John Bagot Glubb, called Glubb Pasha, becomes the commander of the Arab Legion, which he begins to transform into the most effective military force in the Arab world, in 1939.

The son of a British army officer, Glubb had attended the Royal Military Academy and risen steadily in the British army, serving in Europe in the Great War and subsequently volunteering for service in Iraq.

In 1926, he resigned from the British army to become an administrative inspector for the Iraqi government; he left this post in 1930 and contracted to serve as a brigadier in Transjordan's Arab Legion, an internal police force.