Clockwise from the left top: Al-Salt's skyline, Great Mosque of Al-Salt, St. George Church, Latin Church, Al-Salt Castle, Al-Salt Archaeological Museum, Al-Hammam Road and Al-Salt Small Mosque.
Al-Salt (Arabic: السلطAl-Salt),[3] also known as Salt, is an ancient trading city and administrative centre in west-central Jordan. It is on the old main highway leading from Amman to Jerusalem. Situated in the Balqa highland, about 790–1,100metres above sea level, the city is built in the crook of three hills, close to the Jordan Valley. One of the three hills, Jabal al-Qal'a, is the site of a 13th-century ruined fortress. It is the capital of Balqa Governorate of Jordan.
The name "Salt" is derived from the Latin word saltus, which means "forest".
History
It is not known when the city was first inhabited, but it is believed to have been built by the Macedonian army during the reign of Alexander the Great. The city was known as Saltus in Byzantine times and was the seat of a bishopric. At this time, the city was considered to be the principal settlement on the East Bank of the Jordan River. The settlement was destroyed by the Mongols and then rebuilt during the reign of the Mamluk sultan Baibars (1260–1277).
Salt was once the most important settlement in the area between the Jordan Valley and the eastern desert. Because of its history as an important trading link between the eastern desert and the west, it was a significant place for the region's many rulers.[citation needed]
The Romans, Byzantines and Mameluks all contributed to the growth of the city, but it was at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, when the Ottomans established a regional administrative capital in Salt and encouraged settlement from other parts of their empire, that Salt enjoyed its most prosperous period.
Ottoman period
A street in the Old City with Ottoman motifsStairs leading past houses in the Old City
In 1596, during the Ottoman Empire, Salt was noted in the census as being located in the nahiya of Salt in the liwa of Ajlun, with a Muslim population of 40 households and 5 bachelors; and a Christian population of 25 households. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on various agricultural products; including wheat, barley, olive trees/vineyards, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a market toll; a total of 12,000 akçe.[5]
By the end of the 18th century, Salt was the sole permanent settlement in the Balqa region, a situation which persisted well into the 19th century.[6] The rest of the Balqa was dominated by the local Bedouin tribes.[6] It was the most developed city and commercial center of Transjordan from the 18th century until the early years of the Emirate of Transjordan.[6] The city's drinking water was supplied by two abundant springs, which also irrigated the town gardens along the Wadi Shu'ayb stream. It was situated along the slopes of a conical hill, at the top of which stood a fort, and along the ridges of two deep abutting valleys, which provided a natural defense against encroachments by neighboring Bedouin tribes. Salt's inhabitants negotiated terms with the tribes, who guaranteed the townspeople access to their wheat fields in the Balqa's eastern plains in return for giving the tribesmen access to the town's extensive markets.[6] Sharecropping agreements were formed with the tribes whereby Salt townspeople would encamp in Amman and Wadi Wala in the spring until harvest and paid an annual tribute to the dominant tribe of the Balqa.[7] Until around the 1810s, the paramount tribe was the Adwan, known as "lords of the Balqa".[7] Afterward, the Banu Sakhr overtook the Adwan and collected the tribute from Salt.[7]
The city's defenses and isolation in a land practically controlled by Bedouin tribes also enabled its inhabitants to ignore the impositions of the Ottoman authorities without consequence.[7] Western travelers in the early 19th century reported that the leader of the town effectively wielded the same authority as any of the provincial governors of Ottoman Syria appointed by the sultan.[8]
In the early 19th century, the townspeople mostly belonged to the clans of Fakhoury, Akrad, Awamila and Qatishat. Each clan was headed by its own sheikh, one or two of whom would act as the shaykh al-balad (city leader), who was based in the fort and was in charge of protecting Salt from Bedouin attack.[7] The population consisted of about four hundred Muslim and eighty Christian families.[7] According to the observations of Buckingham in the 1820s, roughly 100 Christians in Salt were immigrants from Nazareth who moved to the town to avoid the exactions of Jazzar Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Acre.[9] Muslim–Christian relations were amicable and the two communities shared the same lifestyles, dress and the Arabic language.[10] Salt was organized into quarters, each controlled by one of three main clans, and contained a number of mosques, a church and about twenty shops during this period.[7][11] Salt served the surrounding countryside as far as Karak, which lacked a market until the late 19th century, and goods in its market originated as far as Tyre and Egypt.[12] It exported raisins, sumac leaves for the tanneries of Jerusalem, qili (a type of ash, a key ingredient of Nabulsi soap) to Nablus, and ostrich feathers supplied by the Bedouin to Damascus.[12][13] Nablus was Salt's primary partner,[7] and Salt served as the Transjordanian center of the Nablus-based Tuqan family.[14] Although most of the inhabitants were farmers, there were also craftsmen and smaller numbers of shopkeepers, the latter of whom were commissioned by merchants in Nablus, Nazareth and Damascus.[11][13]
In 1834 the townspeople and local Bedouin fought together to drive out the forces of the practically autonomous province of Egypt led by Ibrahim Pasha, the first recorded clash of the Peasants' revolt in Palestine.[14] Ottoman rule in the Levant was restored in 1840, but Salt remained only nominally part of the Empire.[15] In 1866–1867, the governor of Damascus Mehmed Rashid Pasha (1866–1871) extended the imperial Tanzimat centralization and modernization reforms in Transjordan.[15] He led a large force of Bedouin tribesmen from the Rwala, Wuld Ali and Banu Hasan, Hauran plainsmen, Druze mountaineers and regular infantry, cavalry and artillery troops toward Salt, stopping three hours north of the city.[15] From there, he offered to pardon Salt's inhabitants for allying with the Adwan and Banu Sakhr against the authorities.[15] The city organized a delegation of Muslim and Christian grandees who negotiated the unopposed entry of the Ottomans into Salt on 17 August.[15] Rashid Pasha repaired the damaged fort where he garrisoned 400 troops.[15] He appointed the Damascene Kurd Faris Agha Kadru as Salt's first district governor and established an elected administrative council composed of Salt's elite families.[15] Rashid Pasha confiscated huge qualities of grain and livestock from the town as compensation for tax arrears.[15]
Salt's heyday was in the late 19th century, when traders arrived from Nablus to expand their trading network eastwards beyond the Jordan River. As a result of the influx of newcomers this period saw the rapid expansion of Salt from a simple village into a city with many architecturally elegant buildings, many built in the Nablusi style from the attractive honey-coloured local stone. A large number of buildings from this era survive as of 2009[update].
After the war, the town was the site which Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner of Palestine, chose to make his announcement that the British favoured a HejaziHashemite ruled entity on the East Bank of the Mandatory Palestine (current Jordan). This wish became reality in 1921 when Abdullah I became Emir of Transjordan. Salt seemed to be the city that would be chosen as the capital of the new emirate since most of the industry and commerce flowed through Salt. During this period Salt had no high schools. Even so, Abdullah picked the city as the capital of his emerging emirate but later changed his mind and moved his compound and entourage to Amman when he and the notables of Salt had a disagreement.[dubious–discuss] Amman at that time was a small city of only 20,000 people which experienced rapid growth.[citation needed]
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 16,176 inhabitants in Al-Salt,[18] of whom 2,157 were Christian.[19]
Municipal districts
Closed shops in an As-Salt souk
The Greater Salt Municipality is divided into nine districts:
Salt contains many schools, including a public secondary school dating back to 1918, as well as many private schools that date back to the 1800s, such as the Latin School and the Catholic School. It is also the home of the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf, a non-profit educational center for people with hearing impairment. The city has two universities surrounding it: Al-Balqa` Applied University established in 1997 and Al-Ahliyya Amman University (Amman National University) located on the highway connecting Amman to Salt.[citation needed]
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, when the Ottomans established a regional administrative base in Salt and encouraged settlement from other parts of the empire, the city's status increased, many merchants arrived and, with their newly acquired wealth, built the fine houses that can still be admired in Salt today.
These splendid yellow sandstone buildings incorporate a variety of styles. Typically, they have domed roofs, interior courtyards and characteristic tall, arched windows. Perhaps the most beautiful is the Abu Jaber mansion, built between 1892 and 1906, which has frescoed ceilings, painted by Italian artists, and is reputed to be the finest example of a 19th-century merchant house in the region.
Roman tombs and Ayyubid citadel
Tightly built on a cluster of three hills, Salt has several other places of interest, including Roman tombs on the outskirts of the city and the citadel and site of the town's early 13th century Ayyubid fortress, which was built by Al-Mu'azzam Isa, the nephew of Saladin soon after AD 1198.
