Becoming urban: Town administrations in Transjordan

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 189-211

  Reimer, Michael J ^a  

^a The American University in Cairo   (Egypt)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADMINISTRATION; URBAN PLANNING;

EID: 21344444121     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743805372035     Document Type: Review

References (108)

1. The documents cited here and later are in the government archive section of Jordan's National Library in Amman (hereafter, NLA), file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 3, 15 July 1935, people of Aqaba to prime minister.
2. Ibid., doc. 8, 25 February 1936, people of Aqaba to provincial governor (Mutasarrif Liwa') of Ma'an.
3. Lex Heerma van Voss, ed., "Introduction," Petitions in Social History, International Review of Social History, suppl. 9 (2001): 5.
4. There are some important exceptions to this generalization. Municipal administrations in the great cities have been studied - for example, in the monumental work of Robert Ilbert, Alexandrie, 1830-1930, 2 vols. (Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientate, 1996),
5. and in several works on Istanbul, such as Steven T. Rosenthal, The Politics of Dependency: Urban Reform in Istanbul (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980),
6. and Zeynep Çelik, The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986). There are also many solid studies of the small towns of Transjordan published by Jordanian scholars.
7. Among these works are Ahmad Sidqi Shuqayrat, Ta'rikh alidara al-'uthmaniyyah fi sharq al-Urdun 1864-1918 (Amman: Matba'a al-Iman, 1992);
8. Muhammad Salim al-Tarawneh, Tarikh mantiqat al-Balqa' wa-Ma'an wa-Karak, 1864-1919 (Amman: Ministry of Culture, 1992);
9. Noufan Raja al-Hmoud al-Swarieh, Amman wa-jiwaruha, 1864-1921 (Amman: Business Bank Publications, 1994);
10. Hind Ghassan Abu-Sha'ar, Irbid wa-jiwaruha, 1850-1928 (Amman: Business Bank Publications, 1996);
11. George Farid Tarif Dawud, al-Salt wa-jiwaruha, 1864-1921 (Amman: Business Bank Publications, 1995);
12. Mohammad A. Khriesat, Dirasat fi ta'rikh madinat Salt (Amman: Ministry of Culture, 1997);
13. Hani al-Amad, al-Salt, 2 vols. (Amman: Municipality of Greater Amman, 2001-2).
14. On the orality of Transjordan's tribal culture, see Andrew Shryock, Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), chap. 1. The emir's discouragement of petitions is attested to in a report of comments made by Tawfiq Pasha Abu al-Huda. Thus, "The Amir is very democratic. Every man is free to come to him and speak both on political and personal matters. H.H. the Amir does not encourage the public to resort to telegrams and petitions, and when he is informed that such action is about to be taken he prevents it": "Interview Between Taufiq Pasha Abul Hudda [sic] and the Secretary of State fo r the Colonies," 16, 19 January 1939, CO 831/50/18, reprinted in Records of Jordan, 1919-1965, 14 vols., ed. Jane Priestland (Southampton: Archive Editions, 1996), 5:6-7.
15. Van Voss, "Introduction," 4.
16. The post-Ottoman state was like the Ottoman state in this regard. A splendid example of these conflicting agendas as they emerged in the resolving of a local dispute by Ottoman authorities is found in Beshara Doumani's pioneering study, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants of Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 171-81.
17. Or "localized." The concept is borrowed from M. P. Smith and T. Bender's introductory article, "The Localization of Modernity," in City and Nation: Rethinking Place and Identity (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2001), 1-14.
18. I wish to acknowledge my debt to the first published examination of the baladiyya debate, found in the meticulously documented and extremely useful work of Muhammad Ahmad al-Salah, al-Idara fi-imarat sharq al-Urdun (Irbid: Dar al-Malahi, 1984), 351-86, esp. 356 ff.
19. Translated text in George Young, Corps de Droit Ottoman, 7 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1905-1906), 1:36-44.
20. Young, Corps de Droit, 1: 47-69.
