📰 Amman

Amman[8] is the capital and the largest city of Jordan corpus, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center.[9]1 With a population of five million as of 2024, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant region, the seventh-largest city in the Arab world, and the eighth-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East.[10]2

Settlement in Amman dates to the 8th millennium BC at 'Ain Ghazal, home to the world's oldest human statues.3 During the Iron Age, Rabat Aman was the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom.4 In the 3rd century BC, the city was conquered by the Greeks and renamed Philadelphia, later part of the Nabataean, and the Roman realms.5 In the 7th century, Philadelphia was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate, who restored its original name.6 Throughout most of the Islamic era, Amman alternated between periods of relative prosperity and devastation.7 The city was largely abandoned during the Ottoman period from the 15th century until 1878, when Circassians were resettled there.8 Amman grew after it was connected to the Hejaz Railway, and the subsequent formation of its first municipal council in 1909.[11]9

Amman witnessed rapid growth after its designation as Transjordan's capital in 1921, receiving migrations from different Jordanian and Levantine cities, and later several successive waves of refugees: Palestinians in 1948 and 1967; Iraqis in 1990 and 2003; and Syrians since 2011.10 It was initially built on seven hills, but now spans over 19 hills combining 22 areas,[11] which are administered by the Greater Amman Municipality.[12]11 Areas of Amman have gained their names from either the hills (jabal) or the valleys (wadi) they occupy, such as Jabal al-Luweibdeh and Wadi Abdoun.[11]12 East Amman is predominantly filled with historic sites that frequently host cultural activities, while West Amman is more modern and serves as the economic center of the city.[13]13

Approximately one million visitors arrived in Amman in 2018, which made it the 89th most-visited city in the world and the 12th most-visited Arab city.14 Amman has a relatively fast growing economy[14] and it is ranked as a Beta− global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[15]15 Moreover, it was named one of the Middle East and North Africa's best cities according to economic, labor, environmental, and socio-cultural factors.[16]16 The city is among the most popular locations in the Arab world for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha corpus and only behind Dubai.[17]17 Amman has a bus network, including a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that serves the city and connects it to neighboring Zarqa.18 Amman is served by two airports.19

Etymology

Amman derives its name from the ancient people of the Ammonites, whose capital the city had been since the 13th century BC.20 The Ammonites named it Rabat ʿAmmān (𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍),[6] with the term Rabat meaning the "Capital" or the "King's Quarters".21 In the Hebrew Bible, the town is referred to as Rabbaṯ Bənē ʿAmmōn (רַבַּת בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן) or simply Rabbā (רַבָּה),[18] and it appears in English translations as "Rabbah of the Ammonites," "Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, or "Rabbath Ammon."22 Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who reigned from 283 to 246 BC, renamed the city Philadelphia (Φιλαδέλφεια; literally: "brotherly love"), after himself, after occupying it.[19]23 By the Islamic era, the Rashidun Caliphate restored its ancient Semitic name and called it Amman in the 7th century AD.[20]24

History

See also: Timeline of Amman

Prehistoric and Iron Age periods

Neolithic period

Main article: Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)

The Neolithic site of ʿAin Ghazal today lies in the outskirts of Amman.25 At its height, around 7000 BC, it had an area of 15 ha and was inhabited by c. 3,000 people (four to five times the population of contemporary Jericho).26 At that time, the site was a typical aceramic Neolithic village.27 Its houses were rectangular mud-bricked buildings that included a main square living room, whose walls were made up of lime plaster.[21]28 The site was discovered in 1974 as construction workers were working on a road crossing the area.29 By 1982, when the excavations started, around 600 m of road ran through the site.30 Despite the damage brought by urban expansion, the remains of ʿAin Ghazal provided a wealth of information.[22]31

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.[23]32 These statues are human figures made with white plaster, with painted eyes.33 Thirty-two figures were found in two caches, fifteen of them full figures, fifteen busts, and two fragmentary heads.34 Three of the busts depicted two-headed characters, the significance of which is not clear.[22]35

Rabbath Amman

Main article: Ammon

In the 13th century BC, Amman was the capital of the Ammonite Kingdom, and became known as "Rabat Amman".36 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.37 As with the Edomites and Moabites, trade along this route gave the Ammonites considerable revenue.[24]38 Milcom is named in the Hebrew Bible as the national god of Rabat Amman.39 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.40 However, excavations by archeologists near Amman Civil Airport uncovered a temple, which included an altar containing many human bone fragments.41 The bones showed evidence of burning, which led to the assumption that the altar functioned as a pyre and used for human sacrifice.[25][26]42

Amman is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible.43 According to the biblical narrative, the Ammonite king Hanun allied with Hadadezer, king of Aram-Zobah, against the United Kingdom of Israel.44 During the war, Joab, the captain of King David's army, laid siege to Rabbah, Hanun's royal capital, and destroyed it.45 Hanun's brother, Shobi, was made king in his place, and became a loyal vassal of David.46 Hundreds of years later, the prophet Jeremiah foresaw the coming destruction and final desolation of the city.[27][28]47 Several Ammonite ruins across Amman exist, such as Rujm Al-Malfouf and some parts of the Amman Citadel.48 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.[29][30]49 The city was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Babylonians and the Achaemenid Persians.[31]50

Philadelphia

Main article: Philadelphia (Amman)

Founding by the Greeks

The conquest of the Near East by the Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great in 332 BC introduced Hellenistic culture into the region.[32]51 After Alexander's death, his empire split among his generals, with the Ptolemies based in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria.[32]52 The Ptolemic-Seleucid rivalry, also known as the Syrian Wars, left the region east of the Jordan River a disputed frontier, with Ammon increasing in strategic importance, considering its citadel hill.[33][34]53 The Macedonian ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy II, established a number of cities in the region, including one in Ammon at a site that was initially a military colony, which then developed into a full-blown Greek-type city (polis),[35] possibly by settling there Hellenised Tyrean colonists.[36]54 Ptolemy II renamed Ammon to Philadelphia (Φιλαδέλφεια) to honor his own epithet, which he had acquired after having married his older sister, with both being called "Philadelphoi" (Koine Greek: Φιλάδελφοι "Sibling-lovers").55 (But the marriage may not have been consummated, since it produced no children.)[36]56

Arab Nabataean control and rule

Written sources speak of members of the Jewish Tobiad family based in Jerusalem corpus, who ruled Philadelphia on behalf of the Ptolemies as tax collectors and built a unique palace (today's Qasr al-Abd, 'Castle of the Slave') on the city's southwestern outskirts.[34]57 Philadelphia switched hands between the Ptolemis and the Seleucids several times, until the 200 BCE victory of the Seleucids at the Battle of Panium.[34]58 The Arab Nabataeans exploited the Seleucid-Ptolemic wars to establish their Nabatean Kingdom centered in Raqmu (Petra) in the third century BC, which kept Philadelphia in a border zone.[33]59 The Nabataeans exercised a form of control in Philadelphia with Seleucid decline in the second century BC.[37][38]60 Nabataean presence in the cities of the Decapolis was prominent, with the most substantial archaeological evidence found in Philadelphia, which indicates presence of a large Nabataean community in the city during the first century AD.[38]61

Decapolis and flourishing under Roman rule

The Romans conquered much of the Levant under Pompey in 63 BC, inaugurating a period of imperial rule that lasted for four centuries.62 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 corpus to form the Decapolis League, an autonomous confederation based on common economic and cultural interests.[39]63 The Roman Empire formally annexed the Nabataean Kingdom in AD 106, which it organized as the province of Arabia Petraea, and to which Philadelphia was attached.[37]64 After the annexation, the Romans under Emperor Trajan constructed around the year 111 the Via Traiana Nova, 'Trajan's New Road', which connected the ancient Red Sea port of Aila (Aqaba) with Bostra, the provincial capital of Arabia Petraea.[33]65 Philadelphia thrived as a trading center and became an important stop on the new road.[40][41]66

The second century AD saw Philadelphia thriving, with the city being rebuilt in the classical Roman style, with a large theater, a smaller odeon theater, a nymphaeum, public baths, a forum, and a network of colonnaded streets in the valley, as well as a propylaeon with stairs connecting it to the acropolis on Citadel Hill, where a temple dedicated to Hercules was built.[33][40]67 A gymnasium is also believed to have existed in the city, but it has so far not been discovered.[37]68 The network of colonnaded streets included the usual Roman east–west road known as Decumanus and a north-south road known as Cardo; the remains of neither survive today.[37]69

Christian Byzantine rule

With the beginning of the 4th century AD, the Eastern Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the state religion under Constantine, which started the Byzantine period.[37]70 Knowledge about Philadelphia in the Byzantine period is scant.[37]71 In the early 300s AD, Greek historian Eusebius noted in the Onomasticon that "Philadelphia was a distinguished city of Arabia."[37]72 During the Byzantine period, no new walls were constructed at the Citadel Hill, and many churches were built in Philadelphia.[37]73 At Quwaysimeh, on the southern edge of Amman, a Roman mausoleum and two Byzantine churches were discovered, with inscriptions honoring wealthy Philadelphians who had donated to build the churches.[37]74 Philadelphia produced a well-known historian named Malchus in the 5th century AD, an Arab origin scholar who resided in Constantinople and produced a 500-page book about the history of the Byzantine Empire.[37]75

Islamic period

See also: Desert castles

Rashidun Caliphate

In the 630s, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the region from the Byzantines, beginning the Islamic era in the Levant.76 Philadelphia was renamed "Amman" by the Muslims and became part of the district of Jund Dimashq.77 A large part of the population already spoke Arabic, which facilitated integration into the caliphate, as well as several conversions to Islam.78 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.79 Amman had already been functioning as an administrative centre.80 The Umayyads built a large palace on the Amman Citadel hill, known today as the Umayyad Palace.81 Amman was later destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters, including a particularly severe earthquake in 749.82 The Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids three years later.[39]83