AMMAN

Arabic 'amman, biblical Hebrew Rabbah, or Rabbat Bene 'ammon (Great [or Capital] City of the Sons of Ammon), ancient Greek Philadelphia, capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. By far the largest city of Jordan, it is the only one with a modern urban infrastructure. Amman is built on rolling hills at the eastern boundary of the 'Ajlun Mountains, on the small, partly perennial Wadi 'Amman and its tributaries. Its focus of settlement throughout history has been the small, high, triangular plateau (modern Mount Al-Qal'ah) just north of the wadi. Fortified settlements have existed there from remote antiquity; the earliest remains are of the Chalcolithic period (c. 4000c. 3000 BC). Later, the city became capital of the Ammonites, a Semitic people frequently mentioned in the Bible; the biblical and modern names both trace back to Ammon. The royal city taken by King David's general Joab (II Samuel 12:26) was probably the acropolis atop the plateau. King David sent Uriah the Hittite to his death in battle before the walls of the city so that he might marry his wife Bathsheba (II Samuel 11); the incident is also a part of Muslim folklore. Rabbah declined in later centuries. It was conquered by Egypt's King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned 285246 BC), and he renamed it Philadelphia after himself; the name was retained through Byzantine and Roman times. Philadelphia was a city of the Decapolis (Greek: Ten Cities), a Hellenistic league of the 1st century BC2nd century AD. It was rebuilt by the Romans, and some fine ruins of their rule remain. At the rise of Islam, Amman was taken by the Arab general Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan in AD 635; by about 1300 it had entirely disappeared from causes unknown to historians. In 1878 the Ottoman Turks resettled the site with Circassian refugees from Russia; it remained a small village until after World War I. After the war Transjordan became part of the Palestine mandate, but the British government, as mandatory, effectively severed it from western Palestine (1921) and established a protected emirate of Transjordan, under the rule of Abdullah, son of Husayn ibn 'Ali, then king of the Hejaz and sharif of Mecca. Amman soon became capital of this new state; its modern development began in this period and was accelerated by Jordanian independence (1946). The city grew rapidly; the urban area received a large influx of Palestinian Arab refugees after the Arab-Israeli War of 194849. The refugee problem became even more serious after the Six-Day War of 1967, when Jordan lost all its territories west of the Jordan River to Israel. Political conflict between the Jordanian government and rebellious Palestinian guerrillas erupted into open civil war in 1970 in the streets of Amman; although the government forces finally prevailed, the city was severely damaged. Amman is Jordan's chief commercial, financial, and international trade centre. The royal palaces are to the east; the Parliament is in the western section. The University of Jordan (1962) is at Amman. Chief industries include food and tobacco processing and the manufacture of textiles, paper products, plastics, and aluminum utensils. On the city's outskirts are factories making electrical batteries and related products and cement. Amman is Jordan's chief transportation centre: two highways lead west toward Jerusalem, and one of the city's main thoroughfares becomes the road to As-Salt, to the northwest. Jordan's main north-south highway, with its southern terminus at Al-'Aqabah port, runs through the city. Just east is Amman International Airport, near the tracks of the old Hejaz Railway. Sites of interest include the remains of the ancient citadel, the adjoining archaeological museum, and a large finely preserved Roman amphitheatre. Pop. (1989 est.) 936,300.