# The Chronicle of Jordan: From the Iron Age kingdoms east of the Jordan and the rose-red city of Petra to the Hashemite kingdom of Amman. History of Jordan: From the Iron Age kingdoms east of the Jordan and the rose-red city of Petra to the Hashemite kingdom of Amman. 6 eras and 27 sourced… Canonical: https://terralore.co/country/JOR/chronicle Updated: 2026-06-15 Founding: Independence of the Hashemite Kingdom — 25 May 1946. On 25 May 1946 the Emirate of Transjordan became the fully independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan when the Treaty of London, signed on 22 March 1946, ended the British mandate and the parliament re-designated Emir Abdullah as king. The state's deeper roots lie in the Emirate of Transjordan founded in 1921, when Abdullah ibn Hussein, son of the Sharif of Mecca and a leader of the Great Arab Revolt, established Hashemite rule east of the Jordan under a British mandate carved from Mandatory Palestine. Jordan occupies the eastern bank of the Jordan River and the deserts beyond, a land crossed for millennia by caravan roads linking Arabia, Egypt and the Mediterranean. In antiquity it held the kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom, then the Nabataean trading city of Petra, the Roman cities of the Decapolis, and the desert palaces of the Umayyad caliphs. After four centuries of Ottoman rule, the Great Arab Revolt of 1916 brought the Hashemites west, and in 1921 Abdullah ibn Hussein founded the Emirate of Transjordan under British mandate. It became the fully independent Hashemite Kingdom on 25 May 1946 and has since absorbed waves of Palestinian refugees, fought and then made peace with Israel, and endured as one of the Arab world's most stable monarchies. This file carries the chronicle's sourced event record — every event with its year, summary and source keys (resolved under References below). The full reading narrative lives on the canonical page. ## The Kingdoms East of the Jordan: Ammon, Moab and Edom — c. 1200 - 332 BCE In the Iron Age the highlands east of the Jordan River held three settled kingdoms, Ammon in the north, Moab in the centre and Edom in the south, each with its own god, language and capital. - c. 1200 BCE: **Ammon, Moab and Edom emerge** — As the Iron Age began, three settled kingdoms took shape on the plateau east of the Jordan, each with its own capital, language and national god, controlling the caravan trade of the King's Highway. [britannica-jordan-history, loc-jordan-study] - c. 960 BCE: **Ammon regains its independence** — According to the biblical account, the kingdom of Ammon, centred on Rabbath Ammon (modern Amman), reasserted its independence after the death of the Israelite king David. [britannica-jordan-history] - c. 9th century BCE: **The Mesha Stele of Moab** — King Mesha of Moab erected a stone inscription recording his wars and building works, one of the earliest royal inscriptions from the lands east of the Jordan. [britannica-jordan-history, loc-jordan-study] - 332 BCE: **Alexander the Great and the end of Persian rule** — The conquests of Alexander brought the region into the Hellenistic world, hastening the eclipse of the old Iron Age kingdoms and opening the way to Greek and later Roman cities. [britannica-jordan-history] ## The Nabataeans and the Rose-Red City of Petra — c. 4th century BCE - 106 CE From their stronghold at Petra, the Nabataean Arabs built a caravan kingdom that controlled the incense trade and carved one of the ancient world's most spectacular cities into the sandstone. - 312 BCE: **The Nabataeans resist the Greeks at Petra** — The Nabataean Arabs, established around Petra, repelled campaigns by the Hellenistic successors of Alexander, marking their emergence as a distinct desert power controlling the caravan trade. [unesco-petra, britannica-jordan-history] - c. 1st century BCE: **Petra reaches its golden age** — At the height of the incense trade the Nabataeans carved Petra's monumental tomb-temples and engineered an elaborate system of dams, channels and cisterns to sustain a great city in the desert. [unesco-petra] - 106 CE: **Rome annexes the Nabataean kingdom** — The emperor Trajan absorbed the Nabataean realm as the province of Arabia Petraea, ending Nabataean independence as Roman power extended across the region. [unesco-petra, britannica-jordan-history] - 1985: **Petra inscribed as a World Heritage Site** — UNESCO inscribed Petra on the World Heritage List as a unique artistic achievement and an outstanding architectural ensemble of the early centuries BCE and CE. [unesco-petra] ## Rome, the Decapolis and Byzantine Christianity — 63 BCE - 636 CE Under Rome the cities of the Decapolis flourished, none more splendidly than Jerash, and the land later became a Christian province of Byzantium dotted with churches and mosaics. - 63 BCE: **Pompey creates the Decapolis** — Rome's reorganisation of the