Принцесса Виждан Али: Художник, историк искусства и дипломат Иордании.

Jordanian artist, art historian, educator and diplomat

Princess Wijdan Ali (وجدان علي) (born 29 August 1939 in Baghdad, Iraq) is a Jordanian artist, art historian, educator and diplomat. She is the ex wife of Prince 'Ali bin Naif of Jordan. She is best known for her efforts to revive the traditions of Islamic art and her abstract paintings and for her work as an art historian.

She was born Sharifa Wijdan bint Fawwaz in Baghdad on 29 August 1939 into a noble family and was raised in Jordan. She was the daughter of Sharif Fawwaz Muhana, an architect, and his wife, Sharifa Nafi'a bint Jamil Ali. Both her parents could trace their ancestry to the Prophet Mohammed, which allowed her to be given the title of Sharifa. In 1962, she joined the Foreign Office of the United Nations in Jordan, shortly after completing her B. A. in Middle Eastern history from Beirut University College (1961), now the Lebanese American University. She was the first woman to enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jordan (1962) and also the first woman delegate to represent Jordan at United Nations meetings In 1966, following her marriage to Prince 'Ali bin Naif, the second son of the ruling Hashemite family on Jordan, she resigned from her diplomatic post and began to take art seriously. She then began to study art formally with the Jordanian artists Muhanna Al Dura and Armando Bruno. She received a Ph. D. in Islamic art from the University of London in 1993. She also uses the motif of Islamic calligraphy as a graphic form, which was itself a revival of a traditional art form. Her writing explores the rise and fall of an Islamic aesthetic in Islamic art and the dilution of centuries long traditions, with the arrival of colonialism in North Africa and the Middle East. She is founder of the Royal Society of Fine Arts and of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. She is also founder and dean of the newly established Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan. She is also a patron of the arts and has curated a number of exhibitions of Islamic art. Princess Wijdan Bint Fawwaz Muhana took the oath of office as Jordan's new ambassador to Italy before King Abdullah II on 3 October 2006.

She is the daughter of Sharif Fawwaz Muhana, an architect, and Sharifa Nafi'a bint Jamil Ali. In 1966, she married Prince 'Ali bin Naif of Jordan, the grandson of King Abdullah I. Following her marriage, she became a member of the Royal family and was given the title of Her Royal Highness Princess Princess Wijdan Ali.