Saturday, January 06, 2007

Jordanian Traditionalists

The following was peviously posted on the old Traditionalists.org addenda page.

Jordan should be added to the countries in the Islamic world where Traditionalism has had an impact.

  • Shortly before his death, Schuon instructed Martin Lings to take over a Maryami zawiya in Jordan. While the membership of this zawiya is not known, it is striking that three members of the royal house provided testimonies to Martin Lings for the In Memoriam section of A Return to the Spirit (Louisville, Fons Vitae: 2005). They were Prince El Hassan bin Talal (the brother of King Hussein and for a long time the Crown Prince), Princess Wijdan Ali (a prominent artist with a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, married to Prince Ali bin Nayef, the grandson of King Abdullah I and at present the private chamberlain of King Abdullah II), and Princess Wijdan's daughter Princess Nafa'a Ali.
  • In 2005 King Abdullah II appointed an American Maryami academic as his Special Advisor for Interfaith Affairs. Lumbard was closely involved in King Abdullah's very successful dialog with Jewish and Baptist leaders on visits to the US in 2005 and 2006.

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