King Hussein Bin Talal

King Hussein bin Talal was born in Amman on November 14, 1935 into the Hashemite family which claims to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad’s Bani Hashem tribe. He received his early education in Amman and continued his college education in Victoria College of Alexandria, Egypt and Harrow School in England. He later received his military education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.

It was King Hussein’s mission to raise the standard of living of the people of Jordan. He worked hard to develop the economic and industrial infrastructure of the nation. By developing Jordan’s main industries of phosphate, potash, and cement, King Hussein laid a network of roads to connect all part of Jordan with each other so that communication between Jordanian living in different parts of the country could be facilitated. In this way he created a sense of unity among the people of Jordan which was highly essential for Jordan at that time kinghussein.gov.jo

King Hussein focused on providing water, sanitation, and electricity to his people in all parts of the country. He provided high quality health facilities to all sections of society and improved the overall health and nutrition conditions of Jordanians. King Hussein highlighted the importance of education and successfully increased the literacy rate of the people of Jordan.

King Hussein faced several challenges of national importance that threatened Jordan's sovereignty. The Six-Day war of 1967, the problem of influx of Palestinian refugees, the Yom Kippur War, and the Khaled Mashaal crisis, were some of the issues which King Hussein settled quite wisely. He continued trying to find peaceful solutions for the Palestine-Israeli conflict through peace-making summits and peace agreements.

King Hussein died on February 7, 1999. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving king regent who had ruled the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for more than 46 years. He would be remembered as the architect of a strong Jordan by strengthening it and giving it a stable foundation for making progress in the 21st century.