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Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of (Arabic Al Mamlakah al Urdunniyah al Hashimiyah), kingdom in southwestern Asia, bounded on the north by Syria, on the east by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, on the south by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf of Aqaba, and on the west by Israel and the West Bank, an area previously held by Jordan that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The area of Jordan is 89,556 sq km (34,578 sq mi). Amman is the capital and largest city of Jordan.

The principal geographical feature of Jordan is an arid plateau that thrusts abruptly upward on the eastern shores of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, reaching a height of about 610 to 915 m (about 2,000 to 3,000 ft), then sloping gently downward toward the Syrian Desert in the extreme east of the country. The Jordan Valley is in the deep depression of the Great Rift Valley, which is 209 m (686 ft) below sea level in the area of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) and 408 m (1,340 ft) below sea level at the Dead Sea, the world�s lowest point. Deep canyons and mountainous outcroppings with elevations of approximately 1,500 m (approximately 4,900 ft) and more characterize the Arabian Plateau in the southern portion of the country. The Jordan River, forming the country�s border with Israel and the West Bank, is the heart of the country�s drainage system.

The climate of Jordan is marked by sharp seasonal variations in both temperature and precipitation. Temperatures below freezing are not unknown in January, the coldest month, but the average winter temperature is above 7� C (45� F). In the Jordan Valley summer temperatures may reach 49� C (120� F) in August, the hottest month, but the average summer temperature in Amman is 26� C (78� F). Precipitation is confined largely to the winter season and ranges from about 660 mm (about 26 in) in the northwestern corner to less than 127 mm (less than 5 in) in the extreme east.

Because much of Jordan consists of desert and steppe, plant life is not abundant. Grassland and wooded areas are found in the Jabal Ājlūn district between Amman and the Syrian border. In these regions the trees include willow, oleander and tamarisk along the lower Jordan River valley and also ilex, olive, Aleppo pine, and palm. Wildlife includes the hyena, hyrax, gazelle, ibex, fox, partridge, mongoose, and mole rat; birds are also well-represented.

Except for potash and phosphate deposits, Jordan has few known mineral resources that are large enough for commercial exploitation.

The population of Jordan is almost entirely Arab. The only sizable racial minorities in the country are the Circassians and the Armenians; each group accounts for less than 1 percent of the population. Jordan is 74 percent urban; nomads and seminomads make up perhaps 5 percent of the population.

The population of Jordan (2001 estimate), is 5,153,378, yielding an average population density of 58 persons per sq km (149 per sq mi).

Amman, the capital and largest city of Jordan, grew in population from a census estimate of 321,000 in 1966 to nearly 648,000 at the 1979 census, largely because of the influx of refugees from the West Bank area in the wake of the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967; in 1995 the city had an estimated 1.2 million inhabitants. Other important cities include Az Zarqā� (population, 1994 estimate, 421,000) and Irbid (281,000). Al �Aqabah, the only seaport, had an estimated population of 41,900 in 1989.

The great majority of the Jordanian people are Sunni Muslims. Shiite Muslims form a small minority. Christians, about one-third of whom belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, make up about 5 percent of the population. Islam is the state religion and Arabic the official language (see Arabic Language).

Jordan has made significant strides in education in recent decades, despite the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees and the very large share of the national budget assigned to the armed forces. Public education is free and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 15. At the secondary level, about 80 percent of the male children and 78 percent of the female children go to school. Some 100 percent of the Jordanian population age 15 or older was literate in 2001.

In the 1997-1998 school year 1.1 million pupils attended elementary schools in Jordan, another 155,000 students attended secondary schools, and 113,000 students were enrolled in institutions of higher education. The country has two major universities: the University of Jordan (1962) in Amman, and Yarmouk University (1976), in Irbid. Other facilities for higher education in Jordan include the Statistical Training Center and institutes for the study of agriculture, banking, social work, and public administration.

The major libraries of Jordan are the Greater Amman Public Library, the University of Jordan Library, and the Scientific and Technical Information Center, all in Amman. Major museums housing historical, religious, and archaeological treasures are the Jordan Archaeological Museum, the Mosaic Gallery, and the Folklore Museum, all in Amman.

