Hussein of Jordan

Hussein bin Talal
الحسين بن طلال
King Hussein in 1997
King of Jordan
Reign11 August 1952 – 7 February 1999
Regency ended2 May 1953
PredecessorTalal
SuccessorAbdullah II
Prime ministers
Born(1935-11-14)14 November 1935
Amman, Transjordan
Died7 February 1999(1999-02-07) (aged 63)
Amman, Jordan
Burial8 February 1999
Spouses
  • (m. 1955; div. 1957)
  • (m. 1961; div. 1972)
  • (m. 1972; died 1977)
  • (m. 1978)
Issue
Details and adopted children
Names
Hussein bin Talal bin Abdullah bin Hussein
HouseHashemite
FatherTalal of Jordan
MotherZein al-Sharaf
ReligionSunni Islam
Signature
Military career
Allegiance Jordan
Service/branch Royal Jordanian Army
 Royal Jordanian Navy
 Royal Jordanian Air Force
Years of service1952–1999
RankField marshal

Hussein bin Talal (Arabic: الحسين بن طلال, romanizedAl-Ḥusayn bin Ṭalāl; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was a 40th-generation direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Hussein was born in Amman as the eldest child of Talal bin Abdullah and Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. Talal was then the heir to his own father, King Abdullah I. Hussein began his schooling in Amman, continuing his education abroad. After Talal became king in 1951, Hussein was named heir apparent. The Jordanian Parliament forced Talal to abdicate a year later due to his illness, and a regency council was appointed until Hussein came of age. He was enthroned at the age of 17 on 2 May 1953. Hussein was married four separate times and fathered eleven children.

Hussein, a constitutional monarch with wide executive and legislative powers, started his rule with what was termed a "liberal experiment", allowing in 1956 the formation of the only democratically elected government in Jordan's history. A few months into the experiment, he forced the leftist government to resign, declaring martial law and banning political parties. Jordan fought three wars with Israel under Hussein, including the 1967 Six-Day War, which ended in Jordan's loss of the West Bank. In 1970, Hussein expelled Palestinian fighters from Jordan after they had threatened the country's security in what became known as Black September. The King renounced Jordan's ties to the West Bank in 1988 after the Palestine Liberation Organization was recognized internationally as the sole representative of the Palestinians. He lifted martial law and reintroduced elections in 1989 when riots over price hikes spread in southern Jordan. In 1994 he became the second Arab head of state to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

At the time of Hussein's accession in 1953, Jordan was a young nation and controlled the West Bank. The country had few natural resources, and a large Palestinian refugee population as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Hussein led his country through four turbulent decades of the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Cold War, successfully balancing pressures from Arab nationalists, Islamists, the Soviet Union, Western countries, and Israel, transforming Jordan by the end of his 46-year reign into a stable modern state. After 1967 he engaged in efforts to solve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He acted as a conciliatory intermediate between various Middle Eastern rivals, and came to be seen as the region's peacemaker. He was revered for pardoning political dissidents and opponents, and giving them senior posts in the government. Hussein, who survived dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him, was the region's longest-reigning leader. He died at the age of 63 from cancer in 1999 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah II.


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