Happy Birthday, P. Ali:
Prince Ali turns 29 today
AMMAN (JT) — HRH Prince Ali turns 29 today [Thursday]. The Prince was born on Dec. 23, 1975 in Amman, to His Majesty the late King Hussein and Her Majesty the late Queen Alia. He attended various schools in Jordan, the United Kingdom and the US.
In 1993, the Prince graduated from Salisbury School in Connecticut where he excelled in sports, primarily wrestling, winning state championships.
After serving in the Jordanian Special Forces as a pathfinder and earning his military freefall parachute wings, Prince Ali joined the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and was commissioned as an officer in December 1994.
At Sandhurst, Prince Ali was awarded the Brunei Medal for Excellence, and was a boxer in the British army.
Following Sandhurst, Prince Ali studied the philosophy of politics and religious mysticism at Princeton and Columbia universities in the US. He also took a course in Islamic Sharia law.
Prince Ali is president of the Jordan Football Association as well as the West Asian Football Association. He founded the Jordan Parachute Club before turning it over to HRH Prince Hamzah earlier this year. He is also the honorary president of the Prince Ali Ben Al Hussein Club for the Deaf-Mute and Al Jeel Al Jadeed Club.
Prince Ali is fluent in Arabic, English and Circassian, and his hobbies include skydiving, scuba diving, snow and water skiing, martial arts, rock climbing and horseback riding. In 1988, he led a team of Jordanian Circassians on horseback through Syria and Turkey to their ancestral homeland in the Northern Caucasus.
Prince Ali also enjoys reading history, primarily medieval Islamic history, as well as reading and writing poetry.
The Prince holds Al Kawkab Medal of the First Order as well as several foreign decorations, including a British knighthood.
He has also served as Regent to His Majesty King Abdullah.
He holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Jordan Armed Forces and presently commands His Majesty King Abdullah's Special Security Unit of the Royal Guards.
Prince Ali is also chief commissioner of the Royal Jordanian Film Commission.
HRH Prince Ali got married to HRH Rym Ali on Sept. 7, 2004.