[edit]
See also: Timeline of Amman
Neolithic period[edit]
Main article: Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)
The ʿAin Ghazal statues, which are considered to be the oldest large-scale human statues ever found, on display at the Jordan Archaeological Museum
The Neolithic site of ʿAin Ghazal today lies in the outskirts of Amman. At its height, around 7000 BC (9000 years ago), it had an area of 15 hectares (37 acres) and was inhabited by c. 3000 people (four to five times the population of contemporary Jericho). At that time, the site was a typical aceramic Neolithic village. Its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, whose walls were made up of lime plaster. The site was discovered in 1974 as construction workers were working on a road crossing the area. By 1982, when the excavations started, around 600 meters (2,000 feet) of road ran through the site. Despite the damage brought by urban expansion, the remains of ʿAin Ghazal provided a wealth of information.
ʿAin Ghazal is well known for a set of small human statues found in 1983, when local archeologists stumbled upon the edge of a large pit containing them. These statues are human figures made with white plaster, with painted eyes. Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, and two fragmentary heads. Three of the busts depicted two-headed characters, the significance of which is not clear.
Iron Age: the Ammonites[edit]
Main article: Ammon
Rujm Al-Malfouf, Ammonite watch tower built around 1000 BC, currently located in a residential area
In the 13th century BC, Amman was the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom, and became known as "Rabat Amman". Rabat Amman provided several natural resources to the region, including sandstone and limestone, along with a productive agricultural sector that made it a vital location along the King's Highway, the ancient trade route connecting Egypt with Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia. As with the Edomites and Moabites, trade along this route gave the Ammonites considerable revenue. Milcom is named in the Hebrew Bible as the national god of Rabat Amman. Another ancient deity, Moloch, usually associated with the use of children as offerings, is also mentioned in the Bible as a god of the Ammonites, but this is probably a mistake for Milcom. However, excavations by archeologists near Amman Civil Airport uncovered a temple, which included an altar containing many human bone fragments. The bones showed evidence of burning, which led to the assumption that the altar functioned as a pyre and used for human sacrifice.
Amman is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, the Ammonite king Hanun allied with Hadadezer, king of Aram-Zobah, against the United Kingdom of Israel. During the war, Joab, the captain of King David's army, laid siege to Rabbah, Hanun's royal capital, and destroyed it. Hanun's brother, Shobi, was made king in his place, and became a loyal vassal of David. Hundreds of years later, the prophet Jeremiah foresaw the coming destruction and final desolation of the city.
Several Ammonite ruins across Amman exist, such as Rujm Al-Malfouf and some parts of the Amman Citadel. The ruins of Rujm Al-Malfouf consist of a stone watchtower used to ensure the protection of their capital and several store rooms to the east. The city was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Babylonians and the Achaemenid Persians.
Classical and late antiquity[edit]
Main article: Philadelphia (Amman)
Hellenistic period[edit]
Conquest of the Near East by Alexander the Great firmly consolidated the influence of Hellenistic culture, marking the start of the Hellenistic period. Little is known about Greek/Macedonian control over the Levantine coast and Transjordan until 301 BCE, 22 years after Alexander's death, when the Ptolemies took control over this area. The Greeks founded new cities in the area of modern-day Jordan, including Gadara (Umm Qays), Gerasa (Jerash), Pella (Tabaqat Fahl) and Philadelphia (Amman). Ptolemy II nicknamed Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of Egypt, established in or before 259/58 BCE at the site of Amman what was initially probably a military colony, which then developed into a full-blown Greek-type polis, possibly by settling there Hellenised Tyrean colonists. Ptolemy II named it Philadelphia (Ancient Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια, romanized: Philadelpheia), evoking "brotherly love" in Greek, in adulation to his own nickname.