Underdeveloped industrially, poor in natural resources, and largely too arid for agriculture, Jordan is not economically self-supporting and must depend heavily on foreign aid, primarily from petroleum-rich Arab countries. Further burdens were placed on the economy after the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which contained nearly half of Jordan�s agricultural land, and by the subsequent influx of unemployed refugees. In the late 1980s Jordan�s economy became increasingly dependent on the overland transport of goods from the port of Al� Aqabah to Iraq and on remittances from Jordanian workers employed in the Persian Gulf states. Both these sources of revenue were jeopardized by Iraq�s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990; the Persian Gulf War of 1991 dealt a serious blow to the Jordanian economy. In 1998 Jordan�s budget revenues were $2 billion and its expenditures were $2.6 billion.

The proportion of the labor force engaged in agriculture declined from 37 percent to 6 percent between 1965 and 1993. Only 3 percent of the land is cultivated, and only a small percentage of the cultivated area is irrigated. With so much of Jordan�s agriculture dependent on rainfall, annual production figures fluctuate widely. Wheat and barley are the major grain crops, but production is not sufficient to meet the needs of the country. Cereal production in 2000 was 51,485 metric tons. Some fruit crops, primarily citrus, olives, almonds, figs, grapes, and apricots, and such vegetables as cucumbers and tomatoes are grown for export. Even in the best agricultural years, food imports exceed food exports. In 2000 sheep, the most important livestock animal, totaled 1.6 million; cattle, some 55,000; and goats, about 630,000. Poultry in 2000 totaled 25 million. The West Bank accounted for an estimated 20 to 25 percent of the grain, 70 percent of the fruit, and 40 percent of the vegetable produce of Jordan before the 1967 war with Israel.

Mining operations in Jordan produced 6 million metric tons of phosphate rock in 1999. The nation also mines significant amounts of potash salts. Both minerals are used in the production of fertilizer.

Jordan lost about one-fifth of its industrial production as a result of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967. Since then, the Jordanian government has encouraged the expansion of industry through fiscal concessions and high protective tariffs. In 1993 manufacturing, construction, and mining employed 25 percent of the country�s labor force.

Jordan generates 99.5 percent of its electricity in thermal installations using imported petroleum. In 1999 the country�s output was 6.7 billion kilowatt-hours.

Since 1950 Jordan has issued its own currency, the Jordanian dinar (0.71 dinar equals U.S.$1; 1999 average), which is divided into 1,000 fil. The Central Bank of Jordan, which was founded in 1964, is the country�s bank of issue.

The principal exports of Jordan, apart from agricultural produce shipped to neighboring countries, are phosphates, potash, fertilizers, foodstuffs, and pharmaceuticals. The principal imports are crude petroleum, food, transport equipment, machinery, chemicals, iron and steel, and electrical and electronic items. Leading purchasers of Jordan�s exports are Iraq, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Syria, and Indonesia; chief sources for imports are Iraq, the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Turkey, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. In 1999 the total value of Jordanian imports was $3.7 billion, and the total value of exports was $1.8 billion. Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange revenue. In 1999, 1.4 million tourists visited Jordan, yielding $451 million in income.

Jordan has a modern road network of 6,640 km (4,126 mi), nearly all of it paved. All major cities are linked by asphalt roads, and small towns by oiled or dirt roads. In 1997 there were an estimated 50 passenger vehicles for every 1,000 inhabitants. The only rail lines run from the Syrian border through Amman to Ma�ān, where branches run southeast to Saudi Arabia and southwest to the port of Al� Aqabah, a total of 293 km (182 mi). The air terminal in Amman is served by Alia-Royal Jordanian Airline and other international airlines.

In 1999 Jordan had in use 87 telephone mainlines, 271 radio receivers, and 82 television sets for every 1,000 inhabitants. Publications include 4 daily newspapers, as well as 41 nondaily newspapers.

Under the 1951 constitution (approved in 1952), Jordan is a limited monarchy.

The Jordanian monarch is chief executive and head of state and shares executive power with a prime minister and other cabinet members who are responsible to the parliament. The monarch may declare war, conclude peace, and convene, adjourn, and suspend the lower house of the legislature.