Museums
Salt's Archaeological & Folklore Museum displays artifacts dating back to the Chalcolithic period to the Islamic era as well as other items relating to the history of the area. In the folklore museum there is presentation of Bedouin and traditional costumes and everyday folkloric items. A small museum and a handicraft school are presenting the traditional skills of ceramics, weaving, silk-screen printing and dyeing.
Muslim shrines
In the city of Salt and its environs, there are several Muslim shrines at the traditional tombs of the prophetsShuaib, Ayyoub, Yusha, and Jadur, the Arabic names of the biblical characters Jethro, Job, Joshua, and Gad. These sites of Muslim pilgrimage are known as An-Nabi Shu'ayb, An-Nabi Ayyub, An-Nabi Yusha' bin Noon, and 'Ayn al-Jadur ("Spring of Jadur") respectively, an-nabi being Arabic for "the prophet".
↑ "عدد سكان المملكة المقدر حسب البلدية والجنس في نھاية 2018"[Estimated Population of the Kingdom by Municipality and Sex, at End-year 2018](PDF) (in Arabic). Family and Population Surveys Directorate – Department of Population and Social Statistics. 2018. Archived from the original(PDF) on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
The history of Jordan refers to the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the background period of the Emirate of Transjordan under British protectorate as well as the general history of the region of Transjordan.
Ma'an is a city in southern Jordan, 218 kilometres (135 mi) southwest of the capital Amman. It serves as the capital of the Ma'an Governorate. Its population was approximately 41,055 in 2015. Civilizations with the name of Ma'an have existed at least since the Nabatean period—the modern city is just northwest of the ancient town. The city is an important transport hub situated on the ancient King's Highway and also on the modern Desert Highway.
Sahab is a municipality in Jordan located 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) southeast of the capital Amman. It is the only locality in the Sahab District of the Amman Governorate. Modern Sahab began as a Bedouin-owned plantation village in the late 19th century during Ottoman rule. The plantation was originally worked by Egyptian migrant farmers who purchased and permanently settled the lands in 1894 and developed Sahab into an agricultural estate. Sahab became its own municipality in 1962 and today is a densely populated industrial hub. It is home to the country's largest industrial city, the Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein Industrial Estate, and the largest cemetery in greater Amman, as well as the Caves of Raqeem site mentioned in the Qur'an. The population of Sahab in 2015 was 169,434.
The Beni Sakhar confederacy is one of the largest and most influential tribal confederacies in The Kingdoms of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Its founder, Sakher bin Tha'labah al Tayy, a great-grandson of Jalhamah, likely lived in the 3rd century AD, making the tribe around 18 centuries old. The Bani Sakher began migrating to The Levant from the Hejaz as early as the 16th century and their influence continued growing until they became the most powerful tribe in northwestern Arabia around the mid 18th century.
Barazin, also spelled Barazayn, is a town in the Amman Governorate of north-western Jordan.
The Peasants' Revolt was a rebellion against Egyptian conscription and taxation policies in Palestine. While rebel ranks consisted mostly of the local peasantry, urban notables and Bedouin tribes also formed an integral part of the revolt. This was a collective reaction to Egypt's gradual elimination of the unofficial rights and privileges previously enjoyed by the various classes of society in the Levant under Ottoman rule.
The Tuqan clan is a prominent Palestinian and Jordanian political and business family. During the Ottoman era, they dominated the political and socio-economic spheres in Nablus and extended their influence to al-Salt. During that era, they were the only household that came close to establishing centralized rule over Jabal Nablus. Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the Tuqan family held the title of mutasallim of Nablus longer than any other local family.
Aqil Agha al-Hasi was the strongman of northern Palestine in the mid-19th century, during Ottoman rule. He was originally a commander of Arab irregular soldiers, known as the Hawwara tribe, in the service of the Ottoman governors of Acre. His influence in the Galilee grew as he strengthened his alliances with the powerful Beni Sakhr and Anizzah tribes of Transjordan, and recruited unemployed Bedouin irregulars from Egypt into his own band of irregulars, who thenceforth became known as the Hanadi tribe. He was known by his men and Western travelers to be courageous, cunning and charismatic, all qualities that contributed to his rise as the de facto ruler of the Galilee.
