| Noor | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Noor in 2011 | |||||
| Queen consort of Jordan | |||||
| Tenure | June 15, 1978 – February 7, 1999 | ||||
| Born | Lisa Najeeb Halaby (1951-08-23)August 23, 1951 (age 74) Washington, D.C., U.S. | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | |||||
| |||||
| Father | Najeeb Halaby | ||||
| Mother | Doris Carlquist | ||||
| Jordanian royal family |
|---|
 |
| Extended royal family |
Haya and others |
Muna and others Princess Muna
|
Alia |
Firyal and others |
Basma |
Nayef and others
|
Noor Al Hussein (Arabic:نور الحسين; bornLisa Najeeb Halaby; August 23, 1951)[1] is an American-born Jordanian philanthropist and activist who was the fourth wife and widow ofKing Hussein of Jordan. She wasQueen of Jordan from their marriage on June 15, 1978, untilHussein's death on February 7, 1999.
Noor is the longest-standing member of the Board of Commissioners of theInternational Commission on Missing Persons. As of 2023, she is president of theUnited World Colleges movement and an advocate of the anti-nuclear weapons proliferation campaignGlobal Zero. In 2015, Queen Noor receivedPrinceton University'sWoodrow Wilson Award for her public service.[2]
Queen Noor was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby[3] inWashington, D.C., U.S., the eldest child ofNajeeb Halaby (1915–2003) and Doris Carlquist (1918–2015). Her paternal family isSyrian; her maternal family isSwedish American.[4] Her father was raised aChristian Scientist and was a Navy experimental test pilot, an airline executive, and government official. He served as an aide to theUnited States Secretary of Defense in theTruman administration, before being appointed by PresidentJohn F. Kennedy to head theFederal Aviation Administration. Najeeb Halaby also had a private-sector career, serving as CEO ofPan American World Airways from 1969 to 1972. The Halabys had two children following Lisa; a son, Christian, and a younger daughter, Alexa. The children were raised nominallyEpiscopalian. Najeeb and Doris divorced in 1977.[5] Doris, who was ofSwedish descent, died on December 25, 2015, aged 97.[6]
Noor's paternal grandfather was Najeeb Elias Halaby, a Syrian-Lebanese businessman born inZahle, and whose parents hailed fromAleppo.[7][8][9] He was apetroleumbroker, according to 1920 Census records.[10] MerchantStanley Marcus recalled that in the mid-1920s, Halaby opened Halaby Galleries, a rug boutique and interior-decorating shop, atNeiman Marcus inDallas,Texas, and ran it with his Texas-born wife, Laura Wilkins (1889–1987, later Mrs. Urban B. Koen). Najeeb Halaby died shortly afterward, and his estate was unable to continue the new enterprise.[11]
According to research done in 2010 for the PBS seriesFaces of America by ProfessorHenry Louis Gates Jr., of Harvard University, her great-grandfather, Elias Halaby, came to New York circa 1891, one of the earliest Syrian-Lebanese immigrants to the United States. He was a Christian as well as having been a provincial treasurer (magistrate)[12] as stated before by Najeeb Halaby in his autobiographyCrosswinds: an Airman's Memoir.[7] He left Ottoman Syria with his two eldest sons. His wife, Almas Mallouk, and their remaining children joined him in the United States in 1894. He died three years later, leaving his teenage sons, Habib, and Najeeb (her paternal grandfather), to run his import business. Najeeb moved to Dallas around 1910 and fully assimilated into U.S. society.[13]
Halaby attended schools in New York and California before enteringNational Cathedral School inWashington, D.C. from fourth to eighth grade. She attended theChapin School inNew York City for two years,[14] and then went on to graduate fromConcord Academy.