The Jordanian parliament, called the National Assembly, is comprised of two houses. A measure passed in 1986 called for enlargement of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, to 142 members, with 71 representing constituencies in Jordan, 60 representing districts in the West Bank, and 11 elected by West Bank Palestinians living in refugee camps in Jordan. After Jordan abandoned its claim to represent the Palestinians in 1988, the electoral laws were again revised, and 80 legislative seats were contested in the elections of 1989, 1993, and 1997. The upper house, or Senate, consists of 40 members who are appointed by the monarch, subject to approval by the Chamber of Deputies.

Jordan, like many Arab countries, has a civil and a religious court system. Magistrate courts, the lowest in the civil system, hear minor criminal and civil cases; important cases go to courts of first instance. Decisions of these courts are subject to review by courts of appeal. The supreme court of Jordan, known as the Court of Cassation, presides over cases against the state, hears appeals, and interprets the law.

Sharia (Muslim religious) courts rule on marriage, divorce, interdiction, wills, and guardianship cases for citizens desiring Muslim interpretation rather than civil decisions. Non-Muslim minorities may resort to religious courts of their own traditions in personal status cases. The country�s nomadic tribes may bring cases to tribal courts.

Jordan is divided into eight administrative districts, or governorates, each headed by a governor appointed by the monarch. Three former governorates, comprising what is now the West Bank, were occupied by Israel in 1967; their administrative links with Jordan were severed by King Hussein I in 1988. Jordan�s nomadic population is administered separately.

Although a ban on political parties imposed before the July 1963 elections was not lifted until 1991, the Communists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other political groups played an influential role in the 1989 parliamentary elections. Nine parties contested the country�s 1993 elections. Independent candidates loyal to the king gained ground in the 1997 elections, due largely to a boycott by Islamic opposition parties protesting electoral laws they felt were unfair and government restrictions on the press.

The king of Jordan is commander in chief of the armed forces. In 1999 the army comprised a total force of 90,000 people; the air force, 13,400; and the navy, an estimated 480.

The territory constituting modern Jordan was the site of some of the earliest settlements and political entities known to historians. The Ammonites and the kingdoms of Edom, Gilead, and Moab, situated east of the Jordan River, are referred to repeatedly in the Bible. These kingdoms were successively conquered by, or made tributary to, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Romans. Jordan was wrested from the Byzantine Empire by the Arabs between 633 and 636 and has since remained an Arab-Islamic country. During the Crusades parts of Jordan were governed by Christians. From 1517 until 1918 Jordan was ruled by the Ottomans (see Ottoman Empire).

The liberation of Jordan from Ottoman sovereignty was achieved in September 1918, during World War I, by joint action of British and Arab troops. After the war, Jordan, along with the territory constituting present-day Israel, was awarded to Britain as a mandate by the League of Nations. In 1922 the British divided the mandate into two parts, designating all lands west of the Jordan River as Palestine and those east of the river as Transjordan. Transjordan was placed under the nominal rule of Abdullah ibn Hussein in 1921. In February 1928 Transjordan obtained qualified independence in a treaty with Britain.

The government of Transjordan cooperated with Britain during World War II (1939-1945), making its territory available as a base of British operations against pro-Axis forces, which had gained control of the government of Iraq. In 1945 Transjordan became a member of the Arab League, an organization created for the purpose of coordinating Arab policy in international affairs and curbing Jewish national aspirations in Palestine. The British government relinquished its mandate over Transjordan on March 22, 1946. By the terms of a treaty concluded by the two nations on that date, Transjordan received recognition as a sovereign independent state. The treaty also established an Anglo-Transjordanian military and mutual-assistance alliance, with the British securing military bases and other installations in the country in exchange for an agreement to train and equip the Transjordanian army. Abdullah ibn Hussein was proclaimed king the following May.

In May 1948 the Jordanian army, known at that time as the Arab Legion, joined with the armed forces of the other Arab League nations in a concerted attack on the newly formed state of Israel. During the war the Arab Legion occupied sections of central Palestine, including the Old City of Jerusalem. Transjordan signed an armistice with Israel on April 3, 1949.

In April 1949 King Abdullah changed the name of the country to Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Hashemite refers to Hashim, the great-grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad, from whom the Jordanian royal house claims direct descent. On April 24, 1950, despite strong opposition from other Arab League members, the king formally merged all of Arab-held Palestine with Jordan and granted citizenship to West Bank residents.

