Marlene Wagman-Geller

       Sultan Shahrayar, enraged at his first wife’s betrayal, married a virgin each night and had her beheaded in the morning so he would never again be deceived. To escape a similar fate, on her wedding night to the king, Scheherazade wove a fantastical tale that ended with a cliffhanger. A curious Shahrayar thus postponed her execution. After a thousand and one nights, the king fell in love, and they lived a happily ever after. Scheherazade’s stories, The Arabian Nights, included “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp,” “Ali Baba and the Seven Thieves,” the “Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.” Equally fantastic is the tale of a contemporary Persian princess. 

       Holding onto high school yearbooks might be a good idea as the photograph next to yours could be of a future celebrity. At least that was the case with Lisa Najeeb Halaby. Her mother, Doris, was of Swedish descent, her father, Najeeb, had Syrian roots. He earned a degree in law, and President Kennedy appointed him the CEO of the United States Civil Aviation Authority; he later became the chairman of Pan Am Airlines. Along with her younger siblings, Christian and Alexa, Lisa spent her childhood in affluent zip codes in California, New York, and Washington, D.C., ski trips to Austria and Switzerland, vacations in Greece and the south of France. The peripatetic lifestyle was difficult for Lisa; extremely shy, she always felt like an outsider. The fact that she wore Coke-bottle glasses and felt unable to live up to Najeeb’s exacting standards worsened her self-esteem. Nevertheless, she admired her father and was incensed with a Washington newspaper column, “What is a Najeeb Elias Halaby: animal, vegetable or mineral?”  Of her childhood legacy, Lisa stated, “To the day I die, I won’t feel adequate.” Her education included a trio of elite schools: the National Cathedral School in Washington, D. C., the Chapin School in New York, and the Concord Academy in Boston. The awkward duckling grew into a statuesque swan whose hobbies included skiing and traveling.

      When Princeton first admitted women, Lisa enrolled as an undergraduate, but in her sophomore year dropped out and headed to Aspen where she worked as a waitress to support her “ski-bum” lifestyle. Several months later, she returned to the university and graduated with a B.A. in architecture and urban planning. Her career began with a position in Australia, followed by a job in an Iranian company. Lisa toyed with the idea of joining the Peace Corps or enrolling in a master’s program in journalism at Columbia University; however, she ended up following in her father’s aviation and ancestral footsteps by moving to the Middle East. In Amman, Lisa worked as an interior designer for ALIA, the Royal Jordanian Airline. Her residence was the InterContinental Hotel where Lisa shocked employees by wearing her cut-off clothing and by greeting her businessman boyfriend with a passionate public embrace.

        Najeeb oversaw the delivery of the company’s first Boeing 747 jumbo jet, and he brought along his daughter for the official ceremony in which she met King Hussein. The royal took Lisa out for a lunch that lasted several hours, and for the next six weeks, they dined together every evening. Other dates involved watching Peter Sellers videos, riding on his motorcycle, hanging out at his palace. They made an odd couple: Lisa was several inches taller, sixteen years younger, and an American - Christian. Despite their differences, the king proposed to the beautiful blonde Princeton grad.

         Although head-over-heels in love, Lisa harbored trepidation that at age twenty-six she would be marrying a palace dwelling playboy with three former wives; his first two marriages had ended in divorce, and his third, Alia, had perished in a helicopter crash. Tying the knot would entail becoming a stepmother to eight children, and security guards would be ever present. Hussein had survived several assassination attempts; at age eleven, he had witnessed the murder of his father, King Abdullah. Another impediment would be living in a country where wives walked several steps behind their husbands. Equally daunting, there would be great expectations to be the consort of Hussein, a Hashemite-a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. King Hussein, a persistent suitor, wooed her by moves such as crooning the Abba lyric, “Take a chance on me.” Eighteen days later, Lisa accepted his proposal, and the world viewed her as his future trophy queen.

     In 1978, Lisa Halaby wed Hussein bin Talal in an understated ceremony in Zahran Palace, the residence of the king’s mother. The bride wore a simple white silk wedding gown by Christian Dior, and her diamond bracelet and diamond earrings sparkled. Noor was the only woman present as dictated by Koranic law. In their wedding photograph, the couple sat on a damask settee inlaid with mother of pearl, flanked by King Hussein’s brothers. In contrast, the reception was lavish and included 500 guests who called out “Mabruk” (congratulations). One of the well-wishers was Doris, recently separated from Najeeb-Lisa had begged them to separate a year earlier due to marital tensions. Committed to her new role, Lisa instructed her mother to call her Noor. In the lavish affair, soft drinks substituted for champagne, also in accordance with Islamic law. The royal couple cut their seventy-tier wedding cake with a golden Hashemite sword. At last, on their own-except with their security detail-they drove off in the king’s silver Mercedes 600 limousine, to the accompaniment of cheers from a crowd of several hundred gathered at the palace gate. King Hussein and Queen Noor spent their honeymoon at the Red Sea Resort of Aqaba, Jordan, and they also spent a few days in Scotland.

       Just as legend holds King Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in his desert kingdom for Queen Amytis who missed the lush landscape of her homeland, Hussein created for his wife a palace ski lift, replete with artificial snow and an artificial slope. When Hussein returned home from his office at Basman Palace, they would go on spins on one of his B.M.W. motorcycles. Lisa rode on back, and they had helmets that allowed them to communicate.

       In an era when Western women were fighting for equal rights, Lisa trod another path. She had traded the name Lisa for Noor al-Hussein, (Light of Hussein), relinquished her American citizenship for a Jordanian one, and converted from the Protestant faith to Islam. The queen referred to her husband as “Your Majesty” and readily admitted that she adjusted her schedule and habits to suit the king’s needs.

    Determined not to be a self-effacing royal figurehead, the Queen championed several causes such as the rights for women and an end to honor killings. She is staunchly pro-Palestinian, a trait shared with her Jordanian relatives who refer to the 1948 birth of Israel as the “year of the catastrophe.” Her fairy tale mystique is catnip for cameras, and the press covered her meetings with celebrities such as Nelson Mandela and Sting. President Carter included Lisa on the White House guest list, and she entertained Queen Elizabeth II and the Sultan of Brunei. An international jetsetter, Lisa spent time in her other residences: the ten-acre estate on the Potomac, until its purchase by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, and at her home in Windsor, England. Early on in her marriage, Queen Noor learned to be wary of the press. When an American journalist asked whether she planned to have children, she replied, “If God wills.” In response, People Magazine entitled an article, “A Blue-Jeaned American in Jordan Says of Her King, “I’d Be Delighted to Have His Child.” The couple had two sons, Hamzah, named for the prophet Mohammad’s uncle, and Hashem, as well as daughters, Iman and Raiyah; the couple raised their children in Bab al Salaam Palace, “the Door of Peace Palace.” Their home included a menagerie of pets: a panther, a gazelle, and Jazz, a black Labrador, a gift from the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In 2020, Princess Raiyah married famous author Roald Dahl’s grandson in the United Kingdom. In a nod to irony, the palace did not always live up to its name of the Door of Peace. Many Jordanians viewed the foreign-born consort as “the king’s CIA wife,” and were appalled when she posed for a magazine sitting astride one of her husband’s Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Critics condemned her lavish spending and called her Jordan’s Imelda Marcos. After Hussein forgot her birthday, she “picked up something I hoped would smash” and it crashed against a door. There were also rumors of Hussein’s infidelities, one purported with Rana Najem, liaisons he vehemently denied. And outside the palace doors hovered the ever-present violence of the Middle East. 

      In 1999, King Hussein passed away from lymphatic cancer, and his grief-stricken widow attended his funeral although doing so flew in the face of tradition. His death ascertained there would still be even less peace in the palace. A feud erupted between King Abdullah and Hamzah and officials accused Hamzah of “attempting to destabilize Jordan’s security.” Hamzah released a video claiming he was under house (palace) arrest and maintained his innocence. The queen, caught in the crossfire between her stepson Abdullah and her son Hamzah issued a statement that her son was the victim of “wicked slander.” Lisa’s consolation is her husband did not witness the Cain and Abel in-fighting.  The decision to become Queen Noor is encapsulated in the title of her autobiography, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life.