Written sources speak of members of the Jewish Tobiad family based in Jerusalem, who worked for the Ptolemies as tax collectors in charge of the entire region. The last known Tobiad, Hyrcanus, built the unique Hellenistic palace of Tyros (today's Qasr al-Abd, 'Castle of the Slave') southwest of Philadelpheia, before killing himself in c. 170-168 BC as the Seleucid king Antiochus IV seemed poised to attack him. This was one of several episodes in the Syrian Wars between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, ending with the 200 BCE victory of the Seleucids at the Battle of Panium. In 218/17 BCE for instance, Seleucid king Antiochus III destroyed the Ptolemaic garrisons in the centre of Transjordan, capturing Philadelpheia in the process. Even after 200 BCE, Philadelpheia seems to have broken free at times from Seleucid rule and probably also escaped capture by Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaios (r. c. 103 – c. 76 BCE), who was more successful elsewhere in the region. Other Hasmonean and Nabataean rulers acted as regional power brokers, contributing to the instability of the political situation during the 2nd century BCE and until the advent of the Roman period in the following century, which led to the Hellenisation of the region only truly setting in under the Romans.
Roman period[edit]
Great Temple ("Temple of Hercules") at the Amman Citadel (Jabal Al-Qalaa)
The Roman Theatre, built around AD 100, and the modern Hashemite Plaza
The Romans conquered much of the Levant in 63 BC, inaugurating a period of imperial rule conducted from Rome that lasted for four centuries. In the northern parts of modern-day Jordan, the Greek cities of Philadelphia (Amman), Gerasa, Gedara, Pella and Arbila joined with other cities in Palestine and southern parts of today's Syria to form the Decapolis League, a confederation based on common economic and cultural interests (see also Scythopolis, Hippos, Capitolias, Canatha and Damascus). Philadelphia became a point along a road stretching from Ailah to Damascus that was built by Emperor Trajan in AD 106. This provided an economic boost for the city in a short period of time.
There are traces of Roman construction all across Jordan. In Amman the most conspicuous structures include the Great Temple (inaccurately known as the "Temple of Hercules") at the Amman Citadel, the Roman Theatre, the Odeon, and the Nymphaeum. The two theaters and the nymphaeum fountain were built during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius around AD 161. The theatre was the larger venue of the two and had a capacity for 6,000 attendees. It was oriented north and built into the hillside, to protect the audience from the sun. To the northeast of the theatre was a small odeon. Built at roughly the same time as the theatre, the Odeon had 500 seats and is still in use today for music concerts. Archaeologists speculate that the structure was originally covered with a wooden roof to shield the audience from the weather. The Nymphaeum is situated southwest of the Odeon and served as Philadelphia's chief fountain. The Nymphaeum is believed to have contained a 600 square meters (6,500 sq ft) pool which was 3 meters (9.8 ft) deep and was continuously refilled with water.
Byzantine period[edit]
During the late Byzantine period in the seventh century, several bishops were based in the city; a number of church sites from the Byzantine period have been discovered there - see List of Byzantine churches in Amman.
Early Muslim period (7th–11th century)[edit]
See also: Desert castles
The Umayyad Palace and mosque on top of Amman's Citadel Hill, built around AD 700
Depiction of Philadelphia in the mosaics of the Church of St Stephen in Umm ar-Rasas, dating to the 8th century
In the 630s, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the region from the Byzantines, beginning the Islamic era in the Levant. Philadelphia was renamed "Amman" by the Muslims and became part of the district of Jund Dimashq. A large part of the population already spoke Arabic, which facilitated integration into the caliphate, as well as several conversions to Islam. Under the Umayyad caliphs who began their rule in 661 AD, numerous desert castles were established as a means to govern the desert area of modern-day Jordan, several of which are still well-preserved. Amman had already been functioning as an administrative centre. The Umayyads built a large palace on the Amman Citadel hill, known today as the Umayyad Palace. Amman was later destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters, including a particularly severe earthquake in 749. The Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids three years later.
Amman's importance declined by the mid-8th century after damage caused by several earthquakes rendered it uninhabitable. Excavations among the collapsed layer of the Umayyad Palace have revealed remains of kilns from the time of the Abbasids (750–969) and the Fatimids (969–1099). In the late 9th century, Amman was noted as the "capital" of the Balqa by geographer al-Yaqubi. Likewise, in 985, the Jerusalemite historian al-Muqaddasi described Amman as the capital of Balqa, that it was a town in the desert fringe of Syria surrounded by villages and cornfields and a regional source of lambs, grain and honey. Its inhabitants he reports, at the time, were Shia Muslims. Furthermore, al-Muqaddasi describes Amman as a "harbor of the desert" where Arab Bedouin would take refuge, and that its citadel, which overlooked the town, contained a small mosque.
