes and guard the Jerusalem to Amman road. Under John Bagot Glubb, known as Glubb Pasha, from 1939 it became the best-trained Arab army, served with the Allies in the Anglo-Iraqi War and the Syria-Lebanon campaign, and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, including at Latrun and Jerusalem. On 1 March 1956 King Hussein dismissed Glubb and the force was renamed the Arab Army, today the Jordanian Armed Forces.