East grouped Gerasa (Jerash) and neighbouring Greek-style cities into the Decapolis, a league of self-governing towns that prospered under Roman rule. [britannica-jordan-history, loc-jordan-study] - 1st - 2nd century CE: **Jerash flourishes as a Roman city** — Gerasa was rebuilt with colonnaded streets, an oval forum, temples and theatres, becoming one of the wealthiest cities of the Roman Near East and leaving ruins still visible today. [britannica-jordan-history] - 5th - 6th century CE: **Christian Byzantium and the mosaics of Um er-Rasas** — Under Byzantine rule Christianity spread across the plateau and church floors were laid with elaborate mosaics, preserved most fully at Um er-Rasas, later a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [unesco-umerrasas] - 636 CE: **The Battle of the Yarmuk** — Muslim Arab armies decisively defeated the Byzantines near the Yarmuk River, ending Roman rule over the region and bringing the lands east of the Jordan into the new Islamic world. [britannica-jordan-history, loc-jordan-study] ## Islam, the Caliphates and Four Centuries of Ottoman Rule — 636 - 1916 Arab armies brought Islam to the region in the 7th century; the Umayyads built their pleasure palaces in its deserts, and after centuries of shifting rule the Ottomans governed the land for four hundred years. - 661 - 750 CE: **Umayyad rule and the desert castles** — Governing from Damascus, the Umayyad caliphs built fortified desert residences across the eastern plateau, including Quseir Amra with its celebrated frescoes of early Islamic secular art. [unesco-quseir-amra, britannica-jordan-history] - early 8th century CE: **Quseir Amra is built** — An Umayyad prince raised the bath-house and pleasure palace of Quseir Amra, whose figurative murals make it one of the most important survivals of early Islamic art; UNESCO inscribed it in 1985. [unesco-quseir-amra] - 1516 - 1517: **The Ottomans conquer the region** — After defeating the Mamluks, the Ottoman Turks absorbed the lands east of the Jordan into their empire as part of the province of Syria, ruling for four centuries. [britannica-jordan-history, loc-jordan-study] - 1908: **The Hejaz Railway crosses the plateau** — The Ottomans completed the Hejaz Railway through the territory, linking Damascus toward the holy cities and binding the region more tightly to the empire on the eve of the Arab Revolt. [loc-jordan-study, ebsco-arab-revolt] ## The Arab Revolt, the Emirate of Transjordan and Independence — 1916 - 1951 The Great Arab Revolt of 1916 brought the Hashemites west; in 1921 Abdullah founded the Emirate of Transjordan under British mandate, and in 1946 it became the independent Hashemite Kingdom. - June 1916: **The Great Arab Revolt begins** — Sharif Hussein of Mecca, supported by Britain, launched the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire; his sons Faisal and Abdullah led its forces toward Syria, aided by T. E. Lawrence. [ebsco-arab-revolt, britannica-abdullah-i] - 11 April 1921: **Abdullah founds the Emirate of Transjordan** — After the Cairo Conference, Abdullah ibn Hussein formed a government east of the Jordan under British mandate, establishing Hashemite rule and the Emirate of Transjordan. [britannica-abdullah-i, britannica-hashemite-kingdom] - 25 May 1946: **Independence of the Hashemite Kingdom** — Following the Treaty of London, the British mandate ended and Transjordan became a fully independent kingdom, with Abdullah re-designated as king; 25 May is celebrated as Independence Day. [histstate-jordan, britannica-hashemite-kingdom] - 1950: **Annexation of the West Bank** — After his Arab Legion occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1948 war, King Abdullah formally annexed the territory and renamed the enlarged state the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. [britannica-abdullah-i, britannica-hashemite-kingdom] - 20 July 1951: **Assassination of King Abdullah I** — Abdullah I was shot dead on the steps of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman, opening a brief succession crisis before his grandson Hussein came to the throne. [britannica-abdullah-i] Figures: - Abdullah I (1882 - 1951) — Founder and first King of Jordan. Son of the Sharif of Mecca and a leader of the Arab Revolt, he founded the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921 and became king of the independent Hashemite Kingdom in 1946, before his assassination in Jerusalem in 1951. ## Modern Jordan: Hussein, the Wars, Peace and Abdullah II — 1952 - present King Hussein steered Jordan through the loss of the West Bank, the upheaval of Black September and a peace treaty with Israel; his son Abdullah II has navigated a turbulent region since 1999. - 2 May 1953: **King Hussein assumes power** — After his father Talal was declared unfit to rule, the young Hussein bin Talal took full constitutional powers, beginning a reign of nearly