Sweileh is district number sixteen in Amman, Jordan out of twenty-seven. It lies to the north of the city center. It was founded by Chechen settlers in 1906 during Ottoman rule. It had a population of 151,016 in the 2015 census. The town is known for having a good climate throughout the year, it is one of the few districts of Amman that sees snow during winter due to its high altitude. The cultivation of olives and grapes, heavy industries, such as auto assembly, steel, and cement, make up the local economy. Today, it is considered one of Amman's most populated districts since it has the University of Jordan and is a connection point to other cities such as Salt, Irbid and Jarash.
Azzun is a Palestinian town in Qalqilya Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 9 kilometers east of Qalqilya and 24 kilometers south of Tulkarm.
The Adwan Rebellion or the Balqa Revolt was the largest uprising against the newly established Transjordanian government, headed by Mezhar Ruslan, during its first years.
Mustafa Wahbi Tal, also known by his pen name Arar, was a Jordanian poet, writer, teacher and civil servant, widely regarded as Jordan's most prominent poet and among the best-known Jordanian poets among Arab readers.
Jalul is an archaeological site and small village in the Amman Governorate in northwestern Jordan.
The 1757 Hajj caravan raid was the plunder and massacre of the Hajj caravan of 1757 on its return to Damascus from Mecca by Bedouin tribesmen. The caravan was under the protection of an Ottoman force led by the Wali of Damascus, Husayn Pasha, and his deputy Musa Pasha, while the Bedouin were led by Qa'dan al-Fayez of the Bani Sakher tribe. An estimated 20,000 pilgrims were either killed or died of hunger or thirst as a result of the raid.
Mehmed Rashid Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who served as the vali (governor) of Syria Vilayet in 1866–1871 and as minister of foreign affairs of the Ottoman government in 1873–1874 and 1875 until his death. Rashid Pasha was raised in Egypt where his father was an aide of the governor Muhammad Ali and was educated in Paris before joining government service in Istanbul in 1851. There he became a protege of the grand vizier Ali Pasha, a key figure in the empire-wide Tanzimat reforms. After the latter was reappointed grand vizier in 1866, Rashid Pasha was appointed governor of the Damascus-centered Syria Vilayet which extended from Tripoli and Hama in the north to Palestine and Transjordan in the south.
Siege of Al-Karak was a 17-day siege imposed by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt on the Transjordanian town of Al-Karak in 1834. The Pasha laid the siege on the town in pursuit of Qasim al-Ahmad, the leader of the Peasants' revolt in Palestine, who had fled from Nablus to take shelter in Al-Karak.
The Balqa, known colloquially as the Balga, is a geographic region in central Jordan generally defined as the highlands east of the Jordan Valley in between the Zarqa River to the north and the Wadi Mujib gorge to the south.
Circassians in Jordan are descendants of Circassian refugees that arrived in Jordan in the late 19th century, after being exiled during the Circassian genocide in the 1860s and later the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). They settled in Jordan, then a part of Ottoman Syria, in and around Amman and Jerash. Circassians are credited with founding modern Amman as the city had been previously abandoned.
The House of Fayez(Arabic: الفايز or, colloquially: Al-Fayez, Alfayez, Al Fayez, Al Faiz, Al Fayiz) is a noble sheikhly Jordanian family that heads the major Jordanian clan Bani Sakher. The family's influence and prominence in the region was at its ultimate under Fendi Al-Fayez, who led the family in the 1840s and gradually became the leader of the entire Bani Sakher. Fendi would rule large parts of Jordan and Palestine, including the ancient Kingdoms of Moab and Ammon, and parts of modern-day Saudi Arabia until the late 1860s when a series of battles with the Ottoman Empire decreased the family's resources and claimed a portion of its holdings. After Fendi, his young son Sattam led the tribe in a push to cultivate the lands and live a more sedentary lifestyle, then under Mithqal Alfayez as a permanent political power in modern Jordan. The family was the largest owner of land in Jordan and owned portions of modern day Palestine, and Mithqal was the single largest owner of private land in the kingdom in 1922. The Al-Fayez family is active in Jordanian and Arabian politics and is currently headed by former Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez.
Fendi bin Abbas bin Awad Al Fayez was an Arab tribal leader and a sovereign Emir from the Al-Fayez family who was the paramount Sheikh of the Bani Sakher clan from the 1820s up until his death. He is widely regarded as the most influential figure in the Bani Sakher, dubbed the Old King east of the Jordan and one of the most powerful tribal figures in Arabia in the 19th century. Fendi's first documented tribal battle was as early as 1820 when he was just twenty years old.
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