The Balqa (; transliteration: al-Balqāʾ), known colloquially as the Balga, is a geographic region in central Jordan generally defined as the highlands east of the Jordan Valley in between the Zarqa River to the north and the Wadi Mujib gorge to the south.
The Balqa was part of the Byzantine province of Arabia Petraea and home to the Arab tribes of Judham, Lakhm and Bali. After the 630s Muslim conquest, it became part of Jund Dimashq (the military district of Damascus). The Umayyad family maintained interests in the region before the founding of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), a period in which the Balqa prospered. Starting from the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik (), the Balqa was assigned its own sub-governor. The caliphs Yazid II and his son al-Walid II lived in the Balqa as princes and caliphs, building several palatial residences. In the 10th century the Balqa became subordinate to Jund Filastin (the military district of Palestine). Under the Ayyubids (1170s–1260) and Mamluks (1260–1516) the Balqa continued to function as a district, subordinate to Damascus, sometimes spanning the Sharat highlands to the south.
Amman had been the Balqa's traditional capital, but the capital shifted to Hisban under the Mamluks. The tribes of Banu Sakhr and Banu Mahdi, descendants of the Judham, lived there at the time. By the 16th century, during Ottoman rule, only four villages were recorded in the Balqa, along with the Bedouin tribe of Da'aja, still present in the region. In the late 18th–early 19th centuries, the only permanent settlement was the mixed Muslim and Christian town of Salt, the rest of the region being dominated by Bedouin tribes, the strongest of which was the Adwan. The Balqa had been outside Ottoman government control until the campaign of Rashid Pasha in the late 1860s, after which it was incorporated into the Nablus Sanjak. In the following years several settlements were established or re-established, including Amman and Madaba, by Christians from Salt and Karak, government-sponsored Circassian and Chechen refugees, and Bedouin chiefs.
The growing prosperity of the Balqa in the late Ottoman period was disrupted by the British occupation of the region in World War I. The paramountcy of the Banu Sakhr over the Adwan and other local tribes was sealed in the subsequent period, leading to the Adwan Rebellion. Amman became the capital of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1923 and continues to be the capital of the Emirate's successor state, the Kingdom of Jordan. The region is presently divided between the governorates of Balqa (centered in Salt), Amman, Zarqa and Madaba. Mainly due to the influx of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 and 1967 Arab–Israeli wars, Palestinians and their descendants made up about 70% of the population of Amman, Zarqa and Balqa. Most of the preexisting population during the same period comprised the descendants of the formerly semi-nomadic Arab tribesmen of the Balqa, who continue to identify culturally as Bedouin.
Etymology According to J. Sourdel-Thomine, the Arabic etymology of al-Balqāʾ could be related to the feminine form of the Arabic word ablaq, meaning "variegated". The most popular etymology cited by the medieval Arabic geographers, however, was that Balqa was the name of a descendant of the Bani Amman ibn Lut, which conjures up the Ammonites and the biblical figure and Islamic prophet Lot.
Geography Geographic definition The Balqa forms the central part of the Transjordanian highlands. It extends from the Zarqa River in the north to the Wadi Mujib gorge in the south. The southern limit of the Balqa is alternatively placed north of Wadi Mujib at Wadi Zarqa Ma'in, hence the colloquial description of the Balqa as "the land between the two Zarqas". The Zarqa River separates the Balqa from the Jabal Ajlun highlands, while the Wadi Mujib separates it from the Sharat highlands. To the west, the Balqa borders the lowlands of the Jordan Valley (called al-Ghor in Arabic), while the region borders the Syrian Desert in the east.
Topography and climate
The entire Balqa is a limestone plateau, as compared to the gravel and basalt-covered plateau of the Syrian Desert that makes up over 75% of Jordan's land area. The western part of the Balqa, closer to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, is a relatively fertile zone characterized by its broken ground and deep gorges formed by precipitation-induced erosion. The eastern part of the Balqa sees little rainfall and is characterized by its tabular consistency. In general the Balqa is arid, though the western plains near the Jordan Valley and the depressions allow for some cultivation. This accounts for the ancient and medieval reports of the Balqa's fertility. Like Jabal Ajlun and the Sharat, the Balqa has a dry and temperate climate.
The average elevation of the Balqa is above sea level. Among the tallest peaks are Tell Nabi Usha () in the northern Balqa and Mount Nebo () in the south.
+ Monthly normal high and low temperatures (°C) for the largest localities in the BalqaCity Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec AnnualMax/Min Citation Amman 12/3 13/4 16/6 22/9 27/13 30/15 31/17 32/18 30/16 27/13 20/9 14/5 23/11 Madaba 12/3 14/4 17/6 22/9 27/12 29/15 30/16 30/17 29/15 27/13 20/9 14/5 23/10 Salt 12/4 13/4 16/6 21/9 27/13 30/16 31/18 31/18 30/16 26/13 20/10 14/6 23/11 Zarqa 13/2 15/4 19/6 24/10 30/13 32/16 33/18 33/17 32/16 28/13 21/8 15/4 25/11
Rivers
The perennial Wadi Shueib stream traverses the heart of the western Balqa and creates a fertile valley in which many of the area's western towns sit. The stream deposits into the Jordan Valley. The Zarqa River is a tributary of the Jordan River, while the Wadi Mujib stream flows into the Dead Sea.
