Hussein, King of Jordan

Hussein, King of Jordan 1935-1999

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hussein bin (“son of”) Talal, the longest-ruling king of Jordan, was born in November 1935 in Amman, Transjordan. His grandfather, Abdullah (1882–1951), ruled as emir over a sparsely populated, impoverished principality formally under the British administration in neighboring Palestine. Abdullah came from the Hashemite family of Mecca, which led an Arab nationalist uprising against Ottoman Turkish rule during World War I (1914–1918). After the defeat of the Ottomans, Britain created Transjordan, installing Abdullah as its proxy ruler in the strategically important area. Abdullah later became king upon the country’s formal independence in 1946. Significantly, Jordan fought against Israel during the first Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Although the war ended as a disastrous defeat for the Arabs generally, and the Palestinians particularly, Abdullah expanded his kingdom when in 1950 he formally annexed the portion of Palestine that came to be known as the West Bank.

Young Hussein bin Talal was close to his grandfather and became heavily imbued with his family’s self-proclaimed legacy as the vanguards of Arab nationalism and protectors of the Palestinians. Educated in Britain, Hussein also adopted Abdullah’s pro-Western orientation. Hussein was by Abdullah’s side when the monarch was assassinated in Jerusalem by a disgruntled Palestinian in 1951. After the brief rule of his father, Talal (1909–1972), the seventeen-year-old Hussein formally became king in 1952, although he was not enthroned until reaching the age of eighteen in 1953.

Until his death in 1999, King Hussein’s long rule was noteworthy both for Jordan’s remarkable socioeconomic development and for the tremendous strategic challenges that buffeted the country. These included the powerful surge of anti-Western Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s that nearly led to a military coup in 1957; the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, especially the disastrous Arab defeat in 1967 that saw Israel occupy the West Bank; and the subsequent rise of Palestinian nationalism and demands for an independent Palestinian state, free from both Israeli and Jordanian control. With its large Palestinian population, Jordan was particularly affected by the latter. The demands of Palestinian guerrillas for renewed war with Israel after 1967 and for the overthrow of Hussein led to the gravest crisis the king ever faced—open war in his country between the Jordanian army and Palestinian fighters in September 1970 and again in July 1971 that resulted in the Palestinians’ defeat.

In this and other trials, King Hussein proved a consummate political survivor. Domestically he survived economic downturns and demands for greater democracy. As a monarch who reigned and ruled, Hussein both could clamp down hard on political opposition (as when he banned political parties and declared martial law in 1957) or liberalize the political system (as when he ended martial law and allowed the return of political parties and elections starting in 1989). In terms of foreign policy, he managed to weather threats from powerful neighbors and foes such as Syria, Iraq, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Israel by cozying up to one or more of them at the expense of the others. Hussein’s maneuvering led him to a rapprochement with the PLO by the 1980s, a renunciation of claims to the West Bank in 1988, support for Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, and a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

King Hussein died of cancer in Amman in February 1999, and was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Abdullah.

SEE ALSO Arab League, The; Arab-Israeli War of 1967; Arabs; Arafat, Yasir; Black September; Jews;Nationalism and Nationality; Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); Palestinian Authority; Palestinians; Pan-Arabism; Peace Process; Zionism

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hussein bin Talal. 1962. Uneasy Lies the Head: The Autobiography of His Majesty King Hussein I of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. New York: Bernard Geis.

Hussein bin Talal. 1969. My “War” with Israel. Trans. June P. Wilson and Walter B. Michaels. London: Peter Owen.

Hussein bin Talal. 1975. Mon métier de roi. Paris: R. Laffont.

Michael R. Fischbach