The Prince Hussein does not only represent the future of Jordan, the new, young, modern face of the royal family. One day he will lead one of the most important nations for the fragile balance of the Middle East. The heir to the throne has arrived on the international public scene in small steps, expertly guided by his parents, King Abdullah of Jordan and Queen Rania. His impeccable and reassuring image has been forged on discretion, elegance and a high sense of dignity. The prince places himself in an apparently perfect balance between the West and the Arab-Islamic world. Proud of his identity, of his ancestral roots but, at the same time, open to the world. At the moment the figure of Hussein does not exert, on the Western public, the same fascination as those of William and Harry. This lack would seem to be due more than anything to a lack of knowledge of this interesting character and, from a certain point of view, even by the Islamic religion, seen almost as a cultural obstacle, rather than a normal difference.
The Hashemite Dynasty
Prince Hussein of Jordan is one of the heirs of an ancient dynasty, the Hashemite one, which is said to descend from the great-grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad, Hashim ibn abd Manaf. The latter also gave his name to the clan of the Banu Hashim, (that is, “The Sons of Hashim”), which belonged to the large and powerful Meccan tribe of the Quraysh (from which, of course, Muhammad himself descended). Hashim’s great-grandfather, Qusayy ibn Kilab, was a very important figure in the history of Mecca and the entire Arabian Peninsula: in fact, he managed to reunite the Quraysh into a single tribe and to reorganize the pre-Islamic cult of the Ka’ba, making it the center of the religious, social and economic life of the Mecca. According to tradition, Hashim would be the descendant of Abraham through the latter’s first son, Ishmael, born of the slave Hagar. An important detail: no male child of Muhammad survived him: therefore the lineage we are talking about has as a fundamental link the prophet’s daughter, Fatima, who in 622 married her father’s cousin Ali (that is, the fourth caliph, from 656 to 661 and the first imam for the Shiites).
A sporty prince
Crown Prince Hussein, the eldest son of Rania and Abdallah, was born in Amman on 28 June 1994 and takes his name from his grandfather, King Hussein of Jordan (1935-1999). In 2016 he graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in International History and in September 2017 he completed training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and is a second lieutenant in the Jordanian Armed Forces. His passions include football, music (the prince plays the guitar), motorbikes, helicopters (Hussein made his first solo flight in 2018, as Emirates Woman recalls) and extreme sports. On his Instagram profile, which has more than five million followers, you can see him aboard aircraft, while climbing the Wadi Mujib gorge, hiking in the desert and training by boxing.
Heir to the throne of Jordan
July 2, 2009 King Abdullah He awarded Hussein, then 15, the title of Crown Prince. In reality, the young man was not intended for this role. In 1965, King Hussein named his younger brother Hassan as his heir, but on 24 January 1999, a few weeks before his death, he changed his mind and granted the title to his son Abdullah. Hussein, however, asked Abdullah to appoint Prince Hamzah, his son with his fourth and final wife, Queen Noor, as his successor. However, on 28 November 2004, King Abdullah stripped his half-brother Hamza of the title of Crown Prince. The role remained vacant until 2009, at least in theory, since under the laws governing succession to the Jordanian throne, the sovereign’s first-born male child is automatically heir to the throne. In November 2004, therefore, the young Hussein became heir apparent in all respects, but was officially invested with the title in 2009.
Hussein at the UN
The Prince made his first public engagement on 10 June 2010 when, representing his father, he took part in the ceremony marking the anniversary of the Arab Revolt (1916-1918). He has acted as Regent on several occasions. On 14 July 2014, he visited the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, where many Palestinians who had fled from Gaza. The Crown Prince manages the Crown Prince Foundation, created in 2015 to support Jordanian children also through scientific projects. The foundation, in fact, provides the possibility of internships at NASA and initiatives for the development of aerospace technology. On April 23 of the same year, Hussein also achieved a first: he is the youngest person to have ever chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council. Regarding his participation, the then Secretary General of the United Nations, quoted by the Daily Mail, said: “He is not yet twenty-one but he is already a leader of the twenty-first century”. In May 2017, Hussein delivered a welcoming address at a working session of the World Economic Forum in Jordan. On July 19, 2021, he accompanied King Abdullah and Queen Rania to the White House.
A love story away from the spotlight
On June 1, 2023, at Zahran Palace (Amman), Hussein married Saudi architect Rajwa al-Saif. The new princess was born in Riyadh on April 28, 1994, graduated with honors from Syracuse University and is the daughter of businessman Khaled al-Saif, CEO of the construction company al-Saif Group, who passed away last February. “I met Rajwa through a mutual friend from school days”Prince Hussein revealed in an interview with Vogue Arabia, in May 2023. “I consider myself lucky, because you don’t meet a person like Rajwa every day.” We do not know, however, which school the heir to the throne is referring to, nor do we know any further details of this love story, apart from the official dates: on 17 August 2022, the Royal Palace announced the official engagement of the young people, celebrated with a reception held at Rajwa’s family home in Riyadh. On 19 October 2022, People reports, the princess took part in her first public engagement with her fiancé, a visit to the exhibition dedicated to the history of Hashemite Jordan, organized at the Royal Hashemite Court. On 31 December 2022, the Royal Palace in Amman announced the wedding of Hussein and Rajwa. On 8 March 2023, at Zahran Palace, the future bride attended the henna party (a sort of hen party) in honor of Princess Iman, second daughter of King Abdullah and the Queen Rania. On March 12, 2023, Rajwa was present at Iman’s wedding. Finally, on May 22, 2023, again at Zahran Palace, Rania also organized a henna party for her future daughter-in-law.
The marriage between fairy tale and politics
Rajwa al-Saif descends, on her mother’s side, from the al-Sudayri clan, to which also belonged Hassa bint Ahmed al-Sudayri (1900-1969), the mother of the current ruler of Saudi Arabia, Salman. Hassa was the wife of Abd al-Aziz al-Saud, the founder and first King of modern Saudi Arabia. It is clear that, beyond the fairytale wedding, there is a fundamental political aspect to consider: the union between the two, in fact, represents the consolidation of the alliance between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, that is, between the country guardian of the Muslim tradition, cradle of Islam and the dynasty that boasts descent from the prophet Muhammad. Not to mention that Jordan remains one of the most stable nations in the Middle East and most moderate, balanced towards the West, especially with regards to religion. Let us not forget a very important fact: since 1924, the Hashemite dynasty has held the role of custodian of the Christian and Muslim holy sites of Jerusalem. In a certain sense, the political alliance between the Saudi royal family and the Hashemite family is also counterbalanced by a sort of religious rivalry, so to speak, based on the prestige of the two dynasties in the Muslim world.
Princess Iman
On April 10, 2024, the Hashemite court announced the arrival of the princes’ first child Hussein And Rajwa. On August 3, at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, Princess Iman bint al-Hussein was born (Iman means “faith” and is the same as the second daughter of King Abdullah and Queen Rania). Together with the official statement, a video was published in which Prince Hussein holds the newborn in his arms and, as per tradition, whispers the Islamic profession of faith in her right ear: “There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” On August 19, 2024, the Crown Prince posted a photo on Instagram of himself cradling Iman. In the caption, he wrote in Arabic: “The sweetest morning before (going) to work” and then, in English: “With my darling.”
With this image, Prince Hussein shows himself to be a loving father, also disproving the common belief that all Muslim men are exclusively interested in male lineage.