The Heir of the Hashemites

When the King of Jordan looks upon his 20-year-old brother, Emir Mohammed, he does not see what others see. Hussein remembers only the terrified child crouching in the palace to escape the sporadic rampages of his father.*To the King, that is excuse enough for the behavior of the crown prince, who has suffered from a crippling stammer ever since. But when others look upon Mohammed, they see something else--a tyrannical egocentric in a major general's uniform, and an ever present danger to the throne.

When young King Hussein set off for his good-will tour abroad last spring, he left the prince in charge of the Council of the Throne. Day after day the royal Mercury would roar through the streets of Amman. Wherever he went, Mohammed demanded full honors; he has been known to seize bodily those who failed to applaud him and turn them over to Bedouin guards demanding that they be flogged. Once, when a limousine with diplomatic license plates was slow getting out of his way, he jumped out of his own car and began shrieking abuse at the offender. But that time Mohammed was forced to apologize, because his astonished victim turned out to be the West German ambassador.

Palace servants have come to expect meals to be dashed to the floor simply because the salt is out of place. High officials know what it means when a hint is dropped that the prince would like to be invited to lunch. Upon receiving such a hint one day, the governor of Amman hastily rounded up 100 distinguished guests and prepared no fewer than 15 roast lambs, only to have Mohammed drive by at the appointed hour--on his way to a rendezvous with a maiden in the neighborhood.

When Hussein got back home from his tour, he listened with a heavy heart to the torrent of complaints about his brother --Mohammed badgering newspaper editors to put his picture on the front page, Mohammed phoning the radio station to play again and again his favorite tunes, Mohammed threatening physical harm to the U.A.R. ambassador, Mohammed boxing the ears of a group of girls who did not pay the proper attention to him. Once before, over the objections of doting Queen Mother Zaine, Hussein had tried to persuade the prince to go abroad for medical treatment. Finally last week, the palace cryptically announced that Mohammed would leave at the end of the month for a trip to the U.S., Canada and Britain (lest this seem an affront, the King named his younger brother viceroy during his own two-day absence from the country this week). Prince Mohammed still remains the immediate heir to a stouthearted young King whose perpetually threatened life is all that keeps alive the dynasty of the Hashemites.

*A gentle and cultivated man when rational, King Talal at 43 was forced to abdicate in 1952. "Please thank the government," he said when told the news, and then quietly removed himself to a sanitarium near Istanbul, where he now lives.

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