History Hellenistic period
During the Hellenistic period, the western part of the Balqa belonged to the administrative district of Perea centered in the city of Gadara (near modern al-Salt), while much of the northeastern Balqa around Philadelphia (modern Amman) formed part of the Decapolis and the southeastern part belonged to Nabatea.
Roman and Byzantine periods In 106 CE, during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan, the whole of the Balqa came under the province of Arabia Petraea. The Balqa remained part of Arabia province during the Byzantine period and the Wadi al-Mujib formed the southern boundary of the province, separating it from the new district of Palestina Tertia. The major towns of Byzantine Balqa were Philadelphia, Esbus (modern Hisban) and Madaba.
Early Islamic period
At the time of the early Muslim conquests in the 630s, the principal Arab tribes in the Balqa were the Bali, the Judham, and the Ghassanids. The Balqa was conquered by the Muslims under the commander Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan shortly after the capture of Damascus in late 634/early 635 and the peaceful surrender of Amman. Yazid's father Abu Sufyan owned a village in the Balqa called Biqinis. In 661, Yazid's brother Mu'awiya founded the Levant-based Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), under which the Balqa continued to prosper. Caliph Marwan I () granted the Sakun, a branch of the Kinda tribe the right to settle the Balqa in return for their support against anti-Umayyad tribes in Syria at the Battle of Marj Rahit. Several palatial residences for the Umayyad caliphs and princes were erected throughout the Balqa, including al-Mshatta, Ziza, Qastal, and Umm al-Walid, as well as Qusayr Amra, al-Kharane, Qasr al-Hallabat and Qasr Tuba further east along the desert fringe.
While still a prince, Yazid II built Qastal and al-Muwaqqar, another palace near Amman, and was possibly associated with Umm al-Walid; he ruled as caliph in 720–724 and died in the Balqa town of Irbid. Yazid II's son al-Walid II resided in his Balqa estates during part of his years as the heir apparent of Caliph Hisham and built Qusayr Amra. Al-Walid II's father-in-law, a member of the Umayyad family, Caliph Uthman's great-grandson Sa'id ibn Khalid ibn Amr ibn Uthman, owned an estate called al-Faddayn in the Balqa, which al-Walid II regularly visited. After succeeding Hisham in 743, he continued to live in the Balqa. He imprisoned Hisham's son Sulayman in Amman. Descendants of al-Walid II may have continued to reside in Qastal as late as the early Abbasid period, as possibly attested by gravestones at the site.
The administrative and geographic definition of the Balqa varied throughout the early Islamic period. Under the Umayyads until at least the late 9th century the Balqa included much of the Jabal Ajlun and Ma'ab areas and was a subdistrict of Jund Dimashq (military district of Damascus) with its own ʿāmil (governor). The historian al-Ya'qubi held that the Balqa was divided into two zones: the Ghor with its center in Jericho (west of the Jordan River) and the Zahir centered in Amman. The writings of the 10th-century geographer al-Muqaddasi indicate that the Balqa shifted to administrative dependence on Jund Filastin (military district of Palestine).
Umayyad and Abbasid sub-governors The post of the sub-governor of Balqa first appeared in the Islamic traditional sources during the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik (). Ubayd Allah ibn Marwan, governed for undetermined period under his brother Caliph Abd al-Malik. Muhammad ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, governed for undetermined period under Caliph Abd al-Malik. Muhammad was a brother of Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi from the clan of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. Yusuf ibn Umar had been al-Walid II's governor in Iraq and relocated to his Thaqafi family's estate in the Balqa. The historian Garth Fowden proposed that the family estate may have been Umm al-Walid (Mother of al-Walid) based on the assumption that it belonged to al-Walid II's mother, who belonged to al-Hajjaj's family. Al-Walid ibn Qa'qa al-Absi, may have governed for undetermined period under Caliph al-Walid I (). Harith ibn Amr al-Ta'i, governed for undetermined period under Caliph Umar II (). Unnamed governor under Marwan II () Salih ibn Ali ibn Abdallah ibn Abbas, governor in 750 under his nephew, the Abbasid caliph al-Saffah. Abdallah ibn Sulayman ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Muttalib, governed for undetermined period under his distant kinsman Caliph al-Mansur (). Salih ibn Sulayman ibn Abdallah ibn Abbas, governed from 796 under Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki, vizier of Salih ibn Sulayman's kinsman Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
Ayyubid and Mamluk periods Under the Ayyubids (1180s–1250), the Balqa administratively included and excluded the Sharat, while under the Mamluks the Balqa was a district of the southern march of Mamlakat Dimashq (province of Damascus) with its center in Hisban. At times, the town of al-Salt formed its own wilaya (subdistrict). Practically, it depended, at least temporarily, on Niyabat al-Karak (province of al-Karak) to the south. The major tribes of the Balqa during Mamluk rule were the Banu Sakhr and the Banu Mahdi, both counted as descendants of the Judham, whose presence in the southern Levant dated to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods.
Ottoman era
Although Ottoman tax records from the 16th century do not specify the Bedouin tribes living in the Balqa, the Ottoman historian al-Khalidi al-Safadi (d. 1628) noted that two tribes, the Da'aja and Jahawisha, dwelt there. Only four villages were officially recorded in the Balqa during the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, the only permanent settlement in the region was the mixed Muslim and Christian town of Salt, a situation which persisted until the late 19th century. The rest of the Balqa was dominated by the local Bedouin tribes.