The Jordan Valley’s tombs
Amman and the Jordan Valley, Jordan
I am not sure what Ibn Battuta did about changes of clothing. Much of the clothing in my suitcase is linen, quite lovely and not remotely suitable for temperatures of -5 degrees Celsius which has been the the case in much of Syria in the last few days when the sun drops. (It is not much warmer in Amman.) It snowed in Palmyra, Jebel Ansariye and the hills around the capital. When I re-started the trip in Cairo - after divigating to Uzbekistan you will recall - it was 38 degrees Celsius and humid, and linen was perfect.
The beautiful linen wardrobe designed for me by Dabiki, www.dabiki.com a soon-to-be-launched label of lightweight linen and silk clothing for the tropics.
No longer. I was so cold one day that Khaled bought me a jacket in the souk after I had told him I was going to get a Bedouin jacket - they are made of cotton lined with wool - but wooly wool, straight from the sheep’s back.... So now I am warm but the wool of the jacket sticks to the fleece making me look like a shaggy dog when I take the jacket off. This is fine for the ‘local caff’, it is not fine for meetings with officials. It already seems as if I have been wearing the same two pairs of jeans, T-shirts, sweater and fleece for the last two months so the gathering wool bit is not making me feel better. When I next move the suitcase the clothes are going in the trash, I cannot bear to look at them any more and besides you can only wash things so many times.
And so back to the travels and yet another instance of 21st century politics making the same journey today if not impossible - difficult and potentially crippling.
“From there I went on to the town of Ajlun which is a fine town possessing a large number of bazaars and an imposing castle and traversed by a river with sweet water. “
Ibn Battuta was coming from Nablus which is in the West Bank. You can pass through the Israeli army checkpoint north of Nablus, change cars and drivers when leaving the Palestinian territory into Israel, then travel across Israel and into Jordan at the Sheikh Hussein bridge crossing. (Not to be confused with the King Hussein bridge also known as the Allenby Bridge.) However if your passport is stamped by either the Israelis or the Jordanians you cannot travel on to either Syria or Lebanon. Not willing to take the risk, (if you ask officials not to stamp your passport they will sometimes agree, sometimes not), I took a roundabout path, and having driven from Damascus the night before, I then had to drive north-west from Amman partially back the way I had come.
I did not take the risk of getting the passport stamped and had taken a very roundabout route. Having arrived in Amman the night before from Damascus, I then drove north-west again - half way back the way I had come.....Qalat ar-Rabad, Ajlun’s castle that Ibn B refers to, is indeed imposing - it dominates its surroundings from its perch atop the 1250 meter (4125 ft) Mt. Auf, and you can see it from afar long before you get to it. Built in the 12th century by a nephew of Saladin, Izz ad-Din Osama ibn Muquidh, with a moat over 15 meters (50ft) deep, it was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260 and later re-built by the Mamluks.
(The views not being clear this day, this is the renovated interior.)
The castle is undergoing restoration and has a small museum with finds from the ruins. The views from the top on a clear day are wonderful. Ajlun itself is a small market town surrounded by olive trees and although it has a little mosque with a minaret 600 years old, it would not have been there when Ibn Battuta visited.
‘Then I went on from there in the direction of al-Ladhiqiya, and passed through the Ghawr which is a valley between ranges of uplands. In it is the grave of Abu Obaidah ibn al-Jarrah, the patron of this people (God be pleased with him). We visited the tomb; beside it is a religious house at which food is supplied to all; wayfarers, and we spent a night there. After that we went to Qusair where the tomb of Muadh ibn Jabl (God be pleased with him) is situated and I gained the blessing of a visit to it also.”
Following in Ibn Battuta’s exact path - for once being able to visit the towns in the same order as he did, we drove to what is now the town of Abu Obaidah. Abu Obaidah was one of the Companions of the Prophet and later Commander in-Chief of the Arab Armies in Syria where he died of plague in 639. The modern tomb complex houses a mosque, garden and library in addition to the shrine. Several people came to visit it when we were there although the tomb itself is preserved behind a glass window.
Old tomb, modern setting...
Not so the next tomb we visited, that of Muadh ibn Jabal. Here too there is a modern-built complex in a small garden with a mosque. But the tomb is in an open room and when we went inside both of us noted the lovely fragrance - I asked what the incense was but the caretaker told us he had been guardian of the tomb for four years and had never used incense, yet every morning when he opened the tomb it smelled fragrant. It is somewhat astonishing because the aroma is distinctive yet subtle and pleasant, like a musky sandalwood or cedar aroma.
The fragrant tomb - perhaps this is the blessing Ibn B says he received...
Moawia was so amazed that he performed his ablutions and dashed next-door to the mosque for a quick prayer. (My guide, Moawia Qutaish who has been taking visitors around Jordan since 1993, is an excellent road companion; knowledgeable, funny and with excellent English. If you require a guide in Jordan I can highly recommend him - you can reach him at moawiaqutaish@hotmail.com.)
Muadh ibn Jabal was also a Companion of the Prophet who was sent to Yemen to spread the faith in 631AD. The Jordan Valley has many early Muslim tombs - this was one of the first areas of conflict between Arab and Byzantine armies and many died here; others like the two above who either remained after the defeat of the Byzantines or were sent to administer the area, died of plague and other illnesses.
The Jordan Valley is one of the lowest points on earth and the difference in temperature between here and Ajlun is considerable. Bananas, date palms, oranges and all manner of fruits and vegetables are grown here. The drive down from Ajlun is a magnificent switchback road that cuts through stony ground littered with dark-green low-lying ground shrubs and herbs. The pale-stone village walls and gateways are covered with bright-colored bougainvillea and white jasmine, while gardens host orange and persimmon trees. There is considerable birdlife here and as we drove down the mountain we spied a noble falcon sitting on a rock by the roadside.
And so back to Amman, a burgeoning, modern city. More than a million to a million and a half Iraqis have fled here - nobody is quite sure how many. Many of them are wealthy and have pushed up the price of everything - much as I was told in Syria. Perhaps in sympathy for all they have gone through, there is remarkably little rancor, at least publicly, about the rise in the cost of living as a result of this massive influx. Anyone expecting a medieval Arab city will be disappointed - the city is resolutely modern and aside from one or two buildings dating back to Roman and Ummayad times, all building is new.
This is as old as Amman gets....
Bearing in mind that anywhere from 60-70% of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian heritage, King Abdullah, like his father before him, has to walk a delicate tightrope in the on-going Middle East crises. He is popular with Jordanians in general who think he is doing a good job of promoting the country’s image abroad, and increasing the country’s prosperity in general. He is also credited with the drive to stamp out corruption. Jordan has few natural resources and as its most important resource is its people, education is highly prized and universities have sprung up all over the country.
I asked some people I met what they thought Jordan had gained from the peace process with Israel. The general opinion was that the 'government' may have benefitted in some ways such as joint water management and some environmental issues, but the ‘people’ hadn’t really gained anything. I think they meant that their lives had not changed in any way. Unlike Egypt, Jordan did not get back “its” land (i.e. the West bank) in exchange for peace, and I did not meet any Jordanians who had been to Israel, nor did they want to go. The peace agreement seems to be on paper only.
