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A History of Jordan
Philip Robins' survey of Jordan's political history begins in the early 1920s, continues through the years of the British Mandate, and traces events over the next half century to the present day. Throughout the period, the country's fortunes were closely identified with its head of state, King Hussein, until his death in 1999. In the early days, as the author testifies, the king's prospects were often regarded as grim. However, both King and country survived a variety of existential challenges, from assassination attempts and internal subversion, to a civil war with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and, in the 1970s and 1980s, Jordan emerged as an apparently stable and prosperous state. However, King Hussein's death, the succession of his son, Abdullah II, and recent political upheavals have plunged the country back into uncertainty. This is an incisive account, compellingly told, about one of the leading players in the Middle East. Philip Robins is University Lecturer in Politics with special reference to the Middle East in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. His most recent book is Suits and Uniforms: Turkish Foreign Policy since the Cold War (2003).
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
264 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2004
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November 11, 2021
الكتاب مشوق جدا.
قرأت الطبعة الثانية، والتي تمتد لتغطي فترة حكم الملك عبدالله الثاني، لكن الإضافات على الطبعة الأولى مليئة بالعموميات وتفتقر للتفاصيل الموجودة عن حقبة الملك حسين أو عبدالله الأول.
أهم جزء في الكتاب برأيي هو العقد الممتد من منتصف السبعينات لمنتصف الثمانينات، والذي اتسم بارتفاع أسعار النفط عالمياً، وبالتالي ارتفاع حجم المنح الخليجية والعراقية للأردن. أعتقد أن تلك الفترة، والتخبط في إدارة الأموال العامة فيها، والتوسع غير المنطقي ولا المدروس، كانت بداية ما نراه الآن في الأردن. بمجرد أن انتهى، انهار الدينار في نهاية الثمانينات، وبدأت سياسات الخصخصة والتقشف وفقا لتعلميات البنك الدولي في التسعينات، لنصل إلى ما نحن فيه الآن.
قرأت الطبعة الثانية، والتي تمتد لتغطي فترة حكم الملك عبدالله الثاني، لكن الإضافات على الطبعة الأولى مليئة بالعموميات وتفتقر للتفاصيل الموجودة عن حقبة الملك حسين أو عبدالله الأول.
أهم جزء في الكتاب برأيي هو العقد الممتد من منتصف السبعينات لمنتصف الثمانينات، والذي اتسم بارتفاع أسعار النفط عالمياً، وبالتالي ارتفاع حجم المنح الخليجية والعراقية للأردن. أعتقد أن تلك الفترة، والتخبط في إدارة الأموال العامة فيها، والتوسع غير المنطقي ولا المدروس، كانت بداية ما نراه الآن في الأردن. بمجرد أن انتهى، انهار الدينار في نهاية الثمانينات، وبدأت سياسات الخصخصة والتقشف وفقا لتعلميات البنك الدولي في التسعينات، لنصل إلى ما نحن فيه الآن.
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July 21, 20221867 - Ottoman control reimposed on the lands of Transjordan
1906 - Hijaz Railway reaches Amman
1921 - Cairo Conference under Churchill gives Abdullah jurisdiction over Transjordan
1928 - Agreement b/w Britain and Abdullah recognizes Amir as head of Transjordan
1930 - Glubb establishes the Desert Patrol
1945 - Arab League established, with Transjordan as a founding member
1948 (March) - Anglo-Jordanian treaty signed
1951 - Abdullah I assassinated in Jerusalem, Talal proclaimed King
1952 - Constitution ratified; Talal abdicates
1953 - Hussein formally accedes
1956 - Arabization of military, Glubb dismissed; general election held
1962 - First premiership of technocratic, reformist Wafsi al-Tall
1970 - Black September
1977 - PLO reverses policy on regime change in Amman
1988 - Hussein cuts administrative and legal ties w/ West Bank
1989 - Jordan's foreign debt default becomes public; government begins IMF program
1989 (more) - Riots erupt; free and fair elections are held, with Islamist victory
1993 - Jordan holds first multi-party election since 1956
1994 - Peace treaty with Israel
1997 - Israelis bungle assassination attempt on Hamas leader in Jordan
1999 - Hussein dies, just after changing the succession from his brother to his son Abdullah
2001 - Abdullah visits Putin ten times, both having just come to power
2006 - Israel and Jordan sign a $10 billion, 15-year gas deal
2012 - Abdullah publishes five discussion papers on liberal governance amid Arab Spring
2013 - Islamists boycott Jordan's third national election; 600,000 refugees arrive from Syria
"On 20 February 1928, a formal agreement between ‘His Britannic Majesty and the Emir of Transjordan’2 (subsequently amended twice) was finally signed. ... For Abdullah, the main benefit of the agreement was that it recognised the existence of a government ‘under the rule of His Highness the Amir of Transjordan’. With the Hashemites having been chased out of the Hijaz in December 1925, this additional legal ballast was reassuring to Abdullah. Other benefits flowed from this fealty. Britain further incrementally bolstered the standing of Transjordan, with its immediate adjustment from a mantaqa (district) to an amara (emirate). ... Ultimately, the agreement also proved a point of departure from which incremental progress towards an independence of sorts could be contemplated. This was certainly the view of the British authorities in Amman, and so also of the Colonial Office" (38-9)
