Geography, History and other subjets

                       Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Part One)

Danilo Antón

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

Its area is 89,000 km2 with a population of 9,500,000 inhabitants, including 2.1 million Palestinians and 1.4 million Syrian refugees.

More than 4 million people live in the capital: Amman.

Often people have said  "Jordan is Palestine desert",  but when the history of the region is analyzed it is recognized that Jordan it is much more than that.

For thousands of years, the lands East of the Jordan River, composed by fertile valleys and interspersed oases in a vast desert, have been home to many peoples, kingdoms and cultures, From the distant times of the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites to the overpopulated and current Kingdom of Jordan..

Around 1000 BC  there were several peoples on the eastern banks of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. Their populations lived from agriculture, animal husbandry and trading 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 Kinngdom of Edom. The Aramaean tribes mainly living in desert and semidesert areas influenced with his tongue other semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

             Major kingdoms in the Jordan basin in the 10th BC

In current Jordanian territory the Arab culture of the Nabataeans developed after the sixth century B.C. They were people who controlled a trade network along oasis chains and, desert routes that bound smail areas with concentrated farming near cities. The main urban centers weres Petra (south of the current Jordanian territory), Madain Salah, north of the Hejaz Arab 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.

The Nabataeans kingdoms survived the invasion of Alexander the Macedonian but fell dominated by the eastward Roman expansion eastward in the first century B.C. The Roman province in Southern Jordan was Arabia Petraea

                          Nabataean funerary monument carved in sandstone in Petra

Since the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity and the foundation of Constantinople, the Jordanian territory became part of the empire that soon would be called Byzantine.

Jordan had been a center o

 f refuge for Christians fleeing Roman persecution from the I century A.D.

During the Byzantine period Jordanian cities experienced an important economic and architectural development. In the reign of Justinian (527-565 A.D.) many churches (basilicas) 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.

The Muslim forces had appeared on the southern border of Jordanian territory (A.D. 629) facing the Byzantine army at the Battle of Mu'tah (3 years before Muhammad's death 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 Muslims military leaders in the battles against the Byzantines in Jordan and Syria were Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn Yazid Abu Sufyan ibn al Walid Khalid.

Finally the 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 621 AD to 750 AD. At that time, Amman, presently the capital of Jordan, became an important city of the empire and the seat of the provincial governor.

In 750 the Umayyads were replaced by the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258). This dinasty moved the centers of gravity of Damascus and Amman eastward to Kufa and Baghdad and the ancient Umayyad cities in Syria lost political and economic. importance.

                                   Maximum extent of the Umayyad Caliphate

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

After the year 909 AD the territory of Jordan and Syria became part of the Fatimid Caliphate. This religious dinasty (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 fin the year 300 AH (After Hejira, year of the Islamic calendar).

The main Fatimid base had developed between 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 10th century there was a fundamental change. In order to keep in power the caliphs hired Turkish and Nubians mercenaries, as well as the western Berber forces that were the basis of the Fatimid army. The Fatimid caliphs lost power remaining only symbolically in power. The Turkish viziers were the effective  rulers of the country.

In subsequent years, (12th century) the figure of Saladino became very important in the geopolitics of Syria and Egypt.

Saladin was a Kurd born in the city of Tikrit in Iraq. Saladino's father Najm ad-Din Ayyub and his uncle Asad al-Din Shirkuh were subjects of Imad ad-Din Zengi Atabeg lord of Mosul and Aleppo.

When Zengi died Saladino's family supported the succession in favor of the younger son al-Din Nujr. Because of the help given  to  him in the struggles of succession Saladino's father received the government of Damascus, while his uncle was appointed as army chief. At that moment, Saladino joined the army under his uncle as first-line military leader.

                                       Saladino in front of his troops

In 1163, Shawarn the vizier of the Fatimid Caliph al-Adid of Egypt, , who had been expelled from the country by his rival Dirgham, the powerful Banu Ruzzaik sought help from the Sultan Nur al-Din. This help was given in 1164 by sending a military force  His request for military aid to Nur al-Din led that in 1164 Shirkuh was appointed to the head of his army to support Shawar. Saladino, then a 26-year-old young man went with him.

After keeping Shawar as vizier, he claimed the withdrawal of the army of Shirkuh in exchange for thirty thousand dinars, but received a negative. The military and political position of Shirkuh was strengthened in Egypt and in practice he acted as prime minister of the Fatimid caliph of Egypt and at the same time as governor and representative of the Syrian Sultan. At his death in 1169 Saladino was elected as his successor.

When he took power Saladino had to face the Fatimids elites, who feared that the vizier (who was Sunni) would finish 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 50 000 Nubian troops, who were the backbone of the Egyptian army and the most loyal to the Fatimids. Saladino quelled the revolt and restructured the army based on its Syrian troops (Kurdish and Turkish, primarily) instead of the Maghreb mercenaries who had been normal in the country until then. Thus he not only created a more experienced and prepared army, but his personal control over it was guaranteed.

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.

Saladin opened the Ayyubid dynasty (1171-1250) which opened a line of Sultans of Syria and Egypt of Kurdish origin. The Ayyubid dynasty to rule Egypt and Syria in the years after his death occurred in the year 1193. Saladino was champion of the religious orthodoxy represented by sunnism, he unified politically and religiously the Middle East, leading the fight against Christians Crusaders and ending with doctrines that he considered far from the official cult represented by Muslim Abbasid and Fatimid the 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 led to the Third Crusade led by the famous Richard I of England that became legendary for both westerners and muslims.

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

                                                           Mamluk riders

The Mamelukes, who seized power in the Middle East were slaves, mostly of Turkish origin, from Central Asia, areas of the Black Sea and further north, islamized and trained militarily. In the beginning they served as soldiers under the command of the Abbasid caliphs  and finally took over, controlling Egypt and Syria until 1517 when the region would fall into Ottoman power under the reign of Sultan Selim.

                               Territorial historical evolution of the Ottoman Empire

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

When several centuries later, in the 1910s, 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 driven by Sharif Hussein of Mecca as 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.

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 Hejalz Ma'an in southern Jordan, where he was welcomed by leaders of Transjordan. In 1921 Abdullah established the Emirate of Transjordan which became a British protectorate.

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

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

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

Continue in the second part.

Danilo Antón