Abdullah II of Jordan Biography

Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is the 41st direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad and the present king of Jordan. He belongs to the Royal Hashemite family, the rulers of Jordan since 1920s, and took the throne from his father, Hussein. Abdullah studied in England for sometime before starting his career with British military. Some family disputes took the claim of the throne from his uncle Hassan and keeping in mind Abdullah’s military experience, he was deemed as suitable heir to the throne. And rightly so, under his reign, which started in 1999, Jordan opened up to economic reforms and has since shown a remarkable economic and social development. However, the great recession affected Jordan hard and resulted into a cut of petroleum supplies and trades with western countries, for which Abdullah received a widespread criticism from his own countrymen along with the neighbouring countries, which led to several civil wars in many countries. Abdullah, being a people’s king, acted immediately and took the revolutionary step of introducing reforms which led to formation of a new government in 2011. Abdullah is widely admired for being the most influential Muslim in the world and for maintaining peace and stability in his country. His approach to promote interfaith dialogue has made him one of the most admired Muslim leaders in the world.