Amman, the capital of Jordan, is a modern and thriving city. Fifty years ago, when the British cut off the territory east of the Jordan from historic Palestine, and installed there Emir Abdullah as its ruler, Amman was a small and insignificant village. Abdullah, who was King Hussein’s grandfather, chose this village for his capital and since then it has developed into a large city. The influx of Arab refugees from the Israeli-Arab wars of 1948 and 1967 contributed greatly to its rapid growth.
Amman has no “casbah” a walled-in quarter with narrow lanes and curved back streets, so typical of the old cities of the Arab East. A new city, Amman’s streets are wide and open.
Like Rome, it is built on seven hills. The most fashionable section is “Jebel Amman” (Hill of Amman). Here, along tree-lined streets, are located many government offices, garden-surrounded mansions of members of the royal family (Hussein’s palace is outside the city) and foreign embassies, as well as the “Intercontinental”, Amman’s only luxury hotel.
The heart of the city is the shopping district. Situated in a valley between the hills, its streets are Amman’s most busy thoroughfares.
Shops offer imported goods as well as Jordan’s own products, such as furniture, pottery, hand-embroidered kerchiefs and dresses, woolen garments and leather wares. The picture of the country’s king gazes at you from any a show window. Peddlers display their wares on wooden stands at street corners and in side-alleys. Ornamented daggers, keffiahs (Arab headdresses), pictures and souvenirs are staked out on the walls of the houses behind the stands.
“What are you? German, English, American?” the peddlers ask.
We didn’t reply. We let them guess. Though watching the hard bargaining of my wife, some of them may have realized who we were.
One passes numerous money exchange offices, where the visitor can trade foreign currency for Jordan’s Dinars, and the inevitable refreshment bars, which offer many brands of native juices and cold drinks as well as Pepsi-Cola. Coca Cola which does business in Israel, is not admitted to the Arab world.
Young boys hawk newspapers and cigarettes. No English-language paper is published in Jordan, but one can buy here the English-language dailies which appear in Beirut and in Kuwait.
On a small square off one of the main roads is the jewelry mart: a cluster of tiny stores. The jewelers sit at little desks handling delicately small gold scales. An Arab woman just bought a bracelet. She pays with a bundle of paper money which she had carried hidden on her body.
Two years ago the city was the scene of heavy fighting between King Hussein’s troops and the Palestinian terrorists. The ruins have been cleared away and no trace remains of the pitched battles.
What is the population of the city? Some sources claim the Amman has now more than half a million inhabitants.
Thus said also our guide. Other sources, however, put the number at a quarter of a million, which seems much nearer to the truth.
Modern Amman is the successor of ancient settlements. In Biblical times its site was occupied by Rabbat Ammon, the capital of the Ammonites. The children of Israel fought many battles with the Ammonites and at various times the Ammonites were tributary to them.
During the period of the Second Temple, too, there were times, when the Jews controlled the territory of Ammon.
The land of Ammon was conquered by all the great powers which ruled the Middle East—Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Turks. In the third century B.C.E. Amman was renamed Philadelphia by Ptolemy Philadelphus who rebuilt the city. It retained this name during the Roman and Byzantine rule. The city began to decline under the rule of the Arabs. It was desolate for hundreds of years until late in the last century when the Turks established on its site a village of Circassians who had fled from Russia.
Excavations have brought to light remains of the ancient settlements. The most imposing remnant of antiquity is the Roman theater. It could seat about six thousand people. It has been restored in recent years and serves again as an arena for performances.
The theater is situated in the center of the city, near the Philadelphia Hotel.
It was at this hotel that we were quartered. On our way there we caught the first glimpses of life in Jordan’s capital.
“According to our program we should visit the ruins of Jeresh this afternoon,” the guide told us before we alighted from the bus in the palm-shaded courtyard of the Philadelphia Hotel. “It is rather late now and we much arrive in Jeresh when it is still light. I ask you, therefore, not to bother now about your hotel room. Go to the dining room for lunch and return within half an hour to the bus.”
We left our baggage in the bus and headed straight for the wash rooms and then for the dining hall. As the waiter was about to serve us the first course, we told him that we won’t take anything cooked: “We just want some sardines, raw vegetables and fruit!”
He brought us sardines, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon.
Tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon were to be our diet for the next days. It was not a new experience. On previous journeys we had stopped at many a city in Europe where there was no kosher restaurant and had prepared our meals with just such “ingredients.” Even in some cities where there were kosher restaurants we found that though the food was kosher, the prices were not “kosher” enough. We just couldn’t afford them and preferred to eat on our own.
By Tovia Preschel
The Jewish Press
November 3, 1972