Crusaders and Ayyubids (12th–13th century)[edit]
The occupation of the Citadel Hill by the Kingdom of Jerusalem is so far based only on interpretations of Crusader sources. William of Tyre writes in his Historia that in 1161 Philip of Milly received the castle of Ahamant, which is seen to refer to Amman, as part of the lordship of Oultrejordain. In 1166 Philip joined the military order of the Knights Templar, passing on to them a significant part of his fief including the castle of Ahamant or "Haman", as it is named in the deed of confirmation issued by King Amalric. By 1170, Amman was in Ayyubid hands. The remains of a watch tower on Citadel Hill, first attributed to the Crusaders, now are preferentially dated to the Ayyubid period, leaving it to further research to find the location of the Crusader castle. During the Ayyubid period, the Damascene geographer al-Dimashqi wrote that Amman was part of the province of al-Karak, although "only ruins" remained of the town.
Mamluk period (13th–early 16th century)[edit]
During the Mamluk era (late 13th–early 16th century), the region of Amman was a part of Wilayat Balqa, the southernmost district of Mamlakat Dimashq (Damascus Province). The capital of the district in the first half of the 14th century was the minor administrative post of Hisban, which had a considerably smaller garrison than the other administrative centers in Transjordan, namely Ajlun and al-Karak. In 1321, the geographer Abu'l Fida, recorded that Amman was "a very ancient town" with fertile soil and surrounded by agricultural fields. For unclear, though likely financial reasons, in 1356, the capital of Balqa was transferred from Hisban to Amman, which was considered a madina (city). In 1357, Emir Sirghitmish bought Amman in its entirety, most likely to use revenues from the city to help fund the Madrasa of Sirghitmish, which he built in Cairo that same year. After his purchase of the city, Sirghitmish transferred the courts, administrative bureaucracy, markets and most of the inhabitants of Hisban to Amman. Moreover, he financed new building works in the city.
Ownership of Amman following Sirghitmish's death in 1358 passed to successive generations of his descendants until 1395, when his descendants sold it to Emir Baydamur al-Khwarazmi, the na'ib as-saltana (viceroy) of Damascus. Afterward, part of Amman's cultivable lands were sold to Emir Sudun al-Shaykhuni (died 1396), the na'ib as-saltana of Egypt. The increasingly frequent division and sale of the city and lands of Amman to different owners signalled declining revenues coming from Amman, while at the same time, Hisban was restored as the major city of the Balqa in the 15th century. From then until 1878, Amman was an abandoned site periodically used to shelter seasonal farmers who cultivated arable lands in its vicinity and by Bedouin tribes who used its pastures and water. The Ottoman Empire annexed the region of Amman in 1516, but for much of the Ottoman period, al-Salt functioned as the virtual political center of Transjordan.
Modern era (1878–present)[edit]
The historical center of Amman, showing the Roman ruins in 1878 immediately before its modern resettlement (left), and the same area in 2012 (right)
Late Ottoman period (1878–1917)[edit]
Amman began to be resettled in 1878, when several hundred Muslim Circassians arrived following their expulsion from the North Caucasus by the Russian Empire during the events of the Russo-Circassian War. Between 1878 and 1910, tens of thousands of Circassians became refugees in the Ottoman Empire, which had moved large numbers of them into its province of Syria. The Ottoman authorities directed the Circassians, who were mainly of peasant stock, to settle in Amman, and distributed arable land among them. Their settlement was a partial manifestation of the Ottoman statesman Kamil Pasha's project, which did not materialize, to establish the Amman Province (vilayet) which, along with other sites in its vicinity, would become Circassian-populated townships guaranteeing the security of the Damascus–Medina highway. The first Circassian settlers, who belonged to the Shapsug tribe, lived near Amman's Roman theater and incorporated its stones into the houses they built. The English traveller Laurence Oliphant noted in his 1879 visit that most of the original Circassian settlers had left Amman by then, with about 150 remaining. They were joined by Circassians from the Kabardian and Abzakh tribes in 1880–1892.
The first scientific map of Amman, 1881. The British surveyors noted that: "The Circassian colony established by the Sultan at Amman about 1879 [is] neither prosperous nor likely to become so".
