Set in Jordan’s idyllic Umm Injasa lies the serene bolt-hole of a jet-set philanthropist and her husband. This cosmopolitan couple have created a home that, while rich with European style, pays homage to Arab art.
"I'll start at the beginning", says the softly spoken philanthropist and owner of the house in which I sit sipping a Turkish coffee as I admire the two beautiful ceramics on the French table in front of us. They are the work of her childhood friend Harvard professor Dr. Wassma Al Charbachi, she tells me proudly. Her home is full of such beautiful pieces collected over decades of travelling, but first she tells me why she and her husband, grandson of a former Iraqi prime minister, chose Umm Injasa as the setting for their retreat.
“We bought the land twelve years ago as we fell in love with the area. The people here are so warm and friendly.” She recalls one of the locals giving her a box of figs as a gift as he spoke to her of region’s fig trees. “We wanted a retreat and started planning in 2004. Jordan is perfectly located and it’s a good place for retirement. My son often comes to stay but never for very long. My daughter on the other hand loves to come and stay as long as she can. She brings her children, they swim, visit art exhibitions and go sightseeing.” Petra, Wadi Rum, the regions where John the Baptist ministered, and Mount Nebo (Moses’ burial site), are just some of the places to visit in Jordan. “When I first saw the land it felt Biblical. In Jordan especially, one can imagine the prophets when they trekked to the various sites.” On a clear day they enjoy views of the Dead Sea, Jericho and the lights of Jerusalem.
The country is also well situated to accommodate the couple’s wanderlust. “We are here for five weeks at a stretch, then we go to London and from there visit our daughter in Monaco and travel to Bahrain to visit our son. We recently spent a few weeks in Beirut as it is close.”
“Having lived in London for thirty-five years, we wanted something sunny and simple combined with modern and Zen,” she says of the house she designed with architect Wissam Jabr, a Lebanese graduate of Harvard and Columbia universities. The land originally had oak and fig trees to which they added an organic vegetable and herbal garden as well as an orchard and olive trees on another side of the house. A centuries-old olive tree can be admired at the entrance.
"I felt at as at ease with him from the start”, she says of Jabr, with whom she communicated by email for a year – exchanging ideas and brainstorming – before building started in 2005. By December 2007 the house’s proud owner had invited several close friends from London to have a first 'taste' of the retreat, from which they left feeling as though they had spent a week in a spa, such is the serenity of the home and its surroundings.
“The warm relationship with our architect was invaluable; his finesse is evident in the materials he chose - for both the exterior and interior.” Her son-in-law, who introduced her to Jabr, inspired the design of the spectacular swimming pool covered in turquoise and blue shades of Bissaza mosaic. “He is very athletic, loves sports and his real love is swimming so he suggested a lap pool.”
Back inside, one can imagine the shepherds trekking across the dramatic pink mountains as they look out of the wall-to-ceiling windows of each room bathing in the natural light they invite.
The house has a minimalist spirit to it, akin to the work of the late Swiss-French architect and artist Le Corbusier. The walls are built with travertine rock, the floors treated cement, and the wood work was designed and produced by celebrated Lebanese carpenter Joseph Haddad using white wash oak. The cupboards and cabinets in every room are centred and have discrete sliding doors on either side. With the doors open, this ergonomically designed interior creates a fluid space between the dining room, salon, living room and office.
“In the past, for my homes in Beirut and London, I have relied on interior designers Sami Khazen and John Stephanidis.” For this house she wanted to seek out and buy pieces herself, so she went furniture shopping and visited home exhibitions with her the help of close friend and interior designer, Lina Al Hoss. “I love artwork and furniture that have a certain presence and it was fun to do it,” she says of the experience. “The two mother of pearl dining tables are by Nada Debbs; the rest of the furniture is mostly French and Italian.”
“The artwork I have here in this retreat is quite simple,” explained the art enthusiast. After completing an MA in Economics and while publishing a journal in London she opened a small gallery, initially to help finance the publication. What started as a small one room exhibition space in her office then became a successful gallery in Dover Street and later Chelsea Harbour.
Post Impressionism, Modern British, Orientialism, Avant Garde and Contemporary have all found a space on the walls of her new home. The influence of her former headmistress at Beirut’s Al Ahlia school, Widad Kourtas, whom she describes as “a very cultured pan-Arab nationalist” can be seen in her choice of artwork. Bronze pieces by celebrated Iraqi sculptor Mohammed Ghani; ceramics by Saad Al Kaabe, Khudayer Al Shakarchi and Dr. Wassma Al Charbachi, sculpture by famed artist Mohammed Ghani. Also contemporary artworks by renowned Iraqi artists Suad Al-Attar, Dia Al Azzawi, the late Issam El-Said and Ismail El Sheikhli are on show alongside pieces by Salvador Dali, Giorgio De Chirico and leading contemporary English artist Julian Opie. Over the office desk in the study is a painting by the Syrian artist Madiha Omar, given to her by the artist herself as a wedding present.
Among this huge array of dramatic paintings adorning the walls is a portrait of her husband’s grandfather, the post-independence Iraqi prime minister who is buried next to Saladin’s tomb in Damascus. He seems to be looking down at us, in the living room, as my host speaks to me about the UK charity for Iraqi children she cofounded fifteen years ago. As a mother-of-two and a grandmother-of-many, her passion has always been children, “I was motivated to set up this charity, by the birth of my first grand daughter”.
Before leaving the sanctuary I look out onto the breathtaking landscapes that surround this home. “My grandchildren love that Bedouin arrive with their tents in springtime, with their sheep and their goats grazing on the green. They are the closest we have to neighbours.”
Photographs: y: Bill Lyons
