Queen Noor of Jordan: how the US-born royal became a respected symbol of ‘grace, style and courage’ in the Middle Eastern kingdom
- Lisa Halaby was wealthy, ‘extremely well-educated, highly intelligent, strikingly beautiful’ and met King Hussein after the death of his third wife Queen Alia
- After their marriage, she converted to Islam, perfected her Arabic and gained a Jackie Kennedy-like aura that she has held ever since Hussein’s death in 1999
At age 27, she married a king. By 47, sooner than she had thought possible, she was a royal widow.
Now, more than two decades later, Jordan’s Queen Noor – the American-born, Princeton-educated former Lisa Halaby – is caught up in a palace drama surrounding her eldest son, the prince she had hoped would eventually follow his charismatic father, the late King Hussein, onto the throne of the Hashemite Kingdom (a name that signifies Jordanians’ direct descent from the family of the prophet Mohammed).
Whether lifted from Shakespeare or simply the next feature in the streaming queue, the plotline is familiar: the circumstances of a royal death reverberate down the years, family tensions simmer quietly for a generation, before a very public eruption.
Add in a succession shake-up, a one-time outsider’s complicated relationship with her adopted homeland, the long memories of watchful courtiers – plus a dash of international intrigue and some convoluted Middle Eastern politics.
And at the centre of it all, a love story …
“She was extremely well-educated, highly intelligent, strikingly beautiful – it’s not at all surprising that King Hussein fell head over heels,” said Avi Shlaim, an Oxford University professor emeritus of international relations and author of a biography on the Jordanian monarch.