21. Rosenthal, Politics of Dependency, 200;
22. the reform is also analyzed in B. Lewis, s.v. "Baladiyya - Turkey," Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., 1:974.
23. Young, Corps de Droit, 1: 69-84.
24. At a presentation I gave at American Center of Oriental Research in Amman in 1998, Andrew Shryock made the interesting suggestion that these regulations were perhaps a conscious attempt to dissociate towns from villages and encampments by laying down norms that implicitly condemned the behavior of rural subjects.
25. Rosenthal, Politics of Dependency, 88-96.
26. Young, Corps de Droit, 1:72, n. 5.
27. Text in Official Gazette, 4, 11, and 18 May 1925. Note: The Arabic title of this publication of the government of Transjordan was at first al-Sharq al-'Arabi; later it became al-Jarida al-rasmiyya (Official Gazette). For the sake of simplicity, Official Gazette is used throughout this article.
28. A detailed comparison of the two laws is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that the categories of duties assigned to the baladiyyas are very similar, and in many cases it is clear that the Ottoman law has simply been rendered into Arabic with some modification.
29. Official Gazette, 15 November 1926 (Qanun ta'lif lajnat al-baladiyyat al-istishariyya, Article 3). On the location of meetings and details concerning the operations of the Municipal Advisory Board, see the careful archival work in al-Salah, al-Idara, 365-74.
30. Official Gazette, 1 September 1927. According to this new law, failure to pay fees charged by the baladiyya could result in the sale of a person's movable property or three months' imprisonment.
31. P. Knabenshue, U.S Consul-General in Jerusalem, "Economic and Political Situation in Transjordan," report, 15 September 1931, National Archives Record Group 59, U.S. State Department Decimal File 89i.00/10.
32. Eugene Rogan, "Bringing the State Back: The Limits of Ottoman Rule in Jordan, 1840-1910," in Village, Steppe, and State: The Social Origins of Modern Jordan, ed. Eugene Rogan and Tariq Tell (London: British Academic Press, 1994), 38-41.
33. See Eugene Rogan, Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
34. Abu-Sha'ar, Irbid, 203-204.
35. Young, Corps de Droit, 1:45-47.
36. Abu-Sha'ar, Irbid, 206.
37. I b i d.
38. Ibid., 208-209.
39. Ibid., 207.
40. Ibid., 207-14.
41. Dawud, al-Salt, 169;
42. Shuqayrat, Ta'rikh al-idara, 170, 199, 210-11;
43. Abu-Sha'ar, Irbid, 209;
44. al-Tarawneh, Tarikh mantiqat al-Balqa', 102.
45. Thanks to the careful work of Dawud. For the following, see Dawud, al-Salt, 166-74.
46. For example, a report from September 1934 notes that the town of Tafila in southern Transjordan was being run very efficiently by the government physician: see al-Salah, al-Idara, 303.
47. On the growing web of connections between Nablus and Transjordan in the 19th century, see Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine, 47-48;
48. on the influx of merchants from other parts of Syria, see Rogan, Frontiers of the State, 95 ff.
49. Dawud, al-Salt, 173.
50. A comparison of the membership of the town council in the late 1890s and the membership elected in the special elections of 1910 reveals an almost complete turnover: see Dawud, al-Salt, 182;
51. al-Amad, al-Salt, 1:20.
52. For further documentation, see the major works of Hani al-Amad, al-Salt.
53. Shuqayrat, Ta'rikh al-idara, 171.
54. Ibid., 211.
55. The register is titled Daftar qararat al-baladiyya al-'ayid li-sanat 1923 maliyya (Register of the Municipality's Decisions Covering the Fiscal Year 1923) for the baladiyya of Salt. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Hiyari, Salt's municipal director, allowed me access to these valuable records during several visits to the town and helped me in many other ways by answering questions about local history.
56. 2, 1:975.
57. Official Gazette, 1 February 1926. Again, the continuity between regimes is evident. The announcement translated here cites Article 1 of the Ottoman Municipal Code of 1877, even though the notice postdates the 1925 municipal code in Transjordan. The terminology reflects Ottoman usage, designating a large town a shahir (rather than madina or bandar) and a small town a qasaba.
