Portal:Jordan

The Jordan Portal

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank to the west. The Jordan River, flowing into the Dead Sea, is located along the country's western border within the Jordan Rift Valley. Jordan has a small coastline along the Red Sea in its southwest, separated by the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt. Amman is the country's capital and largest city, as well as the most populous city in the Levant.

Inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period, three kingdoms developed in Transjordan during the Iron Age: Ammon, Moab and Edom. In the third century BC, the Arab Nabataeans established their kingdom centered in Petra. The Greco-Roman period saw the establishment of several cities in Transjordan that comprised the Decapolis. Later, after the end of Byzantine rule, the region became part of the Islamic caliphates of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and the Ottoman. Following the 1916 Great Arab Revolt during World War I, former Ottoman Syria was partitioned, leading to the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which became a British protectorate. In 1946, the country gained independence and became officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The country captured and annexed the West Bank during the 1948 Palestine war until it was occupied by Israel in 1967. Jordan renounced its claim to the territory to the Palestinians in 1988 and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Jordan is a semi-arid country, covering an area of 89,342 km² (34,495 sq mi) with a population of 11.5 million, making it the eleventh-most populous Arab country. The dominant majority, or around 95% of the country's population, is Sunni Muslim, with the rest being mostly Arab Christian. Jordan was mostly unscathed by the violence that swept the region following the Arab Spring in 2010. From as early as 1948, Jordan has accepted refugees from multiple neighbouring countries in conflict. An estimated 2.1 million Palestinian refugees, most of whom hold Jordanian citizenship, as well as 1.4 million Syrian refugees, were residing in Jordan as of 2015. The kingdom is also a refuge for thousands of Christian Iraqis fleeing persecution. While Jordan continues to accept refugees, the large Syrian influx during the 2010s has placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure.

The sovereign state is a constitutional monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The country has a high Human Development Index, ranking 100th, and is considered a lower middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce. The country is a major tourist destination, also attracting medical tourism with its well-developed health sector. Nonetheless, a lack of natural resources, large flow of refugees, and regional turmoil have hampered economic growth. (Full article...)

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The Parliament of Jordan (Arabic: مجلس الأمة Majlis Al-Umma) is the bicameral Jordanian national assembly. Established by the 1952 Constitution, the legislature consists of two houses: the Senate (Arabic: مجلس الأعيان Majlis Al-Aayan) and the House of Representatives (Arabic: مجلس النواب Majlis Al-Nuwaab).

The Senate has 69 members, all of whom are directly appointed by the king, while the House of Representatives has 138 elected members, with nine seats reserved for Christians, three are for Chechen and Circassian minorities, and fifteen for women. The members of both houses serve for four-year terms. (Full article...)

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Selected biography -

Hashemite banner

The Hashemites (Arabic: الهاشميون, romanized: al-Hāshimiyyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921–1958). The family had ruled the city of Mecca continuously from the 10th century, frequently as vassals of outside powers, and ruled the thrones of the Hejaz, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan following their World War I alliance with the British Empire.

The family belongs to the Dhawu Awn, one of the branches of the Ḥasanid Sharifs of Mecca, also referred to as Hashemites. Their eponymous ancestor is traditionally considered to be Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Another claimed ancestor is Ali ibn Abi Talib, the usurped successor of the prophet Muhammad according to Shia Islam. The Ḥasanid Sharifs of Mecca (from whom the Hashemite royal family is directly descended), including the Hashemites' ancestor Qatadah ibn Idris, were Zaydī Shīʿas until the late Mamluk or early Ottoman period, when they became followers of the Shāfiʿī school of Sunnī Islam. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Abdullah II of Jordan Abdullah Tal Hussein of Jordan Abdullah I of Jordan Haya bint Hussein Druze in Jordan Ali Abu Nuwar Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan Marouf al-Bakhit

WikiProject

For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Jordan-related articles, see WikiProject Jordan.

