Princess Sarvath El Hassan - Family

Family

Her father, the late Bhopal-born Mohammed Ikramullah, was a senior member of the Indian Civil Service in the Government of India prior to Partition. He went on to join the Partition Committee of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, later becoming Pakistan's first Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to Canada, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. His last post was as Chairman of the Commonwealth Economic Committee. Her mother, the late Kolkata-born Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, was a writer and one of Pakistan's first two female members of Parliament. Begum Ikramullah also served as Ambassador to Morocco and several times a delegate to the United Nations.

The Princess' paternal uncle, Mohammad Hidayatullah, was Vice-President of India and her maternal uncle, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, was Prime Minister of Pakistan. Some of her other ancestors were Quraishi, include members of the Chishti Order, as well as the Iranian Sufi philosopher, Shaikh Shabuddin Yahya Suhrawardy. Many of her male and female forebearers, on both sides of her family, were poets, writers and academics. She lived in all the countries that her parents were posted to, but mostly received her education in Britain, such as at the University of Cambridge. She first met Prince Hassan in London in 1958, when they were both 11 years old.