Mentor of majesty

Zayn Al Sharaf Bint Jamil (1916-1994), Queen of Jordan as consort of King Talal and mother of the late King Hussain, was one of those rare Arab personalities who helped shape the destiny of a country.

In many ways, Queen Zayn was the power behind the Hashemite throne, a woman of unparalleled abilities who seldom shied away from making key decisions for the benefit of her ruling family.

Though often remembered for her pioneering efforts in charitable works and her indefatigable efforts to advance women's rights in Jordan, she did a lot more, even if her most successful creations were performed behind the scenes, starting in 1934 when she married Prince Talal.

A troubled reign

When Talal Bin Abdullah acceded to the Hashemite throne after his father was assassinated on July 20, 1951, it was clear that his administration would be a difficult one, especially since he was not his father's first choice for the post.

Talal's reign was short-lived and he abdicated on August 11, 1952, for health reasons.

In fact, the monarch suffered from delusions — perhaps even schizophrenia — that, for understandable reasons, presented an insurmountable political dilemma, especially as he refused proper treatment.

Still, Talal — who attended Sandhurst Academy in Britain — was interested in politics and though seldom credited for any innovations, was not entirely idle.

His spouse, Queen Zayn, assumed the burden of power because she was determined to succeed.

Remarkably, she proved quite effective, especially in the care she displayed in raising her three sons, Hussain, Mohammad and Hassan.

Under her overall guidance, Talal initiated and supported the revision of the British-inspired and dictated 1946 constitution which, since January 1952, has stood the test of time.

This was his major legacy and in the words of one observer, “Talal was wedded to the notion of reigning as a constitutional monarch, an idea that most likely grew as much out of his driving need to be what Abdullah was not as it did out of his liberal inclination''.

It was under his rule that the monarchy accepted collective responsibility before parliament that is still in effect.

Talal may well have been ill but his refusal to accept proper treatment accelerated his eventual forced abdication.

Then prime minister Tawfiq Abul Huda, a one-time ally and ultimate insider, convened parliament to vote a deposition of the monarch on the grounds of insanity, as duly permitted in the 1952 constitution.

Importantly, three primary reasons moved the prime minster to act with confidence: internal military rumblings; the successful coup that overthrew the monarchy in Egypt; and Queen Zayn's critical approval.

Burdened by epoch-making developments and from his European perch, Talal was glad to abdicate knowing that his wife would ensure ruling-family stability.

Their eldest son, Hussain, was healthy enough to assume the mantle of power on August 11, 1952, even if he would need a regent for another year.

A man of action rather than intellect, Hussain asserted himself by demonstrating substance as an heir apparent, even if regional events would eventually transform him and his monarchy.

Before Prince Hassan assumed the undeniable mantle of the family's genuine intellectual, it was the queen who oversaw overall internal strategy, which protected and enhanced Hashemite authority.

King Hussain

Hussain was born in Amman on November 14, 1935, the eldest of six children to Talal and Zayn.

His two brothers, Mohammad and Hassan, and sister Basmah, all served with him in various capacities.

The couple's two other children, Asma and Mohsin died when they were young.

The queen exercised undeniable influence on her children and stood as a popular figure admired for her charisma, generosity and, above all, for her penetrating political mind.

She guided her offspring until her death on April 26, 1994. Sadly, her death marked the end of an era in contemporary Jordanian affairs because she acted as Hussain's warning light.

Zayn sent Hussain to Harrow School in England and Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt, after he completed his elementary education in Amman.

Aware of the region's military requirements — especially after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war — Zayn encouraged him to attend the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst to receive a military education, which equipped him with the wherewithal to defend his throne amid a sea of turmoil.

Beyond his preoccupation with regional affairs, which earned him the PLK (plucky little king) acronym from perplexed Western officials and admiring journalists, Hussain was for many Jordanians the father of the modern state.

Survivor of tough times

He served at a critical time despite significant internal and regional uncertainties.

In fact, his rule witnessed a period of domestic strife and extensive international turmoil and several major wars with Israel.

Yet through most of these tragic developments, Hussain demonstrated a knack for survival that augured well for his kingdom.

Above all else, Hussain's genuine bi-culturalism, which allowed him to feel at ease in the West as much as in the East, helped forge a climate of openness and tolerance.

His rule, at least partially, ushered in a period of relative tranquillity even if significant challenges preoccupied him far more than any Hashemite anticipated.

When he passed away after a long illness on February 7, 1999, Hussain was the longest serving head of state throughout the world, having been in power for 47 years.

Much like his grandfather, Hussain understood why world powers valued the Middle East and, towards that end, was eager to pursue policies that would — or so he hoped — subdue any and all of their aspirations for direct or indirect control over the area.

Nevertheless, and although Hussain inherited a gargantuan portfolio that encompassed the Palestinian question and the Arab-Israeli conflict after 1948, it would be facile to conclude that he was helpless or without sound advice.

His chief adviser, Queen Zayn, understood better than most that what Trans-Jordan owed Britain — for creating it in the first place and husbanding a semi-dependent regime through the complex Arab political arena for decades — was enough to drive a mental wedge between monarch and his subjects.

Undoubtedly, she encouraged the young ruler to excel, especially given his energy, intrinsic capabilities and appetite for power.

How Hussain ruled as a Hashemite was probably coloured by the assassination of his grandfather and his survival of several attempts on his own life immediately after acceding to the throne.

Were it not for his mother's guidance, chances were excellent that Hussain would have turned wobbly, falling into many more traps than those he successfully avoided.

Showing the way

Through her examples, Queen Zayn primed Hussain to become astutely aware that his kingdom was a multi-ethnic society, where the majority of the population was and remained Palestinian.

