#the hashemites

[aegeanaesthetics]

Their Majesties King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, HRH Crown Prince Al Hussein, HRH Princess Iman and Mr. Jameel Thermiotis, and HRH Princess Salma with HRH Prince Hashem at his graduation from King’s Academy Madaba, Jordan / 24th May 2023

Source: Queen Rania

[leroibobo]

a carved mother-of-pearl quran box and matching quran depicting al-aqsa mosque from bethlehem, palestine, dating to the 1960s.

mother-of-pearl carving is a traditional craft in bethlehem; said to have been brought over by franciscan monks from italy in the 15th century. the tradition is still going strong today.

[world-of-wales]

OFFICIAL GROUP PORTRAITS OF THE ROYAL WEDDING!

↬ Crown Prince Hussein and Crown Princess Rajwa pose with Royal Hashemite Family Members

↬ Crown Prince Hussein and Crown Princess Rajwa pose with cousins from the Royal Hashemite Family

↬ Crown Prince Hussein and Crown Princess Rajwa pose with Foreign Royals & Dignitaries

[snailwitdamail2]

TO ANY JORDANIANS ON TUMBLR:

There’s going to be a fundraising event for Gaza tomorrow (November 3rd) at Swefieh Village! 12-7 pm! 40+ vendors! Food! If you can come, help support our brothers and sister in Gaza.

[supersaladphilosopher]

AI-generated images of Princess Iman bint Abdullah II of Jordan.

[deadpresidents]

From Adam Mestyan, author of the new book, Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East (BOOK | KINDLE), which probably doesn't sound all that exciting to most of you but I go for the deep tracks when it comes to the history of Arab monarchies. It's fascinating, I promise you.

[leonorplantagenet]

"I do enjoy a good royal wedding" (semicit.)

One of the portraits released on the occasion of the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa of Jordan.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

—

[aegeanaesthetics]

حفل العشاء الذي أقامته جلالة الملكة رانيا العبدالله بمناسبة زفاف الأمير الحسين والآنسة رجوة

عمان، الأردن / 22 أيار 2023

Dinner party held by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah in celebration of Crown Prince Al Hussein and Miss Rajwa Alseif’s upcoming wedding

Amman, Jordan / 22 May 2023

[backtonormallife]

[royalbloopers]

Credit: Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa of Jordan

[bedufairy]

Some fragments of the Iranian missiles that Jordan intercepted fell in kherbat as souk near my grandmother’s house

[ifreakingloveroyals]

Through the Years → Catherine, Princess of Wales (916/∞)

1 June 2023 | Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales attend wedding of Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah of Jordan and Rajwa al Saif at the Zahran Palace in Amman, Jordan. (Photo by Royal Hashemite Court)

[supersaladphilosopher]

AI image of Princess Iman with hair bangs.

[rule-tarlaevski]

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[royallyquestionable]

With just a couple of days to go until the wedding of Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein & Rajwa Al Saif, wedding promotion is in full swing on social media.

All over social media, I’ve noticed posts by both media and fans alike which are positive about the union. The negative posts are few and far between.

The Hashemites don’t have a particularly large following outside the Arab world, when compared to other monarchies or sheikhdoms. CP Hussein is perhaps the most popular and yet most people in the western world have no idea who he is. It is therefore, unsurprising that there are few western fans getting excited about the wedding.

The engagement itself came out of the blue. There were no clues in the months leading up to the event that Hussein was ready for marriage. In fact, barely a year before he had said in a TV interview that he was single.

As soon as the engagement photos were released, many people began to comment that it looked like an arranged marriage. The photos and video looked awkward. Rajwa looked genuinely happy, while Hussein looked like he was conducting a business meeting.

People immediately began to speculate about the reasoning behind this arrangement (if it is in fact an arrangement). Details about Rajwa were released. Her father is a Saudi billionaire property developer and her mother is the second cousin of Mohammed Bin Salman. The reason most people concluded was behind this marriage was money. The Hashemites have been caught up in various money related scandals, so it made sense.

Before too long, this descended into hatred and criticism of Rajwa, which I will cover in another post. It also changed from being arranged to forced, which are two very different things.

Meanwhile, something interesting was happening. Negative comments or anything remotely suggested an arrangement were either being removed or bombarded with pro-wedding replies, often from accounts with no posts. People were going out of their way to find accounts with negative comments and counter them.

Even if I explained away the engagement photos as nerves, the behaviour that followed actually only increased suspicion. I mean, when a royal or celeb gets engaged, there will always be unhappy fans. There will always be rumours and criticism. It’s unpleasant but it runs its course.

Unless of course, you do actually have something to hide. Which brings us to the fact that someone had gone to great lengths to remove everything from the internet about Rajwa prior to her engagement to Hussein. Not an easy task, considering the internet never forgets!

Since the internet never forgets, the more dedicated fans out there did still manage to dig up a little more info and a few old photos but nothing significant, to my knowledge. Another interesting side note is that these seem to have come from sources such as Facebook and Twitter. Much more difficult sites to remove photos and information from unless you’re the account holder who originally posted them.

In the months that followed, we saw an obvious PR push from the RHC to promote the union and Rajwa in particular. The PR never said that it was a love story as such, yet that is the vibe they were pushing. Especially with comments from Queen Rania about how she is like a third daughter to her.

Most people commenting on social media added to the love story narrative, continuing to do battle with the minority who were suggesting otherwise.

CP Hussein even discussed how they’d met at an event for his foundation, saying it was through a friend. He said they’d met once and some time had past before he was reminded of her by someone. They exchanged some messages and the engagement happened quickly.

Again, many took to social media to say that it was clear how much he loved her and that they’d met through a friend, therefore it wasn’t an arranged marriage.

Others pointed out how obvious this story sounded and how unlikely it was to have suddenly fallen in love and become engaged in such a short amount of time.

(I might go into my thoughts about that in another post because I find it an interesting point)

Unlikely it certainly is, but not impossible. Still, I think many people have overlooked something else which makes this union not only suspect but also concerning.

Just over a year before the engagement was the sedition case in Jordan. I won’t go into detail because it’s a long story but certainly worth looking into it you’re curious. The very short version is that King Abdullah’s brother, Prince Hamza (former CP of Jordan) was accused of an attempted coup with the help of a few others. It was immensely problematic and tied to a few other countries. Saudi Arabia being one of those counties and one of Mohammed Bin Salman’s senior advisors working with Hamza. Of course, Saudi Arabia denied having anything to do with it.

If true, (check the details and decide for yourself what you think) this can’t have been good news for King Abdullah. He’s always had a tumultuous relationship with MBS and accusations like that won’t have gone down well with MBS either way. Not to mention rumours that as custodian of two of Islam's most holy sites, MBS was keen to gain custodianship of Al-Aqsa too, which the Hashemites are currently custodians of. There have been some interesting moves made between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which put Jordan in a precarious position.

So, what are the odds that shortly after these events, the single Crown Prince meets and falls in love with a relative of MBS? If true, it’s reminiscent of Romeo & Juliette but in reality, I suspect that there’s a lot more to this story and that love isn’t the driving force behind it.

Links for further reading: