King Talal

Talal bin Abdullah was born in Mecca and educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England, serving in the Arab Legion during World War II and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Following the tragic assassination of his father King Abdullah I in Jerusalem in July 1951, he ascended the Hashemite throne.

Despite reigning for less than a year, King Talal achieved monumental constitutional reform. He promulgated the landmark Constitution of January 1, 1952, which made the Prime Minister and cabinet collectively responsible to the elected parliament rather than the monarch alone, and made primary education compulsory and free for all Jordanian children before medical illness forced his abdication in favor of his son Hussein.