"By the time of the outbreak of hostilities in the Second World War, Abdullah had been based in Transjordan for eighteen years. ... Though his initial days in the emirate had been most inauspicious, for the last decade or so his relationship with the British had been changing. He was no longer disdained as an ineffectual, peevish and selfish figurehead. As the situation in Palestine had deteriorated, he was regarded with increasing favour as a moderate partner capable of delivering stable government. As Ron Pundik has written, the year 1939 saw ‘the end of the tutelage period and the beginning of partnership, even if it was an unequal one’. By the end of the 1930s Abdullah and the British were very much a team" (54-5)
"By 1945 the status of Transjordan was becoming anomalous; it was alone among the five founding members of the Arab League at the Cairo conference in not enjoying an independent existence. By withholding such a status Britain was effectively retarding and undermining its closest friend in the region. The move to grant Transjordan independence was also the product of a new realism on the part of the recently elected Labour government, and of its Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, in particular. It was clear that the efforts of the war had reduced Britain as a super- power, and it was no longer capable of acting as the hegemon of the Middle East. ... Against such a backdrop, a new Anglo-Transjordanian treaty was concluded, that superseded the 1928 agreement. It formally terminated the mandate and created an ‘independent’ state. Consequently, the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan was formally declared in May 1946, when Abdullah was crowned King. ... Britain was permitted to station its troops in the kingdom for the next twenty-five years. British officers continued to command the Jordanian army. Kirkbride, whose title had changed but little else, continued to occupy a privileged position as senior adviser to the King, although that was as much a reflection of personal chemistry as of neo-colonial obligation" (59-60)
"... Wasfi al-Tall, whom Israeli historian Uriel Dann has called ‘independent Jordan’s outstanding statesman’. A volcanic and seemingly contradictory amalgam, Tall was an Arab nationalist and a Jordanian nationalist; a fighter for Palestinian rights and a suppressor of Palestinian activists; a patriot, but someone who acquired a reputation as a British agent; a former journalist and reformer, but a man whose first political appointment was as a government censor; a man who served three times as Prime Minister but was never a team player. He is a much-debated figure in Jordan ... The son of the Jordanian poet Arar, himself a paradox, Wasfi al-Tall was born in 1919 of a prominent line within the Tall clan of northern Jordan. ... Ironically, in view of his later vilification by much of the Palestinian national movement, Tall risked his life trying to prevent the creation of the state of Israel, joining the Arab League’s ill-fated Arab Liberation Army, which fought in Palestine during the first Arab–Israeli war. Its failures engendered in him what would become an active contempt for the theory and practice of what passed for pan-Arab action for the remainder of his career. Tall increasingly became an establishment man, occupying various government positions in the 1950s, notably assuming responsibility for Jordanian public diplomacy under the patronage of Hazza al-Majali, whose close adviser he had become by 1960. It was also during this time that he developed a visceral hatred for Nasser, a man whom he correctly believed would ultimately bring catastrophe upon the Arab world. It was characteristic of Tall’s imprudent straight talking that he was never shy in sharing his contemptuous views of the Egyptian leader. Tall would meet his end in Cairo at the hands of a Palestinian assassin in 1971, apparently one of the first casualties of the Black September movement, which would seek revenge for the suppression of the PLO in Jordan in 1970–1, in which he had played a major part" (112)
"King Hussein was certainly no check on the Iraqi leader’s ambitions and the risk-taking he was prepared to pursue in order to realise them. The King was, for example, a vehement supporter of Saddam Hussein’s military adventure against Iran in September 1980, the first of a number of strategic blunders during Saddam’s presidency, and, with more than a million casualties, arguably the single most appallingly costly event in the history of the modern Middle East. In a symbolic gesture, Jordan even organised and sent a military contingent, the Yarmouk Brigade, in 1982 to fight alongside Iraq in the war. ... Iraqi money was certainly helpful in the King’s attempts to preserve dignity in the face of a humiliating dependence on the USA over the supply of arms" (160)
