Abdullah II King Of Jordan.

Abdullah II was born on January 30, 1962 in Amman, Jordan to King Hussein and his British second wife, Princess Muna Al Hussein formerly Antoinette Avril Gardner. His parents divorced in December 1971. He attended primary school at St Edmund’s School in England and Eaglebrook School in the US, then high school at Deerfield Academy. He later studied at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst with temporary postings in Germany. At Pembroke College, Oxford and the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, he enrolled but did not graduate.

Abdullah II pursued a full-time military career, rising to Major General by 1994. Although his uncle Prince Hassan was the long-standing crown prince, a cancer-stricken King Hussein named Abdullah heir on January 24, 1999. His father died on February 7, 1999, and Abdullah II was proclaimed King. He quickly appointed a new government and banned the Hamas movement, deporting its leaders. In 2002, he closed an Al Jazeera bureau for critical coverage. He sought to improve ties with Western nations and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia after Jordan’s earlier support for Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. In 1995, he also made a cameo on the TV series Star Trek: Voyager as a Science Division officer.

Abdullah II married Rania Al-Yassin on June 10, 1993. Rania was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents in 1970 and earned a business degree from the American University in Cairo in 1991. The couple has four children: Crown Prince Hussein born June 28, 1994, Princess Iman born September 27, 1996, Princess Salma born September 26, 2000, and Prince Hashem born January 30, 2005. Queen Rania received the honorary rank of colonel in the Jordanian Armed Forces on June 9, 2004. Abdullah II has ten siblings, including half-siblings from his father’s other marriages.

Abdullah II acted as a stabilizing monarch in a volatile region and engaged in diplomatic outreach to both the West and the Arab world. He has been awarded more than 40 state honors, including the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath UK and the Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum Japan. His cameo on Star Trek: Voyager remains a unique cultural footnote. His wife Rania’s humanitarian work through the Jordan River Foundation has also shaped public perception of the monarchy.