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                                      Geography, History and More

Episode 2

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Part One)

Danilo Antón

Historically, the territory of what is now Jordan is closely linked to the countries West of the Jordan river, Palestine and Israel.

Its area is 89,000 km2 with a population of 10,000,000 inhabitants, including 2.1 million Palestinians and 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

More than 4 million live in Amman, the capital.                  City of Amman

Traditionally it was said "Jordan is Palestine desert" but its history shows that it is much more than that. For thousands of years the lands East of the Jordan River, formed by fertile valleys and oases interspersed in a vast desert have been home to many peoples, kingdoms and cultures, from the distant times of the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites to present overpopulated and touristic Jordan.

In the first millennium before the common era (about 1000 BC) there were several nations on the eastern banks of the Jordan river and the Dead Sea. Their populations lived from agriculture, animal husbandry and trade caravans that linked the Mediterranean with the Mesopotamian societies. The Kingdom of Moab occupied the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, the Kingdom of Ammon was North of it, while the Kingdom of Edom borderes the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea,  The Aramaean tribes, who influenced with their languages the Palestinians and Jewish peoples on the Mediterranean coast, stretched towards the eastern deserts.

Major kingdoms in the basin of the Jordan river from the X to VI centuries b.c..

In the current Jordanian territory,  after the sixth century B.C., the Arab culture of the Nabataeans was developed. They were people who controlled a trade network along oasis chains and desert routes and agricultural crops concentrated in small areas near cities. The main urban centers were Petra (South of present Jordan), Madain Salah North of the Hejaz and Palmyra in Syria ..

The Nabataeans built imposing funeral monuments carved into the rock of which there are magnificent examples preserved in Petra and Madain Salah.

Nabataean funerary monument carved in sandstone in Petra

The Nabataeans kingdoms survived invasions of Macedonian Alexander but fell under  Roman domination in the first century B.C. Under the Romans the jordanian land became part of province of Arabia Petraea       
                                                                 Roman province of Arabia Petrea

Since the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the foundation of Constantinople, Jordan who had been a center of refuge for Christians fleeing Roman persecution became part of the Byzantine.

During the Byzantine period Jordanian cities experienced an important economic and architectural development. In the reign of Justinian (527-565 A.D.) many churches (basilics) were built and the country remained solidly integrated into the structures of the empire.

It was after the conquest of territory by the Muslim Arab armies in the seventh century that the most radical changes took place in the region. Jordan became a part of the Arab province Bilad-al-Sham (North Country). The Muslim forces appeared on the southern border of Jordanian territory (A.D. 629) confronting the Byzantine army at the Battle of Mu'tah (3 years before Muhammad's death which occurred in 632). The Arab army took heavy casualties and had to retreat. The real invasion began in 634 A.D. under the rule of the caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab.

The main military Muslim leaders in battles against the Byzantines in Jordan and Syria were Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn Yazid Abu Sufyan ibn al Walid Khalid. Finally, Byzantine armies were defeated and the territory of Jordan was integrated into the Arab Umayyad Islamic Empire.

The Umayyad Caliphate ruled much of the Middle East from the year 621 to 750 b.d.- At that time, Amman, the capital of Jordan, became an important city and the seat of the provincial governor.

In 750 the Umayyads were replaced by the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258) that displaced the centers of gravity from Damascus and Amman to Kufa and Baghdad (Iraq) and the ancient Umayyad cities lost political and economic importance.  

                                             Maximum extent of the Umayyad Caliphate

The Abbasids continued in power in the Mesopotamian region for several centuries. The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad was al-Mu'tasim who was assassinated in 1258 by the Mongols

From the year 909 the territory of Jordan and Syria became part of the Fatimid Caliphate. This religious movement (Fatimid) started as an Ismaili Shiite movement founded in Syria by the eighth Imam Abd Allah al-Akbar. The Fatimids claimed to be descendants of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, and her husband, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shi'ite imam, from which it derived its name "Fatimid".

They also argued that they descended from Muhammad ibn Ismail, the seventh Shiite imam, who was considered the Messiah (al-Mahdi) and should return the year 300 AH (in the Islamic calendar).

The main Fatimid stronghold had developed among the Berber tribes of the Maghreb. From there the movement spread to Egypt and from Egypt to Jordan and Syria.

                                                         Maximum extension of the Fatimid Caliphate

In the second half of the tenth century there was a fundamental change. To maintain power the caliphs had get support from Turkish and Nubians mercenaries who ended up facing each other and the Berber forces that were the basis of the Fatimid army. The Fatimid caliphs lost power to the Turkish viziers and remained  simply as symbolic rulers.

In the subsequent years a new leader took power in the region : Saladin.

