Hussein bin Talal

Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999, the third king of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. ^{1 2}

A member of the Hashemite dynasty, he is regarded as a 40th-generation descendant of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah and her husband Ali; the Hashemites ruled Mecca for over 700 years and have ruled Jordan since 1921. ¹

Hussein was born at Raghadan Palace in Amman on 14 November 1935, the eldest child of Crown Prince Talal bin Abdullah and Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. Talal was at that time the heir to his own father, King Abdullah I. ^{1 2}

He began his schooling in Amman, at the Islamic Scientific College, and continued his education abroad, including at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Britain. ^{2 1}

After Talal became king in 1951, Hussein was named heir apparent. The Jordanian Parliament forced Talal to abdicate a year later on account of his illness, and a regency council was appointed until Hussein came of age. He acceded on 11 August 1952 and was enthroned at the age of seventeen on 2 May 1953. ^{1 2}

Hussein, a constitutional monarch, began his rule by allowing the formation of the only democratically elected government in Jordan's history in 1956, which he forced to resign a few months later, declaring martial law and banning political parties. ¹

Under Hussein, Jordan fought three wars with Israel, including the 1967 Six-Day War, which ended in Jordan's loss of the West Bank. In 1970 he expelled Palestinian militants from Jordan in what became known as Black September. ¹

He renounced Jordan's legal and administrative 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 rises spread in southern Jordan. ¹

In October 1998, while under treatment in the United States, he attended the Wye Plantation talks at President Clinton's invitation and urged the Israeli and Palestinian delegations to overcome their obstacles. ¹

In May 1998 Hussein, a heavy smoker, was admitted to the Mayo Clinic; in July doctors diagnosed non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and he received six courses of chemotherapy over five months while his brother Hassan acted as regent. ¹

He died in Amman on 7 February 1999, three days after returning to Jordan, and was buried at Raghadan Palace. ^{1 3}

Hussein was married four times and fathered eleven children, among them his successor, Abdullah II. ¹

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