King Talal bin Abdullah (1909-1972)
King Talal bin Abdullah assumed the throne shortly after the martyrdom of King Abdullah on July 20, 1951. The main political question confronting the country's leaders was the succession to the throne. The country appeared to have successfully survived the crisis caused by the assassination of King Abdullah and to have emerged into waters as calm as can be hoped for in this part of the world.
Talal's troubled relationship with his father led Emir Abdullah to remove him from the line of succession in a secret royal decree during World War II. Subsequently, their relationship improved after the Second World War and Talal was publicly declared heir apparent by the Emir. Tension between Emir Abdullah and then-Prince Talal continued, however, after Talal had been "compiling huge, unexplainable debts".
By 1950 King Abdullah was again convinced that Talal was unfit to succeed him and considered handing the succession to his nephew King Faisal of Iraq [who was overthrown in 1958, with Saddam subsequently assuming power]. Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British Ambassador who had been resident in the Jordanian capital Amman since 1927, reported back to London in December 1950: "The King revived the question of excluding Talal from the succession. I am rather against the idea because Talal, although neurotic, is intelligent, while Naif is anything but and is, in addition, tainted with smuggling and other activities unsuited to the heir to the throne."
Abdullah's second son, Prince Naif, acted temporarily as regent, and some support existed for his accession to the throne. Soon enough, Prince Naif began openly expressing his designs on the throne for himself. Naif's older brother, Prince Talal, was in Switzerland receiving treatment for a mental illness [diagnosed as schizophrenia]. In the months preceeding his accession, Talal had twice tried to murder his own wife, and had been found torturing his ten-year-old son Muhammad, in the belief that the boy knew of a plot to assassinate him. British diplomats had assisted in hustling him out of the country for psychiatric treatment, and he was in a mental hospital in Geneva when he became king.
It was widely believed that Abdullah would have favored Talal so that the succession might then pass more easily to Talal's son, Hussein. Accordingly, the government invited Talal to return and assume the duties of king. Aside from the physical and mental strain which he underwent in connection with his return and assumption of office, he has been obliged to receive countless deputations of Jordanians of all degrees, as well as official delegations from Iraq, Syria and Egypt, with delegations from Saudi-Arabia and Lebanon on the horizon. He was seemingly completely normal and quite his old self. He is naturally a timid, soft-spoken and almost self-effacing person.
If the King had retained any trace of abnormal mental condition, it was certainly not apparent to the untrained eye. Many visitors who had seen him have all gained the same impression. People who had seen him together with Queen Zain and their children found them a happily reunited and normal family displaying every indication of deep mutual affection.
The assumption of the throne by Talal and his apparent restoration to good health continued to be well received by the Jordan public. The King himself seems to be doing very well indeed. He has carried off his royal functions with all the aplomb and dignity which he inherited from his late father. He is reliably reported to want to withdraw as much as possible from intervention in the internal political affairs of the country and to rule as a constitutional Monarch. This would fit in with the constitutional changes proposed by the Prime Minister in his address to Parliament on 19 September 1951.
During his short reign, Talal promulgated a new Constitution in January 1952. Talal showed an inclination to improve relations with other Arab states, and Jordan joined the Arab League's Collective Security Pact, which Abdullah had rejected. During his tenure, King Talal did much to further the previously strained relations between Jordan and Saudi Arabia and Egypt. He was also largely responsible for the development of a new, liberalized constitution. This document made the government collectively, and the ministers individually, responsible before parliament and was ratified on January 1, 1952. Talal was popular among the people of the East Bank, who were not aware of his periodic seizures of mental illness.
Immediately after Talal returned, an incident occurred which gave rise momentarily to fear that his mental recovery might not have been complete. The night of September 7, his brother, Prince Naif, appeared at the Italian Hospital to request asylum, alleging that Talal had threatened his life. This blew over in a day or so and apparently arose from some intrigue on the part of the two Turkish Princes, cousins of Prince Naif, who arrived in Amman shortly after Naif assumed the Regency. Evidently they persuaded Naif that Talal was gunning for him and that his life was in danger. It is quite understandable that Talal was not pleased with Naif when he learned that his younger brother was party to the plot to seize the throne. Reportedly he had refused to speak to Naif. Subsequently, however, Naif’s wife, Princess Sultana, through Queen Zain, was able to effect a reconciliation between the brothers and they are known to have gone to the Mosque to pray together on September 12.
A royal decree named Hussein as Crown Prince and successor to the throne. While this act was not required under the constitution, it would have the result of clarifying the situation and making it more difficult for the royal succession to be placed in question in the event of Talal’s death or incompetency.
But the king's condition steadily worsened, and in August the prime minister recommended to a secret session of the Jordanian legislature that Talal be asked to abdicate in favor of Hussein. Talal abdicated the throne less than a year later, on August 11, 1952, in favor of his eldest son Hussein, the heir apparent. Talal was sick inmind and spirit and so weakhe had to be carted in awheel chair. Rumor had it that venereal germs had infected his brain. Talal acceded to the abdication order with dignity and retired to a villa near Istanbul, where he lived quietly until his death in 1972. The smoothness with which the reins of power were transferred through Abdullah, Talal and Hussein was remarkable, indicating the extent to which King Abdullah had succeeded in putting the Jordanian monarchy in constitutional order.
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