"Running in parallel with the political liberalisation process in Jordan was an initiative for the adoption of a National Charter (al-mithaq al-watani). This initiative emanated from the palace, part of the King’s urgent response to the violent unrest of April 1989. ... Arguably, its greatest importance was in the reassurance that it offered the King about the moves taking place in the direction of greater political liberalisation. The basic contract at the heart of the charter was that the King would allow the complete restoration of pluralist, democratic, participatory politics. In return, there would be a general quid pro quo from all of the people of the country that would do two things: first, acknowledge that Jordan was a legitimate territorial state; and second, recognise that Jordan was a Hashemite monarchy, with King Hussein its legitimate head of state. The charter was, in short, an attempt to transcend the lingering ambivalences towards state and regime that were a hangover from the 1950s. It was also a reflection of the renewed insecurities felt by the throne" (185)
1906 - Hijaz Railway reaches Amman
1921 - Cairo Conference under Churchill gives Abdullah jurisdiction over Transjordan
1928 - Agreement b/w Britain and Abdullah recognizes Amir as head of Transjordan
1930 - Glubb establishes the Desert Patrol
1945 - Arab League established, with Transjordan as a founding member
1948 (March) - Anglo-Jordanian treaty signed
1951 - Abdullah I assassinated in Jerusalem, Talal proclaimed King
1952 - Constitution ratified; Talal abdicates
1953 - Hussein formally accedes
1956 - Arabization of military, Glubb dismissed; general election held
1962 - First premiership of technocratic, reformist Wafsi al-Tall
1970 - Black September
1977 - PLO reverses policy on regime change in Amman
1988 - Hussein cuts administrative and legal ties w/ West Bank
1989 - Jordan's foreign debt default becomes public; government begins IMF program
1989 (more) - Riots erupt; free and fair elections are held, with Islamist victory
1993 - Jordan holds first multi-party election since 1956
1994 - Peace treaty with Israel
1997 - Israelis bungle assassination attempt on Hamas leader in Jordan
1999 - Hussein dies, just after changing the succession from his brother to his son Abdullah
2001 - Abdullah visits Putin ten times, both having just come to power
2006 - Israel and Jordan sign a $10 billion, 15-year gas deal
2012 - Abdullah publishes five discussion papers on liberal governance amid Arab Spring
2013 - Islamists boycott Jordan's third national election; 600,000 refugees arrive from Syria
"On 20 February 1928, a formal agreement between ‘His Britannic Majesty and the Emir of Transjordan’2 (subsequently amended twice) was finally signed. ... For Abdullah, the main benefit of the agreement was that it recognised the existence of a government ‘under the rule of His Highness the Amir of Transjordan’. With the Hashemites having been chased out of the Hijaz in December 1925, this additional legal ballast was reassuring to Abdullah. Other benefits flowed from this fealty. Britain further incrementally bolstered the standing of Transjordan, with its immediate adjustment from a mantaqa (district) to an amara (emirate). ... Ultimately, the agreement also proved a point of departure from which incremental progress towards an independence of sorts could be contemplated. This was certainly the view of the British authorities in Amman, and so also of the Colonial Office" (38-9)
"By the time of the outbreak of hostilities in the Second World War, Abdullah had been based in Transjordan for eighteen years. ... Though his initial days in the emirate had been most inauspicious, for the last decade or so his relationship with the British had been changing. He was no longer disdained as an ineffectual, peevish and selfish figurehead. As the situation in Palestine had deteriorated, he was regarded with increasing favour as a moderate partner capable of delivering stable government. As Ron Pundik has written, the year 1939 saw ‘the end of the tutelage period and the beginning of partnership, even if it was an unequal one’. By the end of the 1930s Abdullah and the British were very much a team" (54-5)
"By 1945 the status of Transjordan was becoming anomalous; it was alone among the five founding members of the Arab League at the Cairo conference in not enjoying an independent existence. By withholding such a status Britain was effectively retarding and undermining its closest friend in the region. The move to grant Transjordan independence was also the product of a new realism on the part of the recently elected Labour government, and of its Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, in particular. It was clear that the efforts of the war had reduced Britain as a super- power, and it was no longer capable of acting as the hegemon of the Middle East. ... Against such a backdrop, a new Anglo-Transjordanian treaty was concluded, that superseded the 1928 agreement. It formally terminated the mandate and created an ‘independent’ state. Consequently, the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan was formally declared in May 1946, when Abdullah was crowned King. ... Britain was permitted to station its troops in the kingdom for the next twenty-five years. British officers continued to command the Jordanian army. Kirkbride, whose title had changed but little else, continued to occupy a privileged position as senior adviser to the King, although that was as much a reflection of personal chemistry as of neo-colonial obligation" (59-60)