She enteredPrinceton University with its firstcoeducational freshman class and received an A.B. inarchitecture andurban planning in 1974 after completing a 32-page long senior thesis titled "96th Street and Second Avenue."[15][16] She was also a member of Princeton's first women'sice hockey team.[17]
After she graduated from Princeton, Halaby moved to Australia, where she worked for a firm that specialized in planning new towns, with a burgeoning interest in theMiddle East. Because of Halaby's Syrian roots, this had special appeal for her. After a year, in 1975, she accepted a job offer from Llewelyn Davies, a British architectural and planning firm, which had been employed to design a model capital city center inTehran, Iran. When increasing political instability forced the company to relocate to the UK, she traveled to the Arab world and decided to apply toColumbia University's Graduate School of Journalism while taking a temporary aviation facility research job in Amman. Eventually, she left Arab Air and accepted a job withAlia Airlines to become Director of Facilities Planning and Design. Halaby and the king became friends while he was still mourning the death ofhis third wife. Their friendship evolved and the couple became engaged in 1978.[1]
Halaby wed King Hussein on June 15, 1978, inAmman, becoming Queen of Jordan.[18]
Before her marriage, she accepted her husband'sSunni Islamic religion and upon the marriage, changed her name from Lisa Halaby to the royal nameNoor Al Hussein ("Light of Hussein"). The wedding was a traditional Muslim ceremony. Noor assumed management of the royal household and three stepchildren,Princess Haya bint Al Hussein,Prince Ali bin Al Hussein andAbir Muhaisen (her husband's children by Queen Alia).[1] Noor and Hussein had four children:
Queen Noor founded the King Hussein Foundation (KHF) in 1979. It includes the Noor Al Hussein Foundation and eight specialized development institutions: the Jubilee Institute, the Information and Research Center, the National Music Conservatory, the National Center for Culture and Arts and the Institute for Family Health, the Community Development Program, Tamweelcom the Jordan Micro Credit Company and the Islamic microfinance company, Ethmar. She is the Honorary Chairperson of JOrchestra. In addition, Queen Noor launched a youth initiative, the International Arab Youth Congress, in 1980.[19]
Queen Noor's international work focuses on environmental issues and the connection to human security with emphasis on water and ocean health. At the 2017 Our Ocean Conference, she delivered a keynote address on the link between climate change and ocean health with human security.[20] Queen Noor is Patron of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Founding and Emeritus President of BirdLife International, Trustee Emeritus of Conservation International, and an Ocean Elder.[21] She was also chair of King Hussein Foundation International, a US non-profit 501(c)(3) which, since 2001, has awarded the King Hussein Leadership Prize. She is the president of the international board, the governing board of international movement for the UWC movement.
She speaks Arabic, English and French.
King Hussein died on February 7, 1999, fromlymphatic cancer. After his death, his first-born son,Abdullah II, became king andHamzah became crown prince. In 2004, Prince Hamzah was unexpectedly stripped of his status as heir designate.[22][23][24] On July 2, 2009, Abdullah named his eldest son as heir-apparent to the throne, thereby ending the previous five years' speculation over his successor.[23]
Noor divides her time among Jordan, the United States (Washington, D.C.) and the United Kingdom (in London and at her country residence, Buckhurst Park, nearWinkfield inBerkshire). She continues to work on behalf of numerous international organizations.[25] She also enjoys skiing, water skiing, tennis, sailing, horseback riding, reading, gardening and photography.[26] She held amateur radio callsign JY1NH, but the license has lapsed.[27]
Jordan:
Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of theOrder of al-Hussein bin Ali[citation needed].png)
Knight of the Order of Military Glory[citation needed]
Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of theSupreme Order of the Renaissance[citation needed]
Knight Grand Cordon of theOrder of the Star of Jordan[citation needed].svg)
Austria:
Grand Star of theOrder of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria[28]
Brunei:
Member First Class of theFamily Order of Laila Utama[citation needed]
Denmark:
Knight of theOrder of the Elephant (1998)[29]
Egypt:
Grand Cross Special Class of theOrder of the Virtues[citation needed]
France:
Grand Cross of theOrder of the Legion of Honour
Italy:
Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Italian Republic[30]
Luxembourg:
Dame Grand Cross of theOrder of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
Spain:
Dame Grand Cross of theOrder of Charles III[31]
Dame Grand Cross of theOrder of Isabella the Catholic[32]
Sweden:
Member of theRoyal Order of the Seraphim[33]
United Kingdom:_ribbon_-vector.svg)
Dame Grand Cross of theOrder of Saint John[34]
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| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by Alia Al-Hussein | Queen consort of Jordan June 15, 1978 – February 7, 1999 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the United World Colleges 1995–present | Incumbent |
 | | ||
1 the only royal consort who was not given the rank of queen | |||
