Almost everyone has heard about the tragic death of King Hussein in January of this year. You probably know that Hussein played a crucial role in the Middle East peace process. But have you ever wondered about the man behind the crown? If so, read on.
Hussein bin Talal was born on November 14, 1935 in Amman, the capital city of a newly formed country called Transjordan. His grandfather, Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, was Transjordan's emir. His parents were Abdullah's son Talal and Talal's wife, Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. Hussein had two younger brothers, Muhammad and Hassan, and a younger sister, Basma.
When Hussein was ten years old, Transjordan gained its independence from Great Britain and became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, with Abdullah as its first king. Hussein was close to his grandfather, and Abdullah did his best to train the boy for his future responsibilities, but their time together was short. In 1951, when Hussein was fifteen, the king took him to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. There, on the temple steps, King Abdullah was shot to death by a Palestinian who resented the king for political reasons. The assassin also fired at Hussein, but the bullet bounced off a medal he was wearing over his heart.
After Abdullah's death, Hussein's father became king. Crown Prince Hussein, who had previously attended college in Egypt, now enrolled in England's Harrow School. But King Talal was soon declared unfit to rule because of mental incompetence, and on August 11, 1952, sixteen-year-old Hussein was proclaimed king of Jordan. A regency oversaw the country's affairs until the following May, when King Hussein reached the age of 18 according to the Islamic calendar and assumed his full constitutional powers. (King Talal, who spent his last years in a mental institution, died in 1972.)
During his reign, Hussein was the target of as many as twelve assassination attempts. In 1957 army officers attempted to overthrow Hussein because they considered him overly sympathetic to the West. The following year, Syrian jets intercepted Hussein's plane and tried to force it down. He called this incident "the narrowest escape from death I have ever had." In 1960, Jordanian palace officials working for Syria admitted they had tried to kill Hussein by poisoning his food and putting acid in his nose drops. And so it went on, year after year. Yet Hussein always managed to survive, and in time he became a respected voice for peace in the Middle East.
Go To Page: 1 2
