History of Jordan

Ancient history

 Evidence of human activity in Transjordan dates back to the Paleolithic period (500000 - 17000 BC). While there is no architectural evidence from this era, archaeologists have found tools, such as flint and basalt hand-axes, knives and scraping implements.

In the Neolithic period (8500-4500 BC), three major shifts occurred. First, people became sedentary living in small villages and concurrently, new food sources were discovered and domesticated, such as cereal grains, peas and lentils, as well as goats. The population increased reaching tens of thousands of people.

Second, the shift in settlement patterns was catalyzed by a marked change in the weather, particularly affecting the eastern desert, which grew warmer and drier, eventually becoming entirely uninhabitable for most of year. This watershed climate change is believed to have occurred between 6500 and 5500 BC.

Third, between 5500 - 4500 BC pottery from clay, rather than plaster, began to be produced.
 Pottery-making technologies were likely introduced to the area by craftsmen from Mesopotamia.The largest Neolithic site is at Ein Ghazal in Amman. There are many buildings, divided into three distinct districts. Houses were rectangular with several rooms, and some of them had plastered floors. Archaeologists have unearthed skulls covered with plaster and with bitumen in the eye sockets at sites throughout Jordan, Israel and Syria. A statue was also discovered at Ein Ghazal that is thought to be 8,000 years old. Just over one meter high, it depicts a woman with huge eyes, skinny arms, knobby knees and a detailed rendering of her toes.

It was during the Chalcolithic period (4500-3200 BC) that copper was first smelted and used to make axes, arrowheads and hooks. The cultivation of barley, dates, olives and lentils, and the domestication of sheep and goats predominated over hunting. In the desert, the lifestyle was probably very similar to that of modern Bedouins.

Tuleitat Ghassul is a large Chalcolithic era village located in the Jordan Valley. Houses were made of sun-dried mud bricks and roofs of wood, reeds and mud. Some were based on stone foundations, and many planned around large courtyards. The walls are often painted with bright images of masked men, stars and geometric motifs, that were perhaps connected to religious beliefs.[1]

During the Early Bronze Age (3200-1950 BC), many villages were built that included defensive fortifications, most likely to protect against marauding nomadic tribes. Simple water infrastructures were also constructed.

At Bab al-Dhra in Wadi ‘Araba, archaeologists discovered over 20,000 shaft tombs with multiple chambers as well as houses of mud-brick containing human bones, pots, jewelry and weapons. Hundreds of dolmens scattered throughout the mountains have been dated to the late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages.

While in Egypt and Mesopotamia, writing developed before 3000 BC, writing was not really used in Transjordan, Canaan and Syria until some thousand years later, even though archeological evidence indicates that the Transjordanian population was in fact trading with Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Between 2300 - 1950 BC, many of the large, fortified hilltop towns were abandoned in favor of either small, unfortified villages or a pastoral lifestyle. There is no consensus on what caused this shift, though it is thought to be combination of climatic and political changes that brought an end to the city-state network.

During the Middle Bronze Age (1950-1550 BC), migration patterns in the Middle East increased. Trading continued to develop between Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Canaan and Transjordan, resulting in the spread of civilization and technology. Bronze forged out of copper and tin resulted in the production of more durable axes, knives and other tools and weapons.

Large and distinct communities seem to have arisen in northern and central Jordan, while the south was populated by a nomadic, Bedouin-type of people known as the Shasu.

New fortifications appeared at sites like Amman's Citadel, Irbid, and Tabaqat Fahl (or Pella).
 Towns were surrounded by ramparts made of earth embankments and the slopes were covered in hard plaster, making it slippery and difficult to climb. Pella was enclosed by massive walls and watch towers.

Archaeologists usually date the end of the Middle Bronze Age to about 1550 BC, when the Hyksos were driven out of Egypt during the 17th and 18th Dynasties. A number of Middle Bronze Age towns in Canaan and Transjordan were destroyed during this time.

The most prominent Iron Age kingdoms in what is now Jordan were Ammon, Moab, and Edom.^[1] The Ammonites had their capital in Rabbath Ammon which is present day Amman. The Moabites settled in present-day Kerak Governorate with their capital at Kir of Moab (Kerak),^[2] and the kingdom of Edom settled in southern Jordan and southern Palestine, and their capital was in Bozrah in Tafilah Governorate. The kingdom of Ammon maintained its independence from the Assyrian empire, unlike all other kingdoms in the region which were conquered.^[3]

Later antiquity saw the rise of the Nabatean kingdom with its capital at Petra, which was a border, client state of the Roman Empire absorbed into the Empire in 103 CE, and the ancient city of Saltus. During the Greco-Roman period of influence, a number of semi-independent city-states also developed in Jordan, grouped as a Decapolis including: Gerasa (Jerash), Philadelphia (Amman), Raphana (Abila), Dion (Capitolias), Gadara (Umm Qays), and Pella (Irbid).