Saladin was a Kurd originaro city of Tikrit in Iraq. Saladino's father was Najm ad-Din Ayyub and his uncle Asad al-Din Shirkuh. Both were subjects of Imad ad-Din Zengi Atabeg, the lord of Mosul and Aleppo. When Zengi died Saladino's family supported the succession in favor of the younger son al-Din Nujr. Once the succession was obtained al-Din Nujr appointed Saladino's father as commander of the government of Damascus,to the father, while his uncle became army chief. Saladino joined the army under his uncle as first-line military leader.

                                                              Saladino in front of his troops

In 1163, the vizier of the Fatimid Caliph al-Adid of Egypt, Shawar, who had been expelled from the country by his rival Dirgham, of the the powerful tribew Banu Ruzzaik, sought help from the Sultan Nur al-Din. This support was awarded in 1164 by sending a military force under Shirkuh.  Saladino, then a 26-year-old man, went with him.

Shawar was reinstated as vizier, and     immediately he requested the withdrawal of Shirkuh army in exchange for thirty thousand dinars, The Syrian sultan did not accept and the troops remained in the country. The military and political position of Shirkuh in Egypt was strengthened and in practice acted as prime minister of the Fatimid caliph and at the same time acted as governor and representative of the Syrian Sultan. At Shirkuh death in 1169 Saladino was elected as his successor.

When Saladino took power he had to face the Fatimids elites, who feared that the vizier (who was Sunni) would end the caliphate as indeed happened. In 1169 a plot against Saladino centered on a black eunuch who served as caliph butler took place. Saladino had news of the plot and executed the eunuch while he was out of town inspecting their properties.

This execution immediately triggered a rebellion of military units formed by black men with about 50 000 troops, who were the backbone of the Egyptian army loyal to the Fatimids. Saladino quelled the revolt and restructured the army based on their Syrian troops (Kurdish and Turkish, primarily) instead of the Maghreb mercenaries as had been normal in the country until then. Thus he not only created a more experienced and prepared army, but personal control over it.

After the death of the last Fatimid caliph, Saladin, who was in theory a vassal of Nur al-Din, became in practice the de facto ruler of Egypt while recognizing the authority of the Sultan of Syria. In fact he enjoyed full independence in his government of Egypt, due to the distance between Damascus and Cairo.

With Saladin started the Ayyubid dynasty (1171-1250) and a line of Sultans of Syria and Egypt of Kurdish origin was opened. The Ayyubid dynasty continued to rule Egypt and Syria in the years after his death occurred in the year 1193 ..

Saladino was a champion of religious orthodoxy represented by Sunnism, and in this way politically and religiously unified the Middle East.  He fought and led the fight against the Christians Crusaders  ending with doctrines that he considered far from the official cult as it was the case with the Abassid and Fatimid caliphates ..

Saladino was mainly known for having defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin, reoccupying Jerusalem for Muslims and taking the Holy Land. The impact of this event on the West started the Third Crusade led by the famous Richard I of England that became legendary for both Westerners and Muslims.                                                                                   Mamluk riders

The Ayyubid dynasty ended after the ruling Sultan Al-Salih Ayyub was forced to recruit Mamluk troops to fight the Crusaders. In the year 1250 the Ayyubids definitely lost power in the hands of hired mercenaries.

The Mamelukes, who seized power in the Middle East, were slaves, mostly of Turkish origin, from Central Asia. They were, Islamized and trained militarily. In the beginning they served as soldiers under the command of the Abbasid caliphs  but finally took over, They controlled Egypt and Syria until 1517 when the region fell into Ottoman power under the reign of Sultan Selim I.

Ottoman rule lasted more than 3 centuries. The Ottomans established local governments, collected taxes and imposed a bureaucratic administration without radically changing local cultures.

When several centuries later, in the early XX century Ottoman power weakened due to the First World War there was a great Arab revolt against the Turks with the support of Bedouins, Circassians and Christians.

The revolt was led by the Hashemites of Sharif Hussein of Mecca . The struggñe became an incarnation of a new Arab nationalism fueled by resentment against the Ottoman authorities. This rebellion was encouraged and supported by the Allies in World War I, especially Britain and France.

The great Arab revolution gained control of most of the territories of the Hejaz and the Levant, including the region East of the Jordan River. However the great Pan-Arab country did not achieved international recognition as an independent state. 

                                                                          

                                    Historical evolution of the Ottoman Empire

The Syjkes-Pikot 1916 secret agreement and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 were seen as betrayals of previous agreements in which the British were committed to recognize the independence of a unified Arab state from Aleppo to Aden under the control of the Hashemites (Correspondence Mc Mahon - Hussein 1915).

Based on these agreements the region was divided and Abdullah I, second son of Sharif Hussein, "received" the Transjordanian territory. Abdullah arrived by train from Hejalz to Ma'an in southern Jordan. There he was welcomed by leaders of Transjordan. In 1921 Abdullah established the Emirate of Transjordan as a British protectorate.

In addition to Transjordan, Britain received the protectorate of Palestine while France received it from Syria and Lebanon.

In 1946, Jordan became an independent country officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.

Transjordan captured the West Bank during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Kingdom name was changed to The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949.