Inasmuch as his five-decade-long reign witnessed negative internal and regional developments, it was a rare accomplishment that he managed to preserve throne and country, burdened as he was with an existential dilemma.

To defend his regime and his subjects as a Hashemite monarch, while remaining true to core Arab causes, including the Palestinian quest for sovereignty, was no mere accomplishment.

In fact, when compared with his father, Hussain's priorities and intrinsic capabilities were far greater.

Hussain's lifelong political nemesis, Egyptian president Jamal Abdul Nasser, towered over the Arab world throughout the 1960s.

To save his throne, the Jordanian oscillated between pro- and anti-Nasser periods but could never shake off the Egyptian's shadow.

For one observer, “he was not always a good judge of character'', and relied far too much on cronies eager to please.

For another, “Hussain survived because his most dangerous adversary, Nasser, lacked the singleness of purpose in wishing his destruction''.

Yet he survived because Hussain seldom hesitated to destroy foes and was comforted by the knowledge that Britain and the United States would rush to his assistance as soon as his rule wavered (as was the case in 1958).

Even his colossal errors with the Palestinians between 1967 and 1970 withered on the Arab political vine, as he tackled perceived radicalism within his own society.

At times he displayed emotions seldom witnessed among conservative Arab monarchs but always managed to survive the crises that befell him. Through each crisis, only one person stood by him — his mother.

At the 1974 Rabat Summit, Hussain saw the Palestinian mantle slip from his shoulders after the League of Arab States supported the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

This rebuff was one of the few times when Queen Zayn was dejected, for she understood future dangers that aimed to isolate Jordan and force it to realign the country with Saddam Hussain's rejectionist front.

As Queen Zayn foresaw, that decision earned Hussain Western contempt, as she privately expressed concern that this fragile alliance did not serve Jordan.

Hussain explained his choice as a matter of economic survival but she stood her ground and thought that the February 1989 Arab Cooperation Council, which grouped Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and North Yemen, was not worthy of any Hashemite agenda.

She warned Hussain not to challenge fellow monarchs within the Gulf Cooperation Council, which diminished the Jordanian monarchy's worth among fellow Arab rulers, though the king thought otherwise.

Ironically, Hussain's cataclysmic 1990 choice, to back Baathist Iraq against a fellow monarchic dynasty, the Al Sabah, in Kuwait, sealed the plucky little king's fate throughout conservative circles.

No longer were fellow Arab rulers willing to dole out generous support to a dependent Jordan.

The Western, especially American, wrath would be even more devastating.

Although Hussain's commitment to democracy, civil liberties and human rights helped pave the way in making Jordan a model state for the region, serious problems remained.

Perhaps the gravest question was that of his succession, which was far better planned than many realised at the time but which went against Queen Zayn's wishes.

Several years after his accession to the throne, Hussain introduced an amendment to the Jordanian constitution to allow his brother Hassan, rather than Abdullah (his only son at the time) to succeed him.

Succession move

The logic behind this emendation was two-fold: first, to equip the brilliant Hassan with the wherewithal to rule — on a king-in-training programme — and, second, to satisfy family harmony.

The decision to pass the torch to Hassan was probably made jointly by the ruler and his trusted mother, although she never spoke about her preferences in public.

In private, however, Queen Zayn perceived Prince Hassan as a qualified lieutenant and coached him throughout her life to serve his king.

She further instructed Hassan to accept Hussain's orders, confident that he would not betray her wishes.

But she was long gone when Hussain exercised his right to alter the existing succession order.

In 1998, Hassan was summarily dismissed, even if much of the progress achieved in Jordan on a slew of tough issues — ranging from respect for human rights to the drive towards democratisation — owed much to Hassan's slow and painstaking efforts.

Queen Zayn saw to it that Hussain appointed Hassan in 1990 to lead a royal commission representing the entire spectrum of Jordanian political thought to draft a national charter which, along with the Jordanian constitution, served as guidelines for democratic institutionalisation and political pluralism.

She also saw to it that the monarchy matured under Hussain, but with Hassan's diligence and, to a certain extent, by Princess Basmah's innumerable social activities that ensured that Jordanian women were adequately protected in what was a paternalistic culture.

Though she did not live to witness Hussain's dramatic last-moment machinations, the late queen would have approved of Hussain's choice, even if her own preferences were to pursue a far more orderly succession pattern.

Notwithstanding this pick, it would be safe to conclude that Queen Zayn shaped contemporary monarchical affairs like no other Jordanian personality, with the sole exception of the founder King Faisal I.

Dr Joseph A. Kechichian is an author, most recently of Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008.

This article is the tenth in a series, which will appear on the second Friday of each month, on Arab leaders who greatly influenced political affairs in the Middle East.

A lady of calibre

Zayn Al Sharaf Bint Jamil was born in Egypt on August 2, 1916, and passed away in Amman on April 26, 1994.

She was the strongest pillar of the Hashemite Jordanian monarchy and is remembered for her pioneering efforts in charitable work and her support for women's rights.

The late queen mother married King Talal Bin Abdullah in 1934, to whom she bore four sons and two daughters.

Hussain, Mohammad, Hassan and Basmah survived.
Queen Zayn created the first women's union in Jordan in 1944 and took part in the writing of the 1952 constitution that gave full political rights to women.

Her political instincts and courage allowed her to successfully fill a constitutional vacuum after the assassination of King Abdullah in 1951, while she helped nurse a debilitated King Talal.

She again performed this role in the period between August 1952, when King Hussain was proclaimed monarch, and May 1953, when he finally assumed his constitutional duties at the age of 18.

An active, behind-the-scenes adviser, she guided family members through many difficulties, earning the ‘queen mother' epithet with distinction.