Islamic History

Later, Jordan became integrated into the new Arab-Islamic Umayyad Empire (the first Muslim dynasty) which ruled much of the Middle East from 661 until 750 CE. At the time, Amman, the capital of modern-day Jordan, became a major town in "Jund Dimashq" (the military district of Damascus) and became the seat of the provincial governor. In fact, the name "Al-Urdun" (Jordan) was used on Umayyad post-reform copper coins beginning in the early 8th century and represent the earliest official usage of the name for the modern nation-state. Additionally, lead seals with the Arabic phrase "Halahil Ardth Al-Urdun" (Master of the Land of Jordan), dating from the late 7th to early 8th century CE, have been found in Jordan as well. Additionally, Arab-Byzantine "Standing Caliph" coins minted under the Umayyads also have been found bearing the mint-mark of "Amman." Thus, usage of the names Al-Urdun/Jordan and Amman date back, to at least, the early decades of the Arab-Muslim takeover of the region.

Under the Umayyad's successors, the Abbasids (750-1258), Jordan was neglected and began to languish due to the geo-political shift that occurred when the Abassids moved their capital from Damascus to Kufa and later to Baghdad. After the decline of the Abbasids, parts of Jordan were ruled by various powers and empires including the Mongols, the Crusaders, the Ayyubids, the Mamlukes as well as the Ottomans who captured major parts of the Arab World around 1517.

Pictured below is an Umayyad post-reform fals minted within the first quarter of the 8th century bearing the mint name "Al-Urdun" (Jordan). According to most numismatists, this particular coin bearing the name of the Umayyad "jund" (military district) of Jordan, was probably struck in Tabariyya (Tiberias), the former capital of the province.

1920s to 1930s

With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the League of Nations and the occupying powers were required to redraw the borders of the Middle East. The ensuing decisions, most notably the Sykes–Picot Agreement gave birth to the French Mandate for Syria and British Mandate for Palestine. More than 70% of the British Mandate for Palestine territory was east of the Jordan river and was known as "Transjordan". Part of the British purpose in separating the mandate territory along the Jordan River was to create an Arab territory east of the river form which Jews would be excluded. The Permanent Court of International Justice and an International Court of Arbitration established by the Council of the League of Nations handed down rulings in 1925 which determined that Palestine and Transjordan were newly-created successor states of the Ottoman Empire as defined by international law
  

1940s

The mandate for Transjordan ended on May 22, 1946; on May 25, the country became the independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Transjordan was one of the Arab states opposed to the second partition of Palestine and creation of Israel in May 1948. It participated in the war between the Arab states and the newly founded State of Israel. The Armistice Agreements of April 3, 1949 left Jordan in control of the West Bank and provided that the armistice demarcation lines were without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines.
In March 1949, Transjordan announced its annexation of what is now commonly known as the West Bank, renaming it the West Bank, a reference to its location west of the Jordan River. Only two countries, however recognized this annexation: Britain and Pakistan. It is unknown why Pakistan recognized this annexation.

1950s

In 1950, the country was renamed "the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" to include officially those portions of Palestine annexed by King Abdullah. While recognizing Jordanian administration over the West Bank, the United States, other Western powers and the United Nations maintained the position that ultimate sovereignty was subject to future agreement.

On July 20, 1951, King Abdullah I was shot dead in Jerusalem while visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque. His assassin, a Palestinian from the Husseini clan, was apparently concerned that Jordan and Lebanon were discussing a separate peace with Israel. Abdullah's grandson, Prince Hussein Ibn Talal was with him at the time and was hit too. King Abdullah's eldest son, Talal Ibn Abdullah, was proclaimed king but he was deposed in 1952 because of a mental illness. His son Hussein Ibn Talal became king on his eighteenth birthday, in 1953.

Jordan ended its special defense treaty relationship with the United Kingdom in 1957. In February 1958, following announcement of the merger of Syria and Egypt into the United Arab Republic, Iraq and Jordan announced the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan, also known as the Arab Union. The Union was dissolved in August 1958.

The 1950s is often referred to "Jordan's Experiment with Liberalism". Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association were guaranteed in the newly written constitution as with the already firmly established freedom of religion doctrine. Jordan had one of the freest and most liberal societies in the Middle East and in the Greater Arab World during the 1950s and early 1960s.