Tributes paid to the last princess of Iraq, dead at 100

Princess Badiya bint Ali was one of the few royal survivors of the bloody coup that deposed her family in 1958

Tributes were paid on Sunday to Princess Badiya bint Ali, the last princess of Iraq, who has died peacefully in London aged 100. There was mourning in the country where her family once ruled, and another where they still do. President Barham Salih of Iraq sent a message of condolence to the late princess’s son, Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein. “Our hearts hurt deeply from having to hear the tragic news about the passing of

Princess Badiya bint Ali,” it read. New Prime Minister Mustafa AlKadhimi also paid tribute. “With the passing of Princess Badiya bint Ali, a bright and important chapter of Iraq’s modern history ends,” he said. “She was part of a political and societal era that represented Iraq in the best of ways. May she rest in peace and my sincere condolences her family and loved ones.” From Jordan, the remaining Hashemite kingdom, King Abdullah said the royal court mourned Princess Badiya’s passing.

The princess’s death marks an end to a tumultuous chapter in Middle East history that took her from a childhood in Makkah to the grand palaces of the region’s capitals and into exile in the UK.

Born in Damascus in 1920 into the Hashemite dynasty, Princess Badiya was the daughter of King Ali bin Al-Hussein, who briefly ruled the Hejaz kingdom in western Arabia. In 1925 Princess Badiya and her family left Makkah for Iraq after the kingdom was overthrown by Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia.

The princess was one of the few royal survivors of the 1958 coup that ended her family’s rule in Iraq. Among those killed with King Faisal II were Princess Badiya’s brother, Crown Prince

Abdullah, her sister Princess Abadiya and sister-in-law Princess Hiyam.