"... Wasfi al-Tall, whom Israeli historian Uriel Dann has called ‘independent Jordan’s outstanding statesman’. A volcanic and seemingly contradictory amalgam, Tall was an Arab nationalist and a Jordanian nationalist; a fighter for Palestinian rights and a suppressor of Palestinian activists; a patriot, but someone who acquired a reputation as a British agent; a former journalist and reformer, but a man whose first political appointment was as a government censor; a man who served three times as Prime Minister but was never a team player. He is a much-debated figure in Jordan ... The son of the Jordanian poet Arar, himself a paradox, Wasfi al-Tall was born in 1919 of a prominent line within the Tall clan of northern Jordan. ... Ironically, in view of his later vilification by much of the Palestinian national movement, Tall risked his life trying to prevent the creation of the state of Israel, joining the Arab League’s ill-fated Arab Liberation Army, which fought in Palestine during the first Arab–Israeli war. Its failures engendered in him what would become an active contempt for the theory and practice of what passed for pan-Arab action for the remainder of his career. Tall increasingly became an establishment man, occupying various government positions in the 1950s, notably assuming responsibility for Jordanian public diplomacy under the patronage of Hazza al-Majali, whose close adviser he had become by 1960. It was also during this time that he developed a visceral hatred for Nasser, a man whom he correctly believed would ultimately bring catastrophe upon the Arab world. It was characteristic of Tall’s imprudent straight talking that he was never shy in sharing his contemptuous views of the Egyptian leader. Tall would meet his end in Cairo at the hands of a Palestinian assassin in 1971, apparently one of the first casualties of the Black September movement, which would seek revenge for the suppression of the PLO in Jordan in 1970–1, in which he had played a major part" (112)
"King Hussein was certainly no check on the Iraqi leader’s ambitions and the risk-taking he was prepared to pursue in order to realise them. The King was, for example, a vehement supporter of Saddam Hussein’s military adventure against Iran in September 1980, the first of a number of strategic blunders during Saddam’s presidency, and, with more than a million casualties, arguably the single most appallingly costly event in the history of the modern Middle East. In a symbolic gesture, Jordan even organised and sent a military contingent, the Yarmouk Brigade, in 1982 to fight alongside Iraq in the war. ... Iraqi money was certainly helpful in the King’s attempts to preserve dignity in the face of a humiliating dependence on the USA over the supply of arms" (160)
"Running in parallel with the political liberalisation process in Jordan was an initiative for the adoption of a National Charter (al-mithaq al-watani). This initiative emanated from the palace, part of the King’s urgent response to the violent unrest of April 1989. ... Arguably, its greatest importance was in the reassurance that it offered the King about the moves taking place in the direction of greater political liberalisation. The basic contract at the heart of the charter was that the King would allow the complete restoration of pluralist, democratic, participatory politics. In return, there would be a general quid pro quo from all of the people of the country that would do two things: first, acknowledge that Jordan was a legitimate territorial state; and second, recognise that Jordan was a Hashemite monarchy, with King Hussein its legitimate head of state. The charter was, in short, an attempt to transcend the lingering ambivalences towards state and regime that were a hangover from the 1950s. It was also a reflection of the renewed insecurities felt by the throne" (185)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2017
This is a succinct, clear book that doesn't mess around with poetry or narrative pieces: it's a plain ol' historical-political-economic history of Jordan. And it's good. Very good, really. Having said that, it's probably not for the most casual reader -- Robins assumes you know about the broader trends in the Middle East in the 20th century, and focuses then on Jordan's role without elucidating the context. Robins also seems, at times, stuck in the esoteric world of Jordaniana -- for me, most egregious was forgetting to mention why "Transjordan" became "Jordan" (surely of interest to the casual reader!), with Robins instead focussing on the more techni-legal elements of Jordan's official move from emirate to kingdom. Also, the book is from 2004, so it's pretty old -- not a lot of Abdullah II in here, so I'll have to seek that out elsewhere. Good for the engaged traveller, but start with a broader Arab history or be prepared to have Wikipedia ready to go for the confusing moments.
