Islamic era

Main article: Jund Al-Urdunn

Muslims from what is now Saudi Arabia invaded the region from the south.^[42] The Arab Christian Ghassanids, clients of the Byzantines, were defeated despite imperial support.^[48] While the Muslim forces lost to the Byzantines in their first direct engagement during the Battle of Mu'tah in 629, in what is now the Karak Governorate, the Byzantines lost control of the Levant when they were defeated by the Rashidun army in 636 at the Battle of Yarmouk just north of modern-day Jordan. The region was Arabized, and the Arabic language became widespread.^[42]
Transjordan was an essential territory for the conquest of nearby Damascus.^[49] The first, or Rashidun, caliphate was followed by that of the Ummayad (661–750). Under Umayyads rule, several desert castles were constructed, such as Qasr Al-Mshatta, Qasr Al-Hallabat, Qasr Al-Kharanah, Qasr Tuba, Qasr Amra, and a large administrative palace in Amman.^[50] The Abbasid campaign to take over the Umayyad empire began in the region of Transjordan. After the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, the area was ruled by the Fatimids, then by the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1115–1189).^[49]

Ajloun Castle in Ajloun built by the Ayyubid Muslim leader Saladin in the 12th century AD used for wars against the Crusaders.

The Crusaders constructed about nine Crusader castles as part of the lordship of Oultrejordain, including those of Montreal, Al-Karak and Wu'ayra (in Petra).^[50] In the 12th century, the Crusaders were defeated by Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubids dynasty (1189–1260). The Ayyubids built a new castle at Ajloun and rebuilt the former Roman fort of Qasr Azraq. Several of these castles were used and expanded by the Mamluks (1260–1516), who divided Jordan between the provinces of Karak and Damascus. During the next century Transjordan experienced Mongol attacks, but the Mongols were ultimately repelled by the Mamluks after the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260).^[50]
In 1516, Ottoman forces conquered Mamluk territory.^[51] Agricultural villages in Jordan witnessed a period of relative prosperity in the 16th century, but were later abandoned.^[52] For the next centuries, Ottoman rule in the region, at times, was virtually absent and reduced to annual tax collection visits.^[52] This led to a short-lived occupation by the Wahhabi forces (1803–1812), an ultraorthodox Islamic movement that emerged in Najd in modern-day Saudi Arabia.^[37] Ibrahim Pasha, son of the governor of the Egypt Eyalet under the request of the Ottoman sultan, rooted out the Wahhabis between 1811 and 1818.^[37] In 1833 Ibrahim Pasha turned on the Ottomans and established his rule over the Levant. His oppressive policies led to the unsuccessful peasants' revolt in Palestine in 1834.^[53] The cities of Al-Salt and Al-Karak were destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha's forces for harboring a peasants' revolt leader. Egyptian rule was later forcibly ended, with Ottoman rule restored.^[53]
Russian persecution of Sunni Muslim Circassians and Chechens led to their immigration into the region in 1867, where today they form a small part of the country's ethnic fabric.^[54] Overall population however declined due to oppression and neglect.^[55] Urban settlements with small populations included: Al-Salt, Irbid, Jerash and Al-Karak.^[56] The under-development of urban life in Jordan was exacerbated by the settlements being sometimes raided by Bedouins.^[23] Ottoman oppression provoked the region's both non-Bedouin and Bedouin tribes to revolt, Bedouin tribes like; Adwan, Bani Hassan, Bani Sakhr and the Howeitat. The most notable revolts were the Shoubak Revolt (1905) and the Karak Revolt (1910), which were brutally suppressed.^[54] Jordan's location lies on a pilgrimage route taken by Muslims going to Mecca, which helped the population economically when the Ottomans constructed the Hejaz Railway linking Mecca with Istanbul in 1908. Before the construction of the railway, the Ottomans built fortresses along the Hajj route to secure pilgrims' caravans.^[57]

Modern era

Main articles: Great Arab Revolt and Emirate of Transjordan

Soldiers of the Hashemite Arab Army holding the flag of the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916.

Four centuries of stagnation during Ottoman rule ended during World War I when the Arab Revolt occurred in 1916, driven by long-term Arab resentment towards the Ottoman authorities^[55] and the emergence of Arab nationalism.^[58] The revolt was launched by the Hashemite clan of Hejaz, who claim descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, led by Sharif Hussein of Mecca.^[59] The conquest of Transjordan garnered the support of the local Bedouin tribes, Circassians and Christians.^[60] The revolt was supported by the Allies of World War I including Britain and France.^[61]
The Great Arab Revolt successfully gained control of most of territories of the Hejaz and the Levant, including the region east of the Jordan River. However, it failed to gain international recognition as an independent state, due mainly to the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 and the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This was seen by the Hashemites and the Arabs as a betrayal of their previous agreements with the British, including the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence of 1915, in which the British stated their willingness to recognize the independence of a unified Arab state stretching from Aleppo to Aden under the rule of the Hashemites. The region was divided and Abdullah I, the second son of Sharif Hussein arrived from Hejaz by train in Ma'an in southern Jordan, where he was greeted by Transjordanian leaders.^[37] Abdullah established the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which then became a British protectorate.^[62]

The first visit of the High Commissioner for Palestine to Al-Salt city in Transjordan in 1920.

