Hussein I of Jordan
File:Kinghussein.jpg King Hussein and his wife, Queen Noor. |
| Template:Hashemite-Jordan |
Hussein bin Talal (Arabic: حسين بن طلال Husayn bin Talāl); was born November 14, 1935 in Amman to Prince Talal bin Abdullah and Princess Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil, of the royal Hashemite family. At the time of his passing on February 7, 1999, His Majesty was the longest serving executive head of state in the world.
Upon the assassination of his granfather, King Abdullah, and the medically-necessary abdication of his father, King Talal, Hussein was proclaimed King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on August 11, 1952. A Regency Council was appointed until King Hussein’s formal accession to the throne on May 2, 1953, when he assumed his constitutional powers after reaching the age of eighteen, according to the Islamic calendar.[1] During his reign, he gained wide acclaim for moving Jordan and its Arab neighbors toward peace with Israel. [2]
Of great significance to Muslims throughout the world, the late King Hussein was also the forty-second generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
His Majesty King Hussein bin Talal, the father of modern Jordan, will always be remembered as a leader who guided his country through strife and turmoil to become an oasis of peace, stability and moderation in the Middle East. Among Jordanians, his memory is cherished as the inspiration for Jordan's climate of openness, tolerance and compassion. Known to his people as Al-Malik Al-Insan ("The Humane King"), King Hussein established a legacy which promises to guide Jordan for many years to come. [3]
Personal life
King Hussein's life and philosophy were so intricately tied to his lineage and his nation that he cannot be studied without considering both his immediate family and his extended family of Hashemites.
Immediate Family
King Hussein was born in Amman on November 14, 1935, to Prince Talal bin Abdullah and Princess Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. His Majesty had two brothers, Prince Muhammad and Crown Prince El Hassan, and one sister, Princess Basma.
After completing his elementary education in Amman, Hussein attended Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, and Harrow School in England. He later received his military education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.
Early in young Hussein’s life, on July 20, 1951, his grandfather King Abdullah was assassinated at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. A Palestinian extremist, fearing the king might negotiate a peace with the newly created state of Israel, opened fire on Abdullah and his grandson as the pair walked into the mosque for Friday prayers. Abdullah was killed, but the 15-year-old Hussein pursued the gunman. [4] A medal his grandfather had recently given the young Prince Hussein, and which he wore at his grandfather’s insistence, saved Hussein from the assassin’s bullet. [5]
Hashemite Family
The Hashemite royal family is interwoven into the life of Jordan, having established the modern state in 1921. It is impossible, therefore, to understand the fabric of Jordan’s modern history without some knowledge of the royal family. [6] Rulers of the holy city of Mecca for over 700 years, ending in 1925, King Hussein's family claims a line of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Ismail, son of the biblical prophet Abraham.
"We are the family of the prophet and we are the oldest tribe in the Arab world," the king once said of his Hashemite ancestry. [7]
During the Great Arab Revolt of 1916, King Hussein’s great-grandfather, Al-Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and King of the Arabs (later he also became known as King of the Hijaz), led the liberation of Arab lands from their domination by the Ottoman Turks. After freeing the lands of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Syria and the Hijaz, Sharif Hussein’s son Abdullah assumed the throne of Transjordan and his second son Faisal assumed the throne of Syria and later Iraq. The Emirate of Transjordan was founded on April 11, 1921, and became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan upon formal independence from Britain in 1946. [8]
Hussein bin Talal was born in Amman, the capital city of the newly formed Transjordan. He was the grandson of Transjordan's emir, Abdullah bin Al-Hussein. His parents were Abdullah's son Talal and Talal's wife, Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil.
Hussein was ten years old when Transjordan gained its independence from Great Britain and became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with his grandfather Abdullah as its first king.
Marriages and Children
King Hussein married four times, though he was never married to more than one wife at a time, which his Muslim beliefs would have allowed, had he desired.
King Hussein's first wife was seven years his senior, the beautiful Dina bint Abedelhamid, a distant cousin. She was a graduate of the University of Cambridge and a former lecturer in English literature at Cairo University. After one year of marriage and the birth of a daughter, Princess Alia in 1956, King Hussein and Queen Dina were divorced.
In 1961, Hussein married his second wife, a British army officer's daughter, Antoinette "Toni" Gardner. She was renamed Princess Muna, but because she did not convert to Islam she was not named queen. They had two sons, Prince Abdullah and Prince Feisal, followed by two daughters, Princess Zein and Princess Aisha. In 1972, the couple divorced. Their eldest son ascended to the throne upon his father's death and is currently known as King Abdullah II of Jordan.
In 1972, King Hussein married his third wife, Alia Toukan. They had a daughter, Princess Haya (who is married to Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai), and a son, Prince Ali, as well as an adopted daughter, Abeer Muhaisin. In 1977, tragedy struck the family when Queen Alia was killed in a helicopter crash in Amman. Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan is named after her.
The following year, King Hussein married his fourth and final wife, American-born Lisa Halaby, who left behind her western lifestyle and converted to Islam. The king named her Queen Noor al-Hussein, "the light of Hussein." They had two sons, Prince Hamzah and Prince Hashim, and two daughters, Princess Iman and Princess Raiyah. Their fairy-tale romance endured for more than two decades, until the king's death in 1999. [9]
Public Life
Ascension to the Throne
On July 20, 1951, King Abdullah I traveled to Jerusalem to perform his Friday prayers with his young grandson, Prince Hussein. He was assassinated by a gunman at the instigation of Colonel Abdullah Tell, ex-Military Governor of Jerusalem, and Dr. Musa Abdullah Husseini, on the steps of one of the holiest shrines of Islam, Al-Aqsa Mosque. The assailant shot at Hussein, but the young prince is said to have been saved by a bullet fortuitously striking a medal that his grandfather had recently awarded him and insisted he wear.
Abdullah's eldest son, King Talal was crowned as King, but within a year was forced to abdicate because of 'mental illness'. His son Crown Prince Hussein was proclaimed King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on August 11, 1952, at the age of 16, which was under the legal age, so he was enthroned one year later, on May 2, 1953.
Reign
His reign was controversial, and he is described as an opportunist by some political historians. While it saw Jordan remain one of the Western sanctuaries and protectorates in the Middle East, it was also marked by the events of Black September when the king ordered the violent expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization from the country. The country also defied the West and the other allied leaders by siding with Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War — allegedly done for internal political reasons after the Ma'an uprising in 1988 that threatened the throne of the King — which alienated the kingdom from most of the Arab world. In 1994 King Hussein concluded negotiations to end the official state of war with the Israel resulting in the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace which he had begun negotiating in secret with the Israelis in the 1970s. The king wrote three books: Uneasy Lies the Head (1962), about his childhood and early years as king; My War With Israel (1969); and Mon Métier de Roi. According to Benjamin Netanyahu in his book A Durable Peace (1993, revised 2000), Hussein had motivation for obtaining peace with Israel unofficially; indeed, Netanyahu claims Hussein flew to Tel Aviv the day before the Yom Kippur War in secret to warn the Israeli authorities of an imminent attack, and Israeli policy towards Jordan was to guarantee its security by intervening in any attack on its territory (this was directed specifically at Syria and Iraq).
After the peace treaty with Israel, King Hussein developed strong ties of friendship to Isreali Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whom he had done the negociations of the peace treaty with. King hussein had said a powerful speech in the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin:
- Further information: Hussein of Jordan's Speech at Rabin's Funeral
- My sister, Mrs. Leah Rabin, my friends, I had never thought that the moment would come like this when I would grieve the loss of a brother, a colleague and a friend - a man, a soldier who met us on the opposite side of a divide whom we respected as he respected us. A man I came to know because I realized, as he did, that we have to cross over the divide, establish a dialogue, get to know each other and strive to leave for those who follow us a legacy that is worthy of them. And so we did. And so we became brethren and friends.
Though King Hussein did many controversial things during his reign, he was appreciated by the Jordanian population for his accomplishments. He helped Jordan develop and become more stable. For example, at the beginning of his reign, he paid attention to the development of better water and electricity networks, in addition to sewage networks, which were only available to 10% of the population; at the end of his reign, the percentage has reached 99%. In addition, the Literacy rate of Jordan was 33%, rising to 85.5% in 1996 and still increasing. Other accomplishments include Calories available per individuals, which rose by about 50%, and the reduction in the infant mortality rate.
His Legacy
Death
He died of complications related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on February 7, 1999. The King had been suffering from the disease for many years and had been treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States on a fairly regular basis. Just before his death, he changed his will and the Jordanian Constitution in order to disinherit his brother, Hassan, who had been crown prince for several decades, and designated his eldest son, Abdullah as heir. The King was, at the time of his death, one of the longest-serving leaders in international politics.
External links
- A Living Tribute to the Legacy of King Hussein I - official Royal Jordanian memorial website
- Slide Show - Personal Tribute Page
| Preceded by: Talal |
Hashemite King of Jordan 1952–1999 |
Succeeded by: Abdullah II |
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