King Abdullah was assassinated on July 20, 1951, by a Palestinian opposed to Jordanian tolerance of Israel, and was succeeded by his son Talal I the following September. On August 11, 1952, the Jordanian parliament deposed Talal, who suffered from a mental disorder, and elevated his son to become Hussein I the same day. A regency council acted for the new king until he reached the age of 18 on May 2, 1953.

Armed Jordanian and Israeli detachments were involved in frequent frontier clashes during the early 1950s. Major sources of friction were Israeli irrigation and hydroelectric schemes that would have reduced the volume of the Jordan waters, considered vital to Jordanian development.

Jordan became a member of the United Nations (UN) on December 14, 1955. During the latter half of the following year Jordanian and Israeli UN delegates registered bitter and increasingly frequent charges of border violations and armed raids.

By the provisions of a ten-year pact signed on January 19, 1957, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia agreed to furnish Jordan with an annual subsidy of $36 million. The pact was designed to free Jordan from dependence on Western nations, particularly Britain, whose policies were considered anti-Arab and pro-Israel. The Jordanian premier and other leftists in the government were dismissed by the king in April, however, and the following June, Syria and Egypt revoked the aid pact.

On February 14, 1958, two weeks after Egypt and Syria merged to form the United Arab Republic (UAR), the more conservative governments of Jordan and Iraq announced the formation of the Arab Federation. When the Iraqi government was overthrown in July, however, largely as a result of UAR propaganda and intrigue, the federation was dissolved and Jordan severed diplomatic relations with the UAR. Although ties were restored in August 1959, relations between Hussein and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of the UAR remained strained. When the Jordanian premier, Hazza Majuli, was assassinated in August 1960, King Hussein charged Nasser with responsibility.

During 1961 and 1962 Jordan was relatively free of domestic political strife and antigovernment agitation by the country�s refugee population. The growing stength of the throne was evidenced by the general acceptance, and even popularity, of the king�s marriage in May 1961 to Antoinette Avril Gardiner of Britain, who was granted the title Princess Muna. (They were divorced in 1972.) After the elections of December 1962, political parties, which had been banned during the height of Jordanian-UAR tensions, were reactivated. Foreign relations were less relaxed, however. In September 1961 Jordan recognized the new regime in Syria, which had just seceded from the UAR, and President Nasser of Egypt retaliated by breaking diplomatic relations with Jordan.

After the fall of one premier and the resignation of his successor in the spring of 1963, political parties were banned again. Elections in July installed a new cabinet and inaugurated another two-year period of relative domestic tranquillity. Diplomatic relations with the UAR (Egypt) were restored in 1964 in response to mounting pressure for Arab League unity against Israel. Renewed clashes with Israel over Jordanian water rights led to an Arab summit conference in Cairo in September 1964, attended by King Hussein.

Relations between Jordan and the left-wing Baathist regime in Syria deteriorated in the mid-1960s. Despite calls for unity, Arab nations tended to polarize into an extremist camp including Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, and a moderate group including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. For a time the Jordanian frontier with Syria was as troubled as its border with Israel. Arab guerrilla fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), infiltrating Jordan from Syria, launched terrorist attacks against Israel for which Jordan suffered Israeli reprisals. In July 1966 Jordan withdrew support from the PLO, but a massive Israeli raid in November created intense pressure for Hussein to back the terrorists. When he refused, the PLO called for his overthrow, and clashes on the Syrian border increased.

Arab-Israeli tensions were meanwhile mounting steadily. When war seemed imminent, Hussein, in an unprecedented gesture of Arab solidarity, flew to Cairo and signed a defense treaty with Nasser on May 30, 1967. This action greatly enhanced his position with the refugees, but it also committed Jordan to active involvement when the Six-Day War broke out on June 5. On June 7, with its air force destroyed and the West Bank occupied, Jordan accepted a UN cease-fire.

Jordanian postwar diplomacy aimed at reinforcing ties with the West and achieving an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied area. Hussein took no unilateral initiatives toward a peace settlement, however, and Egypt, Algeria, and Syria hardened their anti-Israel position with calls for a sustained guerrilla offensive against Israel, staged from bases in Jordan.