Until 1900 settlement was concentrated in the valley and slopes of the Amman stream and settlers built mud-brick houses with wooden roofs. The French Dominican priest Marie-Joseph Lagrange commented in 1890 about Amman: "A mosque, the ancient bridges, all that jumbled with the houses of the Circassians gives Amman a remarkable physiognomy". The new village became a nahiye (subdistrict) center of the kaza of al-Salt in the Karak Sanjak established in 1894. By 1908 Amman contained 800 houses divided between three main quarters, Shapsug, Kabartai and Abzakh, each called after the Circassian groupings which respectively settled there, a number of mosques, open-air markets, shops, bakeries, mills, a textile factory, a post and telegraph office and a government compound (saraya). Kurdish settlers formed their own quarter called "al-Akrad" after them, while a number of townspeople from nearby al-Salt and al-Fuheis, seeking to avoid high taxes and conscription or attracted by financial incentives, and traders from Najd and Morocco, had also moved to the town.
Ottoman Ten Arches Bridge, built in 1910 near Amman as part of the Hejaz railway
The city's demographics changed dramatically after the Ottoman government's decision to construct the Hejaz Railway, which linked Damascus and Medina, and facilitated the annual Hajj pilgrimage and trade. Operational in central Transjordan since 1903, the Hejaz Railway helped to transform Amman from a small village into a major commercial hub in the region. Circassian entrepreneurship, facilitated by the railway, helped to attract investment from merchants from Damascus, Nablus, and Jerusalem, many of whom moved to Amman in the 1900s and 1910s. Some of the Arab families who arrived from surrounding regions during this period include Hudhud, Malas, Idlibi, Bdeir, Haddad, and Kawar. Although they settled after the local Circassian population and Bedouins of Jordan, they earned the nickname 'Founding Families of Amman' for establishing key institutions such as pharmacies and construction firms, and for bringing goods and expertise from their more developed cities of origin. Amman's first municipal council was established in 1909, and Circassian Ismael Babouk was elected as its mayor.
First World War
The First and Second Battle of Amman were part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I and the Arab Revolt, taking place in 1918. Amman had a strategic location along the Hejaz Railway; its capture by British forces and the Hashemite Arab army facilitated the British advance towards Damascus. The second battle was won by the British, resulting in the establishment of the British Mandate.
British Mandate; Emirate of Transjordan (1921–1946)[edit]
Amman 1928
In 1921, the Hashemite emir and later king Abdullah I designated Amman instead of al-Salt to be the capital of the newly created state, the Emirate of Transjordan, which became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1950. Its function as the capital of the country attracted immigrants from different Levantine areas, particularly from al-Salt, a nearby city that had been the largest urban settlement east of the Jordan River at the time. The early settlers who came from Palestine were overwhelmingly from Nablus, from which many of al-Salt's inhabitants had originated. They were joined by other immigrants from Damascus. Amman later attracted people from the southern part of the country, particularly al-Karak and Madaba. The city's population was around 10,000 in the 1930s.
The British report from 1933 shows around 1,700 Circassians living in Amman. Yet the community was far from insulated. Local urban and nomadic communities formed alliances with the Circassians, some of which are still present today. This cemented the status of Circassians in the re-established city.
Post-independence (1946–present)[edit]
Amman in 1985
Amman in 2013
Jordan gained its independence in 1946 and Amman was designated the country's capital. Amman received many refugees during wartime events in nearby countries, beginning with the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. A second wave arrived after the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1970, Amman was a battlefield during the conflict between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian Army known as Black September. The Jordanian Army defeated the PLO in 1971, and the latter were expelled to Lebanon. The first wave of Iraqi refugees settled in the city after the 1991 Gulf War, with a second wave occurring in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
On 9 November 2005, Al-Qaeda under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's leadership launched coordinated explosions in three hotel lobbies in Amman, resulting in 60 deaths and 115 injured. The bombings, which targeted civilians, caused widespread outrage among Jordanians. Jordan's security as a whole was dramatically improved after the attack, and no major terrorist attacks have been reported since then. Most recently a wave of Syrian refugees have arrived in the city during the ongoing Syrian Civil War which began in 2011. Amman was a principal destination for refugees for the security and prosperity it offered.
During the 2010s, the city has experienced an economic, cultural and urban boom. The large growth in population has significantly increased the need for new accommodation, and new districts of the city were established at a quick pace. This strained Jordan's scarce water supply and exposed Amman to the dangers of quick expansion without careful municipal planning.
