History of Jordan

Jordan is small and yet at the same time vast. 

Throughout history many peoples and empires have passed through Jordan to shape the landscape and the nation you see today.  In every corner, canyon and mountain range you can see – touch, feel – the layers of 10,000 years of human activity.

Archaeological evidence documents a settlement near Petra as one of the oldest human communities in the world, contemporary with neighboring Jericho .  Since then (7,500 BC!), Jordan hosts nearly continuous evidence of human settlement.  Historians, anthropologists and archaeologists “map” history by referring to the following periods and civilizations:

Paleolithic period (400,000-17,000 BC):

Paleolithic hunter-gatherers were nomadic and used very simple stone tools.  Many such tools have been found here in Jordan and can be seen in museums in Amman .

Neolithic period (9,000-4,500 BC):

As people began to cultivate the land, they settled in more permanent housing types, in small communities.  Remains of these small agricultural villages have been unearthed at Ain Ghazal, Beidha, Basta, Sidd al-Ahmar and Shkaret Msa’id. 

Bronze Age (3,000-1,200 BC):

In the Bronze Age people began to cluster together into city-states for protection from natural threats and from other humans.  Evidence of walled Bronze Age cities have been discovered at Sa’idiyeh and Deir Allah.

Iron Age (1,200-332BC - the era of the early Hebrew Bible:

The events of the ancient Jewish civilization took place during the Iron Age.  The great kingdoms of the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites flourished during this period.  Remains of the capital cities and strongholds are located at the Amman Citadel, Dhiban, Hisban, and Sela.  The Roman “King’s Highway” which still passes through the mountains of the Jordanian plateau was once travelled by the great kings of these peoples.  Nearby Wadi Mujib, formerly “Arnoon,” divided the Moabite Kingdom and is now a nature reserve.

Hellenistic (Greek) period (332-64BC):

After the death of Alexander the Great the Greeks founded famous cities in Jordan, including Pella , Gerasa (Jerash) and Gadara (now Umm Qais), all members of the Decapolis , a league of ten allied cities.  Hellenistic styles pervade the architecture of the next thousand years, shaping and influencing the buildings of the Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Nabataean and early Islamic periods.  The 2^nd century Jewish palace of a Tobiad prince at Iraq al-Amir combines Hellenistic and Persian motifs.  The remarkable and wide-ranging influence of hellenism, still visible throughout Jordan , extended to many other aspects of civilization as well.

Nabataean period (312BC-106AD):

This Arab tribal federation built beautiful cosmopolitan cities along the spice trade route from Yemen to Damascus .  The Nabataeans are best known for their remarkable tombs, hewn from the stone cliffs of Petra and elsewhere.  Jordan is home to one of their most well-preserved cities, Petra .  Petra was an important Nabataean trade center, and was once home to 3 million Nabataeans and their clients.

Roman period (64BC-324AD):

The Roman imprint on Jordan is still visible everywhere, as they fortified the outer reaches of the Empire.  Arab tribes became allies of the Romans and cooperated to protect the frontier of the Empire, establishing forts, roads, towns and cities that extended the culture of the Romans.  Some of these include Jerash, one of the city of 1,000 columns and dozens of temples, churches and mosaics.  Philadelphia , now called Amman , is the site of the Roman citadel and a large amphitheatre.  At ancient Abila we see lovely Roman tomb paintings.  Ancient Gadara – now Umm Qais – is the home of an unusual octagonal church.  Pella – built on ruins of successive settlements dating back to the Iron Age – is also the site of a 30-columned Roman period church.

Byzantine period (324-636 AD):

The Arab Christians of the Byzantine Empire built churches throughout Jordan with beautiful signature mosaic floors depicting animals, people, landscapes, cities and lovely abstract geometric patterns.  At Madaba was a famous Byzantine mosaic school which has been revived today.  Byzantine Christians culture bridges the Graeco-Roman and early Islamic worlds, and the existence of fabulous mosaics in early Islamic palaces attests to this fusion of cultures.  Beautiful mosaics can be seen at Mt. Nebo (Siyagha), Madaba, Umm ar-Rasas, Qastal and Jerash.

