THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN

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The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is today an Arab country, approximately the size of Indiana with a population of about 8 million. It is actually more an invention than a country. Historically, the northwestern quarter made up the Israelite tribal territories of Reuben and Gad, to the south and immediately to the east was the ancient kingdoms of Moab, Edom, and Ammon. The rest was part of the Arabian Desert. After World War I, the victorious British united all these lands as well as the lands to the west of the river, all of which, had already been designated as the borders of the revived Jewish National Home. However, in 1922, the British authorities separated the area from the part of Palestine that was west of the Jordan River and created a new Palestinian Arab country known as the Kingdom of Transjordan because its lands lie across the Jordan River. It acquired its present name at the end of 1948.    

NOTE: Jordan is probably the most stable of all Arab countries today, but even here, Islamic extremists have their ardent supporters. So wherever you travel in the country, use caution and be aware of your surroundings.

In ancient times, this area was partially made up of the ancient Israelite/Jewish territories of Gad, Reuven, and the eastern half of Menasheh (which also extended into, what is today, southwestern Syria). In this area are the sites of Mount Nebo (burial place of Moses), Abel Shittim (today, the town of Abila where the Israelites camped before crossing the river into the Land of Canaan), and Penuel where Jacob stopped on his way to Padan Aram in Syria and, after wrestling with an angel, received as a blessing, the name of “Israel,” an acronym meaning “because you fought with God.” It is an irony that the name “Israel” was first coined at a site that is located in what is today, an “Arab Palestinian” Kingdom.

South and east of the ancient Israelite territories were the non-Israelite territories of Ammon, centered in and around, what is today, Amman, and Edom and Moab. The inhabitants of these places were long extinct though some say that their descendants do actually live on as the local bedouin. East of these territories, the region was often referred to in the Bible as the “East Country”, part of the Nabatean Arab homeland.

Since the biblical period and until the early Middle Ages, Israelites/Jews continued to inhabit their ancient ancestral lands east of the Jordan. With the Arab conquest and occupation in the 7th century, this territory, being so close to the Arabian desert, was the one of the first in Palestine to experience Arab colonization, settling alongside the indigenous Jewish inhabitants. The town of Ajlun, the biblical Gilead, had long been a prominent medieval Jewish center. At one point, there was question among the rabbis in Jerusalem over whether Ajlun and the entire region was halakhically a part of the Land of Israel. At the end of the 16th century and after much debate, they decided in the affirmative and the local Jews were henceforth able to observe those Jewish rites that can only be practiced in the Land of Israel. (At that time, no one ever suggested that Jews were there in order to protect Jaffa.)

This rabbinic ruling, however, was over a region that became devoid of Jews as during and after the Crusader period, bedouin raids and depredations drove the local Jews away. But sacred land is sacred land and the empty lands east of the Jordan were treated just as holy as the lands west of the Jordan and Jewish travelers and merchants still maintained an intermittent Jewish presence in the region.

In 1879, the lands east of the Jordan was proposed as a place of Jewish settlement by the English Christian adventurer Laurence Oliphant as a first step towards Israel’s restoration to its ancestral land. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Zionist organizations in New York, Montreal, Chicago, Romania, and Yekatrinoslav, purchased land in the area for this purpose. However, no appreciable settlement followed. During World War I, the Battle of es-Salt between the Turks and the Jewish Legion, just 16 miles west of Amman, was among the most decisive battles in the War that allowed the British to take control of Palestine.

In 1919, as part of post-war international peace deals, Zionist leaders proposed the border of Palestine as including all of the ancient Israelite territories plus Moab and Edom — one of the few things the Zionists actually did right. But the British had other ideas and instead, created their own borders. Upon the creation of Jordan, Jewish habitation in Jordan was decreed off limits, especially in regards to the ancient Israelite territories. This prohibition is still upheld today, as it is in the rest of this “Arab Palestinian” kingdom.

Sites in the Israelite section of Jordan:
Penuel – where Jacob stopped on his way to Padan Aram in Syria and, after wrestling with an angel, received as a blessing, the name of “Israel,” a Hebrew acronym meaning “because you fought with God.” (It is an irony that the name “Israel” was first coined at a site that is located in what is today, an “Arab Palestinian” Kingdom.)
Gilead – today the town of Ajloun, the ancient Gilead home of the Balm of Gilead. The town was the birthplace of the Prophet Elijah
Mount Nebo – burial place of Moses. Other mountains that served prominently in the story of the Exodus from Egypt were Mts. Abarim, Pisgah, and Peor
Jordan River and valley, half lies in Jordan and half lies in Israel. It contains the sites of Abel Shittim today, the ruined site of Abil ez Zeit just a few miles north of the Dead Sea, where the Israelites encamped before conquering the land of Canaan on the west side of the Jordan River, and Bethabara, believed to be the place where John was baptized and conducted his ministry. A tributary of the river is the Jabbok, today, known as the Wadi ez Zaka, where Jacob crossed when returning from Padan Aram to Canaan.
Mahanaim – the Gileadite town that was the hiding place of King David during Absalom’s rebellion
the ancient synagogue of Gerasa, today the town of Jerash
the ancient synagogue of Gadara, today the town of Umm Qais
es-Salt – the site of a World War I victory of the Jewish Legion (attached to the British army) over the Turks. In the 1890’s, the town briefly served as the home of photographer Isaiah Rafalovich
the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth but is lined, on both its eastern and western shores, with small resorts and beachside clubs; the Arnon River juts out from the Dead Sea and formed the southern boundary of Reuben. Today, it is called Wadi el Mojib