May 27, 2013
This is an interesting and accessible history, although by my lights it has a couple of problems for the general reader. As someone who has no prior knowledge of Jordianian history, I found certain sections hard to follow because the author dealt more with his analysis of the causes and significance of certain events (for example the 1967 war) than the events themselves. I feel like this book would be more valuable with someone who already has a basic understanding of the history of the region, as much of this seems assumed. Acceptable for a complete beginner (like myself), but not ideal. I kept finding myself wanting more description of the events, less analysis.
August 4, 2016
I had such high hopes for this book. I tried, I really did, time and time again, I would come back to it, almost forcing myself to complete it. But at long last, today, I just gave up. I found myself reading for over an hour and honestly, I looked up and said; WOW-- I can't recall a single thing.
The writing style of the author was obtuse and unmemorable. I felt like I was reading and nothing was sticking. It's the worst thing ever for a book about history to kill the reader with indifference. Historically based narratives, no matter how dense, I believe, have to be written with passion.
The country of Jordan is an integral part of understanding the Isreali and Palestinian land issues. The very creation of a country called Jordan (formally Trans Jordon part of Palestine) is unfortunately gleaned over in many of the other books I've read on this topic.
This considerable swath of land was integral in aiding the West in envisioning their plans for the region after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and during the British Mandate. The fact that a country could be created by happenstance is just fascinating to me. I'm sure there is a better set of books to read on the topic, and I solicit suggestions.
The writing style of the author was obtuse and unmemorable. I felt like I was reading and nothing was sticking. It's the worst thing ever for a book about history to kill the reader with indifference. Historically based narratives, no matter how dense, I believe, have to be written with passion.
The country of Jordan is an integral part of understanding the Isreali and Palestinian land issues. The very creation of a country called Jordan (formally Trans Jordon part of Palestine) is unfortunately gleaned over in many of the other books I've read on this topic.
This considerable swath of land was integral in aiding the West in envisioning their plans for the region after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and during the British Mandate. The fact that a country could be created by happenstance is just fascinating to me. I'm sure there is a better set of books to read on the topic, and I solicit suggestions.
November 14, 2007
This is a decent comprehensive history of the Hashemite Kingdom. The author is knowledgeable about the subject and the book is well researched.
The writing, however, is a bit heavy and needlessly complicated. I found I was having difficulty staying focused at times.
The author is a bit of an apologist for King Hussein. All Jordanians I've met are exuberant about their late king, and I wonder if this has rubbed off on him in an uncritical way. I'm most interested in the decisions to participate in the 1967 war, which was disastrous for Jordan and the Palestinians (and arguably for Israel in the long run as well), which is more or less glossed over as peer pressure upon Hussein.
The writing, however, is a bit heavy and needlessly complicated. I found I was having difficulty staying focused at times.
The author is a bit of an apologist for King Hussein. All Jordanians I've met are exuberant about their late king, and I wonder if this has rubbed off on him in an uncritical way. I'm most interested in the decisions to participate in the 1967 war, which was disastrous for Jordan and the Palestinians (and arguably for Israel in the long run as well), which is more or less glossed over as peer pressure upon Hussein.
March 14, 2013
This was a good book if you enjoy reading political books. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people so I found the book hard to get through.
Robins did a good job though talking about more current issues in Jordan and about the monarchy. It was a good preparation for traveling to the country, but it was a difficult read
Robins did a good job though talking about more current issues in Jordan and about the monarchy. It was a good preparation for traveling to the country, but it was a difficult read
December 4, 2010
A very good overview of the country, its history, politics, conflicts, and the influence of King Hussein in the Middle East over the past fifty years, as well as his personal quirks and idiosyncrasies. Stops in the early 2000's, just into the beginning of King Abdullah's reign.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews