Susan Muaddi Darraj - Queen Noor: Queen of Jordan

Practically overnight, the life of the beautiful Lisa Halaby changed forever when she married King Hussein of Jordan and became Queen Noor. The young bride would soon learn that being queen was not entirely a fairy tale; she would be stepmother to the king's eight children from previous marriages and would work hard for her adopted country.

Source: Courtesy of the Office of Her Majesty Queen Noor.

At the Gleneagles resort in the Perthshire region of Scotland, Noor and Hussein shared a bungalow that featured an elaborate mahogany bed, fireplaces, and high ceilings. One night, shortly after their arrival, a heater broke down in their suite, filling the bungalow with toxic fumes. Overcome by the bitter odor, the two tried to escape, but the king's security guards had locked the sturdy door from the outside and couldn't hear the couple's desperate pounding. Struggling to remain conscious, Hussein and Noor dialed random numbers until they reached a hotel telephone operator, who alerted the guards. Upon being rescued, Noor remembered, "We gulped in fresh air in painful gasps."2

That a king who had survived so many assassination attempts should nearly be killed by a broken hotel heater and miscommunication with his security guards seemed ridiculous. Noor, however, was learning a sobering lesson: being shadowed by security guards around the clock would be the least difficult adjustment she would have to make as a member of the royal court.

Another lesson Noor learned on her honeymoon was that she had married a man whose time was beyond his control. Since becoming king at the age of 18, Hussein had devoted his life to his country. His time and attention were necessarily divided between the people of his nation and the people in his family. He had also been married three times previouslyNoor was his fourth wifeand the new queen had inherited a large family of eight stepchildren. With a husband pulled in so many directions, she wondered how he would ever have time for her. At one point, mired in paperwork, the king suggested to a restless Noor that she go shopping with his secretary. "He presumed that I loved to shop, but this was my honeymoon, and I wanted to spend it getting to know my husband."3 Her frustration increased slowly, but steadily.

After they left the rolling hills and green fields of Scotland, the royal couple visited Castlewood, the king's country home on the outskirts of London, England. It was one of many homes in Europe and the United States that Hussein owned, one in which he especially enjoyed relaxing. Yet, even here, Noor could not spend time alone with Hussein. His three youngest children, Ali, Abir, and Haya, joined them on picnics in the country and on excursions to London. A few days into the second half of this most unorthodox of honeymoons, Hussein's oldest son, Abdullah, joined them as well. Abdullah, who was a high school freshman at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, flew to England from the United States to spend time with his fathera rare treatand to meet his new stepmother.4 Noor was happy for them, especially for Hussein. She knew he enjoyed spending time with his children and was disappointed that his tight schedule barely afforded him the opportunity to do so. At Castlewood, Hussein and his eldest son enjoyed playfully roughhousing, arm wrestling, and laughing together. Even though it was still her honeymoon, Noor made herself fade into the background so as not to interfere.

But for the new bride, this honeymoon had offered a dim picture of her future. Much of her time would be spent raising Hussein's large family, visiting with dignitaries and heads of state, and even shopping with the king's secretary. There would be all too little time to spend with her ever-occupied husband himself. One night in Castlewood, things proved too much for the new bride. In a rare moment of emotional weakness, the tearful queen of Jordan called her mother in the United States and cried, "I feel like coming home."

Halab (which means "milk" in Arabic) is the name of the ancient Syrian city known in the West as Aleppo. Founded as early as the second millennium B.C., Aleppo is famed in the Middle East as a major hub of culture and the arts.5 Located in northern Syria, close to the Turkish border, Aleppo is the second oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It has a distinctly eastern atmosphere, a maze of narrow streets all twined around the famous citadel or ancient fortress, which sits at the city's heart. Gertrude Bell, the famed English traveler, once said of the city, "If there be a better gate to Asia than Aleppo, I do not know it."6 It is in Aleppo where one can trace Queen Noor's ancestral heritage.

Around 1890, Najeeb Halaby ("Halaby" means "one from Halab") and his family traveled from their native Syria to Lebanon, the neighboring country that sits on the Mediterranean. It was the first milestone of a much longer journey, an eagerly anticipated transatlantic voyage to the United States. With his mother Almas and his older brother Habib, the young Najeeb sailed from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut to New York to start a new life.

The brothers barely spoke English, but they were determined to succeed in America, the land where the streets were allegedly paved with gold, the land where hardworking and clever immigrants could "strike it rich." On the ship, they carried large carpetbags in which they had packed "oriental rugs, damask fabric, copperware, and jewelryfine wares from the old country to sell and trade while they adjusted to a new life."7 Najeeb Halaby (later to become the grandfather of Queen Noor) was only twelve years old.

In Maine, Najeeb met Frances Clevelandthe wife of President Grover Clevelandand enticed her with his finely crafted wares from Syria. She was impressed with the young man's charm and work ethic, and she wrote him letters of introduction to several well-connected people. It was all that the Halaby brothers needed to begin their future in their adopted country. America was, indeed, the land where dreams came true. They established a profitable and successful import-export business, though the work of managing it eventually fell to Habib. The younger Najeeb eventually set his sights on Texas, attracted by stories of wealth to be made in the oil fields.

Najeeb was successful in Texas, and it appears that Texas like him as much as he liked it. Years later, the granddaughter who had never met him heard him described as handsome and gallant. Though the 1920 census lists Najeeb Halaby as an "oil broker," it does not seem that he made his fortune in oil although he seems to have struck it rich in other ways in Dallas.8 In 1914, he met and married Laura Wilkins, an interior decorator, and together they founded Halaby Galleries, which "combined his import-export skills with her love of art and decorating."9 Before long, Halaby Galleries became the place the wealthy and elite of Dallas sought advice about their design ideas and purchases.