General images -

The following are images from various Jordan-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Tourists photograph Al Khazneh (not visible) upon arriving in Petra. The Siq can be seen on the right.
Image 2Suleiman Mousa, who did groundbreaking work on the modern history of Jordan and the Arab Revolt. (from History of Jordan)
Image 3Wadi Rum (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 4Al-Karak castle (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 5The south gate in the ancient city of Jerash (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 6The Mesha Stele (c. 840 BCE), a royal Moabite inscription commemorating the victory of Moab over the Kingdom of Israel. (from History of Jordan)
Image 7A young Emir Sattam bin Fendi in 1848 (from History of Jordan)
Image 8The Al-Jizah reservoir, dating back to the Pax Romana, and the Mamluk building which was refitted by the Ottoman for Sattam to govern from. (from History of Jordan)
Image 9Petra (from Culture of Jordan)
Image 10Image showing the approximate land exchanged in 1965 between Jordan (gaining green) and Saudi Arabia (gaining red). (from History of Jordan)
Image 11King Hussein Mosque in Amman (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 12First election in Transjordan's history on 2 April 1929. (from History of Jordan)
Image 13Petra, the capital of the Nabatean kingdom, is where the Nabatean alphabet was developed, from which the current Arabic alphabet further evolved. (from History of Jordan)
Image 14The critically endangered sociable lapwing (from Wildlife of Jordan)
Image 15Amman Citadel (from History of Jordan)
Image 16Jerash Festival, 2018 (from Culture of Jordan)
Image 17Jordan 1948–1967. The East Bank is the portion east of the Jordan river, the West Bank is the part west of the river (from History of Jordan)
Image 18This basalt stone is incised with a scene showing two animals, probably gazelles. From Dhuweila, eastern Jordan, c. 6200 BCE. British Museum (from History of Jordan)
Image 19The Moabite Stone, first revealed to the western world by Sattam bin Fendi (from History of Jordan)
Image 20Zahir Al Umar, who during his reign fought both the Bani Sakher and the Adwan (from History of Jordan)
Image 21Mahis in northwestern Jordan (from Wildlife of Jordan)
Image 22Majid Sultan Al Adwan at Shunet Nimrin, Paramount Sheikh of the Adwan in the early 20th century, and the great-great-great-great-grandson of Salih ibn Adwan. (from History of Jordan)
Image 23Prince Fendi Al-Fayez in the 1870s (from History of Jordan)
Image 24Qasr Amra a desert castle from the era of the Islamic Empire (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 25Ajloun Castle (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 26A large plate of Jordanian mezze in Petra (from Culture of Jordan)
Image 27Al-Khazneh in Petra (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 28Thorny burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum) (from Wildlife of Jordan)
Image 29The Dana Biosphere Reserve in south central Jordan. (from Wildlife of Jordan)
Image 30Desert vegetation in Wadi Rum, southern Jordan. (from Wildlife of Jordan)
Image 31Egyptian mongoose (from Wildlife of Jordan)
Image 32Dead Sea (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 33Tourist police kiosk at Petra (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 34Jerusalem on the Madaba Map (from Tourism in Jordan)
Image 35The Kerak Castle, used by the Majalis for centuries (from History of Jordan)

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Der Abi Saeed (Arabic: دير أبي سعيد) is a city in Irbid Governorate in Jordan. It is named after a historic Christian chapel ('Der' in Arabic) in the place where the city is built. The city gained importance in the early 20th century after the formation of a self-governing body following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Der Abi Saeed is the administrative center of the Koura Department, one of the nine departments of Irbid Governorate. (Full article...)

List of selected cities
Amman Irbid Zarqa Aqaba Russeifa Ajloun Madaba Huwwarah Al-Salt Aydoun Jerash Ma'an Al Husn Azraq refugee camp Azraq, Jordan Al-Karak Tafilah Anjara

See also: List of cities in Jordan

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Religions in Jordan

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Religion in Jordan

The vast majority of Jordanians practice Sunni Islam, the state religion.
In addition to civil and special courts, Jordan has special religious courts which enforce Sharia law.
Jordan has Christian minorities, mostly in major cities, and several Druze communities exist in the country's north.

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Selected picture -

Credit: Mahmood Salam

Amman, the capital of Jordan at nighttime. Amman was named one of the MENA's best cities according to economic, labour, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. It is a major tourist destination in the region and the capital is especially popular among Gulf tourists. Amman is considered one of the richest and most Western-oriented cities in the Middle East.