Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan

• Abdullah II of Jordan - Wikipedia.
• King Abdullah II Official Website.

Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein (Arabic: الملك عبد الله الثاني بن الحسين‎, al-Malik ʿAbdullāh aṯ-ṯānī bin al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is the reigning King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He ascended the throne on 7 February 1999 upon the death of his father King Hussein. King Abdullah, whose mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein, is a member of the Hashemite family. Since 1993, Abdullah has been married to Queen Rania of Jordan.

Abdullah was born in Amman to King Hussein of Jordan during his marriage to British-born Princess Muna al-Hussein (born Antoinette Avril Gardiner). He was the king's eldest son and as such he was heir apparent to the throne of Jordan under the 1952 constitution. However, due to unstable times in the 1960s, King Hussein decided to appoint his brother, Prince Hassan bin Talal, as his heir.

King Abdullah II attended St Edmund's School, Hindhead, Surrey, before moving on to Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. He joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1980, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and served as a troop commander in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars. In 1982, King Abdullah II attended Pembroke College at Oxford University where he completed a one-year Special Studies course in Middle Eastern Affairs. In 1987, he attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Abdullah would later serve in the Jordanian forces and became Major General in May 1998.

In the 1980s, King Hussein considered arranging for the throne to pass to his brother and then to his son Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, but changed his mind by 1992. He seriously considered appointing one of his nephews as heir, but on his deathbed, on 25 January 1999, he named Abdullah as his heir. On 8 April 2012 Sheikh Nazim declared Abdullah to be Caliph ordering his followers to give allegience to him.

Abdullah became king on 7 February 1999, upon the death of his father King Hussein. Hussein had recently named him Crown Prince on 24 January, changing the constitutions and replacing Hussein's brother Hassan, who had served many years in the position (nearly 34 years, from 1965 to 1999). It is claimed that he is the 43rd-generation direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.[3] He is the namesake of King Abdullah I, his great grandfather who founded modern Jordan.