Jabal Ajlun is the mountainous region in northwestern Jordan in between the Yarmouk River to the north and the Zarqa River to the south. It is administratively divided between the governorates of Irbid , Ajloun and Jerash . The region's most populous city is Irbid .
27-811: The Jabal Ajlun spans the highlands between the Yarmouk River to the north, separating the region from the Golan Heights and the Hauran plain, and the Zarqa River in the south, which separates it from the Balqa highlands. It is bound to the west by the Jordan Valley . The region has the highest level of rainfall in Jordan, with around 500 millimeters (20 in) annually. Jabal Ajlun's relief
54-512: A natural border between the plains to the north - Hauran, Bashan and Golan - and the Gilead mountains to the south. Thus it has often served as boundary line between political entities. The Yarmukian is a Pottery Neolithic culture that inhabited parts of Israel and Jordan. Its type site is at Sha'ar HaGolan , on the river mouth. Early Bronze Age I is represented in the Golan only in
81-510: A mountainous region in the province's hinterland where government authority was weak. The purpose of the expedition was to assert government rule and secure the administrative center of Irbid against the Bedouin tribes who more influential in the district and historically imposed their own taxes on the inhabitants. The mission evidently failed. In 1859, after the irregular garrisons of Damascus were disbanded by government order, Muhammad Sa'id
108-408: A sharp distinction from the rest of Transjordan which saw extensive periods of sparse population. Jabal Ajlun owed its viability to its plentiful rainfall and its hilly terrain, which helped protect it from Bedouin marauding. Administratively, the area was divided into several nahiyes (subdistricts), or effectively communes, each controlled by a local za'im (communal leader; pl. zu'ama ). By
135-463: Is characterized by deep ravines that protrude from the Jordan Valley. The numerous springs and streams of the region supply its thick forests and historically enabled the widespread terrace-based cultivation of olive and fruit orchards, as well as grain and pulses. The southern and western parts of Jabal Ajlun are characterized by high mountains and deep valleys and an abundance of springs. In
162-592: Is the largest tributary of the Jordan River . It runs in Jordan , Syria and Israel , and drains much of the Hauran plateau. Its main tributaries are the wadis of 'Allan and Ruqqad from the north, Ehreir and Zeizun from the east. Although the Yarmuk is narrow and shallow throughout its course, at its mouth it is nearly as wide as the Jordan, measuring thirty feet in breadth and five in depth. Yarmuk forms
189-638: The Ayyubid sultan al-Adil ( r. 1200–1218 ) appointed one of his emirs, Izz al-Din Usama , as governor for the region, political situation there was characterized by the frequent infighting between the Banu Awf's rival emirs. Izz al-Din erected the Ajloun Castle to defend the area from the tribesmen, who, after initial tensions over the matter, assisted in the castle's construction. The emirs of
216-467: The Ghouta oasis of Damascus , which became part of a Shamdin family endowment, and several tracts in the Hauran plains and the Golan Heights area. Among the villages he acquired were Tell al-Jukhadar and Saham al-Jawlan , the latter of which he purchased cheap and sold at a significant profit to a Jewish colonization group. His wealth was such that by the 1890s he was known to own more property in
243-600: The Hauran Sanjak . In 1867, Rashid Pasha launched a military campaign which largely subdued the Bedouin tribes and other autonomous actors, reinforcing this in another campaign in 1869. The imperial government enacted its Land Code in 1858 and in Jabal Ajlun, the first land registrations began in 1876. By 1887 or shortly thereafter, the land registrations were complete, typically manifesting as small shareholding by
270-587: The Hebrew Bible , might have set their boundary line along the Yarmouk occasionally. Under the Assyrian and Persian empires the province of Ashteroth Karnaim laid to the north, and that of Gal'azu (Gilead) to the south. In Hellenistic times, the territory of Hippos was across from those of Gadara and Abila (Abel) on the south, while Dion sat on the eastern tributaries. When Pompey conquered
297-739: The amir al-hajj (commander of the Hajj pilgrim caravan to Mecca ) for 20 years. Muhammad Sa'id was a son of Shamdin Agha (d. 1860), a Kurdish irregular cavalry commander in Damascus under the provincial government . They belonged to the Shamdin-Yusuf, the strongest Kurdish clan of 19th-century Damascus. In March 1844, the Damascus Provincial Council appointed Muhammad Sa'id to command an expedition to Jabal Ajlun ,
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#1732772533760324-523: The 2000s. There are political agreements between Jordan and Syria (1953 and 1987) and between Jordan and Israel (1994), about the management and allocation of the shared waters of the Yarmouk. Muhammad Sa%27id Agha Shamdin Muhammad Sa'id Pasha Shamdin (died 1900), also known as Muhammad Sa'id Agha Shamdin , was an Ottoman military official of the Syria Vilayet , best known for being
351-653: The Ajloun Castle. The smaller, but densely populated Kura nahiye to Ajlun's north was controlled by the Furayhat's chief rivals, the Shuraydat family of Tibna , who had taken over Kura after driving out the Rushdan family to Kafr al-Ma , and eventually into the Jordan Valley. The northern and eastern nahiyes were less defensible due to their more open terrain and were thus vulnerable to raids by Bedouin tribes. In
378-400: The Banu Awf were later lured to the fortress and arrested. The region eventually became known as Jabal Ajlun after the castle. The geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in 1226 noted that 'Jabal Jarash' was a "mountain tract ... full of villages and domains" on which sat the ruins of the city of Jerash . 'Jabal Awf' was mentioned by the emir and historian Abu'l-Fida in 1321 as a district that laid to
