Talal of Jordan

Talal bin Abdullah was born in Mecca in 1909, eldest son of the man who would become Jordan's first king. His father Abdullah spent long stretches away building the Emirate of Transjordan, leaving Talal alone with his mother through his early years. He joined the Arab Legion as a second lieutenant in 1927, then served as aide to his exiled grandfather Sharif Hussein in Cyprus, rising to general by 1948. When Abdullah was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1951, Talal became king at forty-two. His reign lasted less than thirteen months, but he left Jordan with its enduring constitutional framework, turning the monarchy into a constitutional one in 1952. That same year Parliament forced his abdication on grounds of mental illness. He lived out the remaining two decades at a sanatorium in Istanbul, succeeded by his son Hussein.