The situation in Jordan reached the point of civil war in September 1970, when Palestinian guerrillas supported by Syria fought Jordanian troops in Amman and other areas of northern Jordan. After heavy casualties, a cease-fire agreement was reached requiring a number of concessions from Hussein. In 1971, however, Hussein ordered Premier Wasfi al-Tall to take military action against the guerrillas, and the movement was completely crushed. The Arab response to Jordan�s actions was strongly hostile. On November 28, while attending a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo, Premier al-Tall was assassinated by guerrilla members of the Palestinian Black September organization.

In 1972 Hussein proposed creation of a federated Arab state comprising Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Most Arab governments and the Palestinian organizations were unanimously opposed to such a state, however.

In February 1973 King Hussein visited the United States and received promises of continued U.S. economic and military aid. On September 18 Hussein granted amnesty to 1,500 political prisoners, including some 750 Palestinian commandos; the move was viewed as a peace gesture following meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Syria that had brought about reconciliation among the three countries.

The short, indecisive Arab-Israeli War of 1973 began on October 6 and lasted for 18 days. Jordan contributed some token forces to assist Syrian troops fighting against Israel in the Golan Heights region. After the war the PLO gained standing in the Middle East, and in 1974 Jordan reluctantly recognized it as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. In return, Jordan was promised economic and military aid from other Arab nations. In November King Hussein dissolved parliament so it could be reconstituted without representatives of the West Bank. Elections for the new Chamber of Deputies were postponed indefinitely in early 1976.

In 1975 Jordan established closer ties with Syria, mainly in order to guard against a possible attack by Israel. King Hussein refused to accept the 1978 U.S.-sponsored Camp David Accords on the Middle East, because they failed to provide for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories; in 1979 he denounced Egypt�s separate peace with Israel. Jordan supported Iraq in its war with Iran beginning in 1980, a policy that strained relations with the pro-Iranian government of Syria. In January 1984 parliament held its first regular session in ten years, and limited parliamentary elections took place in March.

In July 1988, in response to months of demonstrations by Palestinians in the Israeli-held West Bank, Hussein ceded to the PLO all Jordanian claims to the territory. Islamic fundamentalists showed significant strength in Jordan�s first general election in 22 years, held in November 1989. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, King Hussein unsuccessfully sought to play a mediating role. Meanwhile, the large influx of refugees from the Persian Gulf region, combined with the worldwide embargo on trade with Iraq, took a toll on the Jordanian economy. An influx of Jordanians who had fled from Kuwait and Iraq increased the country�s unemployment rate to 30 percent. The falling worth of the Jordanian dinar also added to the country�s economic problems. Jordan�s apparent tilt toward Iraq during the Persian Gulf War strained relations with the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states. A joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation took part in the comprehensive Middle East peace talks that began in October 1991. Also in 1991, King Hussein lifted a ban on political parties, paving the way for the country�s first multiparty elections since 1956. These elections, held in 1993, resulted in a loss of seats for conservative religious parties and the election of a woman to the parliament for the first time. In 1997 elections, marked by a boycott by Islamic opposition parties and low voter turnout, candidates loyal to the king gained ground.

In July 1994 Hussein signed a peace agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, ending 46 years of war and strained relations between the two countries. In October, Prime Minister Abdul-Salam al-Majali of Jordan and Rabin signed a full peace treaty, making Jordan the second Arab nation (after Egypt) to establish relations with Israel. The treaty resolved the long-standing and deeply disputed issue of land and water rights: Israel agreed to return about 350 sq km (about 135 sq mi) of disputed territory to Jordan, most of it located in the Arava, just north of the Gulf of Aqaba, in exchange for a much smaller portion of land then under Jordanian control. Israel also agreed to make 50 million cu m (13.2 billion gallons) of water available to Jordan each year, mostly by diverting flows from the Jordan River. In addition, the two governments agreed to a full normalization of diplomatic relations, and cooperation in areas of mutual concern such as tourism, transportation, environmental protection, trade and economic development. While Israel recognized Jordan�s claims to Islamic shrines in Jerusalem, Jordan pledged not to participate in anti-Israeli alliances, or to allow its land to be used for such purposes. In September 1997 relations between Jordan and Israel were strained again by Israel�s unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the founder of Hamas, a militant Islamic group responsible for frequent terrorist acts against Israel, in Amman.