King Hussein

The life and struggles of King Hussein of Jordan, from the assassination of his grandfather to the rise of the PLO. King Hussein of Jordan: Survival Of A Dynasty is the first in a two-part series telling the story of Jordan's monarch from 1952 to his death in 1999. Hussein was just 15 when, in July 1951, his grandfather, King Abdullah I, the founder of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman at the gate of al-Aqsa Mosque in eastern Jerusalem. Hussein witnessed the assassination, and in a radio interview later in his life described how it impacted him and his understanding of the dangers - as well as the responsibilities - facing a monarch.

This book examines the most turbulent period in the history of Jordan's ruling house, the six years following the assassination of the kingdom's founder, Abdullah (1951-1957). Those years witnessed the country's lone episode of weak monarchy, when the king–the novice Hussein or his ill-starred father, Talal–was not the preeminent political actor in the land. Rather, it was during that time at the regime was left in the hands of a mix of Palestinian, Transjordanian, and Circassian royalists who had never before wielded executive authority inside the kingdom. Based on exclusive interviews and newly released archival resources, this book traces the only two royal successions in Jordanian history: the eleven-month reign of the little-known Talal, and the early years of King Hussein.