The first organized army in Jordan was established on 22 October 1920, and was named the "Arab Legion". The Legion grew from 150 men in 1920 to 8,000 in 1946.^[63] Multiple difficulties emerged upon the assumption of power in the region by the Hashemite leadership. In Transjordan, small local rebellions at Kura in 1921 and 1923 were suppressed by Emir Abdullah with the help of British forces.^[37] Wahhabis from Najd regained strength and repeatedly raided the southern parts of his territory in (1922–1924), seriously threatening the Emir's position.^[37] The Emir was unable to repel those raids without the aid of the local Bedouin tribes and the British, who maintained a military base with a small RAF detachment close to Amman.^[37]
In September 1922, the Council of the League of Nations recognized Transjordan as a state under the British Mandate for Palestine and the Transjordan memorandum, and excluded the territories east of the Jordan River from the provisions of the mandate dealing with Jewish settlement.^[64] Transjordan remained a British mandate until 1946.^[65]

Post-independence

Main article: Timeline of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Treaty of London, signed by the British Government and the Emir of Transjordan on 22 March 1946, recognised the independence of Transjordan upon ratification by both countries parliaments.^[66] On 25 May 1946 the Emirate of Transjordan became "The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan", as the ruling Emir was re-designated as "King" by the parliament of Transjordan on the day it ratified the Treaty of London.^[67] The name was changed to "The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" in 1949. Jordan became a member of the United Nations on 14 December 1955.^[10]

King Hussein after checking an abandoned Israeli tank in the aftermath of the Battle of Karameh in 1968.

On 15 May 1948, as part of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan invaded Palestine together with other Arab states.^[68] Following the war, Jordan occupied the West Bank and on 24 April 1950 Jordan formally annexed these territories. In response, some Arab countries demanded Jordan's expulsion from the Arab League.^[69] On 12 June 1950, the Arab League declared the annexation was a temporary, practical measure and that Jordan was holding the territory as a "trustee" pending a future settlement.^[70]
King Abdullah was assassinated at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1951 by a Palestinian militant, amid rumors he intended to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Abdullah was succeeded by his son Talal, however Talal soon abdicated due to illness in favor of his eldest son Hussein, who ascended the throne in 1953.^[71] On 1 March 1956, King Hussein dismissed a number of British personnel serving in the Jordanian Army, an act of Arabization made to ensure the complete sovereignty of Jordan.^[72] Neighboring Iraq was also ruled by a Hashemite monarchy; Faisal II of Iraq, who was Hussein's cousin. 1958 witnessed the emergence of the Arab Federation between the two kingdoms, as a response to the formation of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria. The union lasted only six months, being dissolved after Faisal II was deposed by a military coup.^[73]
Jordan signed a military pact with Egypt just before Israel launched a preemptive strike on Egypt to begin the Six-Day War in June 1967, where Jordan and Syria joined the war. It ended in an Arab defeat and the West Bank came under Israeli control. Jordan also fought in the War of Attrition, which included the 1968 Battle of Karameh where the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) repelled an Israeli attack on the Karameh camp on the Jordanian border with the West Bank.^[74] Despite the fact that the Palestinians had limited involvement against the Israeli forces, the events at Karameh gained wide recognition and acclaim in the Arab world. As a result, the time period following the battle witnessed an upsurge of support for Palestinian paramilitary elements (the fedayeen) within Jordan from other Arab countries, the fedayeen soon became a threat to Jordan's rule of law. In September 1970, the Jordanian army targeted the fedayeen and the resultant fighting led to the expulsion of Palestinian fighters from various PLO groups into Lebanon, in a civil war that became known as Black September.^[75]

A Jordanian Bedouin forces officer in Petra 2004.

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Arab league forces waged a war on Israel and fighting occurred along the 1967 Jordan River cease-fire line. Jordan sent a brigade to Syria to attack Israeli units on Syrian territory but did not engage Israeli forces from Jordanian territory. At the Rabat summit conference in 1974, Jordan agreed, along with the rest of the Arab League, that the PLO was the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people". Subsequently, Jordan renounced its claims to the West Bank in 1988.^[75]
At the 1991 Madrid Conference, Jordan agreed to negotiate a peace treaty sponsored by the US and the Soviet Union. The Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace was signed on 26 October 1994.^[75] In 1997, Israeli agents allegedly entered Jordan using Canadian passports and poisoned Khaled Meshal, a senior Hamas leader. Israel provided an antidote to the poison and released dozens of political prisoners, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin after King Hussein threatened to annul the peace treaty.^[75]
On 7 February 1999, Abdullah II ascended the throne upon the death of his father Hussein.^[76] Jordan's economy has improved since then. Abdullah II has been credited with increasing foreign investment, improving public-private partnerships and providing the foundation for Aqaba's free-trade zone and Jordan's flourishing information and communication technology (ICT) sector. He also set up five other special economic zones. As a result of these reforms, Jordan's economic growth has doubled to 6% annually compared to the latter half of the 1990s.^[77] However, the Great Recession and regional turmoil in the 2010s severely crippled the Jordanian economy and its growth, making it increasingly reliant on foreign aid.^[78]
Al-Qaeda under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's leadership launched coordinated explosions in three hotel lobbies in Amman on 9 November 2005, resulting in 60 deaths and 115 injured. The bombings, which targeted civilians, caused widespread outrage among Jordanians.^[79] The attack is considered to be a rare event in the country, and Jordan's internal security was dramatically improved afterwards. No major terrorist attacks have occurred since then.^[80]
The Arab Spring began sweeping the Arab world in 2011, where large scale protests erupted demanding economic and political reforms. However, many of these protests in some countries turned into civil wars and more instability. In Jordan, in response to domestic unrest, Abdullah II replaced his prime minister and introduced a number of reforms including; amending the Constitution and establishing a number of governmental commissions.^[81] The King told the new prime minister to "take quick, concrete and practical steps to launch a genuine political reform process, to strengthen democracy and provide Jordanians with the dignified life they deserve".^[82]