405-416: The area of the river. Abila (Tel Abil) is attested in the 14th-century BC Amarna Letters . This is possibly the case also for Geshur , assumed to have lain north of the river. Other historical cities on the course of the river are Dara'a , Hit , Jalin ; and the archaeological sites of Tell Shihab and Khirbet ed-Duweir (See Lo-debar ). The Aramean kingdoms and the northern Kingdom of Israel , of
432-497: The mid-19th century, there were eight nahiyes in the district, two of which, Kafarat and Bani Juhma, had survived from the 17th century. The other six nahiyes were Ajlun, Kura, al-Sur, Wastiyya, Bani Abid, and Jerash. In the southern, more mountainous nahiyes the zu'ama were practically autonomous. There, the Ajlun nahiye, one of the most populuous in Jabal Ajlun, was controlled by the long-established Furayhat family of Kafrinja and
459-482: The north and east of the region the mountains give way to rolling hills and plains, where springs are scarce and villages historically relied on cisterns for water. Wheat cultivation was more prevalent in these less hilly areas. The region was known as Jabal Jerash until the 12th century when it became known as Jabal Awf, after the Banu Awf tribe which had settled it during the Fatimid period (10th–11th centuries). When
486-849: The peasantry. One of the rare instances of large landholdings was the village of Maru , which was owned by a single family of religious scholars. By the late 19th century, the prominent Bedouin Beni Sakhr tribe gained practical authority over the eastern and northern nahiyes of Jabal Ajlun. They instituted the customary khuwwa syste whereby the villages would contribute to the tribe a share of their grain and other goods in return for protection from Bedouin raids. Yarmouk River The Yarmuk River ( Arabic : نهر اليرموك , romanized : Nahr al-Yarmūk , Hebrew : נְהַר הַיַּרְמוּךְ , romanized : Nəhar hayYarmūḵ ; Greek : Ἱερομύκης, Hieromýkēs ; Latin : Hieromyces or Heromicas ; sometimes spelled Yarmouk )
513-581: The region in 64/63 BCE, he liberated the Hellenistic city of Gadara from Jewish Hasmonean rule (see also Decapolis ). It seems that one way they celebrated the event was by damming the Yarmuk and organising a naumachia as part of games held in honour of Pompey, possibly at what is now Hammat Gader . The Battle of the Yarmuk , where Muslim forces defeated those of the Byzantine Empire and gained control of Syria , took place north of
540-804: The river in CE 636. A fork of the Hejaz Railway (connecting to the Jezreel Valley railway in Samakh ) ran in the river valley from 1905 to 1946. It was deprecated after being bombed by the Jewish Haganah in the Night of the Bridges on 16 June 1946. The hydroplant of Naharayim , on the confluence with Jordan River, served Mandatory Palestine from 1932 to 1948 . Today, the lower part of
567-471: The river, close to the Jordan Valley , forms part of the border between Israel and Jordan . Further upstream it forms part of the border between Syria and Jordan (a border largely inherited from the 1923 Franco-British Boundary Agreement ). The area of Al-Hamma , or Hamat Gader in the valley is held by Israel but claimed by Syria. The Al-Wehda Dam was constructed on the Jordan-Syria border in
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#1732772533760594-489: The southeast of Jabal Amil and contained the "very strong" Ajloun Castle. He noted that "All its territory is very fertile, and it is covered with trees, and well-watered by streams." During Ottoman rule (1517–1917), Jabal Ajlun was consistently the most populated area in Transjordan , with at least eighty permanently inhabited villages recorded in 16th-century tax censuses and in 19th-century travel accounts. This marks
621-517: The sultan, who allowed him to return to Damascus. He was appointed the sanjakbey of Hauran , taking over from another Kurdish officer, Ahmad Yusuf Pasha. He soon after replaced Ahmad's brother Muhammad Yusuf Pasha as amir al-hajj (commander of the annual Hajj pilgrim caravan to Mecca ), beginning in the late 1860s. He would hold that post for twenty years. Muhammad accumalted significant wealth in his capacity as amir al-hajj and invested considerable sums acquiring numerous villages and farms in
648-605: The years following the inauguration of the empire-wide Tanzimat modernization reforms, the provincial authorities in Damascus resolved to assert state authority in the Jabal Ajlun to protect agricultural production and efficiently collect taxes. The government was in a weaker position there than the Bedouin Adwan and Anaza tribes and the collection of taxes by both powers often drove the peasantry to abandon their villages. The Kurdish cavalry leader Muhammad Sa'id Agha Shamdin
675-601: Was appointed on an expedition to secure the region against the Bedouin in 1844. In 1851 the government established the Ajlun Sanjak with headquarters in Irbid . This government center was further secured by the establishment of an Algerian colony. By January 1852 difficult living conditions spurred the Algerians to leave the region. In May conscription orders prompted the peasants of Jabal Ajlun to revolt. By October, Ajlun
702-462: Was appointed to a newly-formed Kurdish auxiliary corps. During the 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus , Muhammad Sa'id failed to prevent his Kurdish irregulars from joining in a wide-scale massacre of Christians in the city's Bab Tuma quarter. As punishment, the imperial government exiled him to Mosul . There, he helped bring order to the city and was rewarded by a pardon from
729-637: Was without a governor and was administratively grouped with the rest of Transjordan, under a nominal governor. With the passage of the Vilayet Law in 1864 and the appointment of the reformist Mehmed Rashid Pasha to Damascus, centralization efforts began to permanently bear fruit for the Ottoman in Jabal Ajlun, as well as in the neighboring Hauran and Transjordan. He established a permanent government headquarters in Irbid and administratively attached Ajlun to
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