Today marks the 36th anniversary of the death of King Talal, who ruled the country for approximately one year. In a country where only 4 kings ruled for more than 60 years, I think we should get to learn more about him.A very good reason he's not mentioned too often is the fact that he didn't rule Jordan for more than eleven months, until he was removed the Parliament. Yes, believe it or not we had a Jordanian Parliament in 1952 that was able to end the reign of the king, although to be realistic it wasn't solely their own decision.
But what makes his rule very remarkable is that he came up with the most important foundation of any country: the constitution. Another shocker: in 1952 the Jordanian constitution was more progressive and used to guarantee more civil rights than it does today.
Why was King Talal removed? According to Time Magazine on its August 16, 1952 edition, it was schizophrenia. Although I tend to believe in some conspiracy theories and sometimes make some of my own, I tend to doubt that he was removed because he was just "too nice" or "too friendly". He was probably mentally ill. He was sent to Switzerland for treatment and died there 20 years after he was deposed. Some people claimed that he imprisoned against his will.
I'm still surprised how can a mentally unstable person come up with a constitution? Does it say in other words that you have to be mentally unstable to write a progressive constitution for a Middle Eastern or Arab country?
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12 comments:
الله يرحمه!
LOL @ the last comment!
Allah yir7amo.
Off topic shwayy as usual, I love this sort of posts, you'd be shocked at the level of ignorance Jordanians have regarding their not so very long gone history, aw 7atta present, most Jordanians have no clue how many cities there are in Jordan, and 90% of them wouldn't know that our independence day is on the 25th of may if they didn't HAVE TO study that bil thaqafeh il 3ammeh bil tawjihi w lawinno mish 3otleh!
I realy doubt that his sickness forced the Parliament to make him resign, I heard that his Wife forced the Parliament and brought King Hussien to replace him. Atleast thats what people say.
summer.. t33eshi
khouloud, we do not know much about our own history , and part of it is that we were not taught history very well.
Ali, I've heard that as well, but it's all rumors.
one of his personalities must've been smart.
That is something that really annoys me. Jordanians do not know their history as well as people from other countries. Its not our fault, and the government is to be blamed for the ridiculous history curriculum given to our young.
Anyways, regarding the subject, I heard that there is quite a lot written about his late majesty on the website arabtimes.com, it's not necessarily true, but it's a shame that the website is blocked by the government.
Cheers.
Alla yer7amo ou yer7amna. I was visiting the royal court last week and I was wondering why he was deposed!
I actually did not know that fact about the Constitution..shame on us really. People are supposed to move forward, not backwards.
And LOL @ the last comment...I guess so!
I heard he had gambling problems which his grandson has unfortunately inherited (please not the sarcasm, yet truth in this comment)
You've said it all,
I've heard my share of stories about him,and I don't know..I'm not buying the whole Schizophrenia thing, on the other hand, i know 1st hand that a Schizophrenic can function almost fully normally if on medication, and the earlier its discovered the more likely to function normally .so i guess we'll never know wut happened exactly .but he was a good man & must be remembered .
i adrore him ..allah yer7amo ,,maybe "too nice" as u said is not what we need !!
To anonymous: Thought your 'gambling' comment was unnecessary and brought no value-added. No sarcasm here either, just an opinion.
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