Early Islam & the Umayyad Period (636-750 AD):

Jordan is home to the richest record of early Islam in the world.  Very early mosques, shrines to famous early Muslims (called The Companions of the Prophet) and political events, and the great “Desert Castles” of the Umayyad dynasty are found throughout Jordan .  The Umayyads were the first dynasty of Muslim caliphs.  They ruled from Damascus and they were great builders, erecting impressive buildings to demonstrate the power of the expanding empire.  These caliphs built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem , the famous Umayyad Mosque in Damascus , and dozens of palaces and mosques throughout what we now know as Syria , Iraq , Jordan , Palestine & Israel.  Ten of these palaces remain in Jordan today, including the great mosque in Amman , Qusayr Amra (a UNESCO World Heritage Monument ), Haranah, al-Hallabat, Qastal, Mushatta, Tubah and others.

Abbasid and Mameluke Islam & the Crusades (750-1516 AD):

When the Umayyad dynasty was overturned by the Abbasid revolt, the center of the Islamic world shifted from Damascus to Baghdad .  Humeima, the base from which the Abbasid dynasty launched their revolt, is near the Desert Highway in southern Jordan .  There we can still see the early Abbasid community, some of their artefacts and their mosque at the excavated site. 

In the 11^th century Europe mounted the Crusades to regain the Holy Land for Catholic Christianity.  From 1096-1300 AD European nobility and their armies battled with Muslims, Jews and sometimes even Eastern Christians for control of the eastern Mediterranean .  In a century of wars huge fortifications were built by both sides:  in Kerak is an enormous Christian Crusader fort; in Ajloun we find the fortress of Salah ad-Din (Saladdin), the Muslim hero.  At Shaubak we can see another Crusader fort which was augmented during the Mameluke period.

As the Islamic Empire expanded it could no longer be ruled from one center.  In the early 14^th century a slave class overthrew the rulers of Egypt , and became the Mameluke dynasty.  Throughout the eastern Mediterranean world we find the remains of their bridges, fortresses, mosques and villages.  The Mameluke period also produced a simple but characteristic pottery style with lively decorations, which we find all over Jordan .  Examples of their architecture can be seen in Ajloun, Shobak, Hisban and elsewhere.

Ottoman period (1516-1917 AD):

The last great centralized caliphate of Islam was the Ottoman caliphate, based in Istanbul, Turkey .  The Ottoman Turks colonized the Islamic world and ruled it strictly for four centuries.  Their interaction with Jordan is not always remembered with fondness, for they made a concerted effort to control the Bedouin tribes here, and were often in conflict with them.  The most famous trace of the Ottoman caliphate is the Hijaz Railway, which was to have conveyed Muslim pilgrims to Mecca for the hajj, or great pilgrimage.  The Ottoman train stations and fortifications which still line the railway are utilitarian but often elegant.  This railway (which was never completed) now runs from Aqaba to Damascus , and Jordanians use it for the transport of phosphates.

Ottoman period settlements – the typical quaint stone buildings of the countryside – form the core of most of the old villages of Jordan .  Excellent examples of these can be found at Tayyibeh, Salt, Qatrana, Qastal, and Husn, amongst many others. 

Eventually the conflict with the Bedouin tribes brought the Ottoman Empire to its fall, as the Arabs fought with Britain and the Allies against the German and Ottoman powers in the First World War.  Following the Great Arab Revolt in 1917-18, these very Bedouin became the leaders of the Arab world.

Hashemite period (1907-present):

Five kings from the Hashemite family have ruled Jordan since the fall of the Ottoman Empire .  The late King Hussein, who died in 1999, was admired throughout the world and led Jordan for over 40 years.  The present King is Hussein’s eldest son, Abdullah.  During the Hashemite period Jordan has been rapidly modernized – it might be said that nearly all the buildings that are still used in Jordan are “Hashemite.”  Our old villages, such as Tayyibeh, Rajif, Rabba, Yadoudah, Fuhais, Husn, `Ajloun and many others, are built around the first stone buildings of Bedouin who began to settle under British and Hashemite rule.  The old village of Tayyibeh has been reconstructed and turned into a 5-star hotel (Taybet Zaman).  Jordan ’s capital city, Amman – hardly even a village at the turn of the century – is entirely a creation of the Hashemite modernization of Jordan .

We at JIT are inspired by the sweep of history that is still so evident across the Jordanian landscape.  We invite you to come an experience this sense of human possibility – to feel the depth of time and the tremendous energy that people have put into their civilizations over the course of one hundred centuries.

For more information about Jordan today, click “Jordan Now” on the sidebar menu.