half a century that shaped the modern kingdom. [britannica-hussein, rhc-king-hussein] - June 1967: **The Six-Day War and loss of the West Bank** — In the war with Israel, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and a fresh wave of Palestinian refugees fled into the East Bank, deepening the kingdom's demographic transformation. [britannica-hashemite-kingdom, histstate-frus1949] - September 1970: **Black September** — King Hussein's army moved against armed Palestinian factions that had built a state within the state; after intense fighting and a brief Syrian incursion, the guerrillas were expelled by July 1971. [britannica-black-september, britannica-hussein] - 26 October 1994: **Peace treaty with Israel** — King Hussein signed the Wadi Araba treaty with Israel, ending the state of war and making Jordan the second Arab country, after Egypt, to conclude a formal peace with Israel. [britannica-hussein, rhc-king-hussein] - 7 February 1999: **Abdullah II succeeds his father** — On the death of King Hussein, his son Abdullah II ascended the throne, going on to promote economic reform while steering Jordan through war in Iraq, the Arab Spring and a vast refugee influx. [britannica-abdullah-ii, ebsco-abdullah-ii] - 2011: **The Arab Spring and Syrian refugees** — Protests during the regional uprisings of 2011 prompted reforms from Abdullah II, while the Syrian civil war soon drove hundreds of thousands of refugees into Jordan, straining its economy. [britannica-abdullah-ii, ebsco-abdullah-ii] Figures: - Hussein bin Talal (1935 - 1999) — King of Jordan, 1953-1999. Reigned for nearly half a century, navigating the loss of the West Bank, Black September and Cold War rivalries, and signing the 1994 peace treaty with Israel before his death in 1999. - Abdullah II (born 1962) — King of Jordan since 1999. Succeeded his father King Hussein in 1999, pursuing economic liberalisation and modernisation while steering Jordan through the Iraq War, the Arab Spring and the Syrian refugee crisis. Machine-readable claims — every event above as an addressable claim ID (TL:JOR:event::) with its sources and a ready citation string: https://terralore.co/country/JOR/chronicle.claims.json ## References - [britannica-jordan-history] Jordan: History — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Jordan/History - [britannica-hashemite-kingdom] Jordan: Transjordan, the Hashemite Kingdom, and the Palestine war — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Jordan/Transjordan-the-Hashemite-Kingdom-and-the-Palestine-war - [britannica-abdullah-i] Abdullah I: Biography, History, and Assassination — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abdullah-I - [britannica-hussein] Hussein: King of Jordan, Biography and Facts — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hussein - [britannica-abdullah-ii] Abdullah II: Biography, Education, Family, and Facts — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abdullah-II - [britannica-black-september] Black September: Organization, Attacks, and Facts — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-September-political-organization-Palestine - [unesco-petra] Petra — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326/ - [unesco-quseir-amra] Quseir Amra — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/327/ - [unesco-umerrasas] Um er-Rasas (Kastrom Mefa'a) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1093/ - [histstate-jordan] A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country: Jordan — U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian · https://history.state.gov/countries/jordan - [histstate-frus1949] Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa (Jordan) — U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian · https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1949v06/d554 - [loc-jordan-study] Jordan: A Country Study — Library of Congress, Federal Research Division · https://www.loc.gov/item/91006858/ - [rhc-king-hussein] King Hussein bin Talal (1935-1999) — The Royal Hashemite Court · https://rhc.jo/en/king-hussein-bin-talal-1935-1999 - [ebsco-arab-revolt] Great Arab Revolt Begins — EBSCO Research Starters · https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/great-arab-revolt-begins - [ebsco-abdullah-ii] King Abdullah II of Jordan — EBSCO Research Starters · https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/politics-and-government/king-abdullah-ii-jordan - [wikipedia-emirate-transjordan] Emirate of Transjordan — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Transjordan - [nwe-jordan] Jordan — New World Encyclopedia · https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jordan Citation template: Terralore, "The Chronicle of Jordan: From the Iron Age kingdoms east of the Jordan and the rose-red city of Petra to the Hashemite kingdom of Amman.", terralore.co/country/JOR/chronicle, retrieved .