58. NLA, file 21/10/7, "Muwazzifu al-Baladiyyat," doc. 43, 15 March 1928, petition of Sa'ud al-Husayn al-Musa to prime minister.
59. Ibid., doc. 15, 12 July 1928, decision no. 60, Municipal Advisory Board.
60. Ibid., doc. 20, 29 July 1929, secretary-general of Municipal Advisory Board to prime minister.
61. Al-Salah, al-Idara, 355-56. To be precise, al-Salah does not mention corruption as a cause. He cites the government's argument that the dissolution of the baladiyyas is due to economic conditions and the euphemistic statement that the benefit derived from these baladiyyas was not commensurate with expenditures.
62. NLA, file 21/7/1, "Tasfiyat hisabat baladiyyatay al-Ramtha wa-1-Husn," doc. 10, 6 March 1930, British Resident to prime minister. Sir Henry Cox was the British Resident at the time and put his case forcefully: "I strongly advise that the municipalities of Remtha and Hosn should be formed again since both these places contain a considerable number of inhabitants." The Transjordanian government did not comply.
63. For example, the complaint of the prime minister against Amman, Irbid, Madaba, Salt, and Jerash in Official Gazette, 1 July 1926, dealing with their inertia with respect to sanitation. Similarly, the prime minister sharply criticized the baladiyyas and provincial governors for the general neglect of their duties on the spurious grounds of lacking legal authority to enforce regulations:
64. see NLA, file 21/10/7, "Muwazzifu al-Baladiyyat," doc. 54, 22 June 1935, Prime Minister's notice regarding baladiyyas.
65. NLA, file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 16, 10 April 1938, provincial governor of 'Ajlun to prime minister.
66. Ibid., doc. 1, 22 April 1935, provincial governor of 'Ajlun to prime minister.
67. Ibid., doc. 20, 19 May 1938;
68. ibid., doc. 21, 23 May 1938;
69. ibid., doc. 22, 4 July 1938;
70. ibid., doc. 27, 6 September 1938, prime minister's inquiries regarding tax base, boundaries of al-Husn, and replies from various offices.
71. Ibid., doc. 44, 14 November 1938, petition from mukhtārs et al. of al-Husn to provincial governor of Irbid (sic).
72. Ibid., doc. 43, 14 November 1938, petition of mukhtārs et al. of al-Husn to prime minister. If watan means nation, it is possible that its older meaning of a home town or village is intended.
73. Ibid., doc. 34, 28 November 1938, petition of mukhtārs et al. of al-Husn to prime minister.
74. Ibid., doc. 36, 6 December 1938, telegram of mukhtārs to emir (asserting that the opposition to a baladiyya is a minority representing their personal interests);
75. ibid., doc. 38, 6 December 1938, telegram from twelve residents to emir (asserting essentially the same and arguing that 'Uqla Basha and his faction did not represent al-Husn, as restated later). residents to emir (asserting essentially the same and arguing that 'Uqla Basha and his faction did not represent al-Husn, as restated later).
76. Official Gazette, 1 June 1928.
77. NLA, file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 47, 19 January 1939, petition from mukhtārs et al. to prime minister.
78. Ibid., doc. 38, 6 December 1938, telegram from twelve residents of al-Husn to emir.
79. Al-Salah, al-Idara, 354.
80. One finds this phenomenon in Lebanon, for example. On the tension between traditions of notable politics and modern political structures, see Ussama Makdisi, The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 59-66.
81. It is brilliantly described in Ottoman Bosnia by Ivo Andrič in The Bridge on the Drina (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 77 ff.
82. NLA, file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 50, 19 July 1939, Amman, prime minister to provincial governor of the Balqa'. (It is unclear why this memorandum is addressed to the governor of the Balqa'rather than 'Ajlun, except that the Balqa''s governor was staying in Amman at the time.)
83. Ibid., doc. 51, 23 October 1939, mayor of Amman to minister of interior.
84. Ibid., doc. 55, 15 January 1940, physician for Haifa - Baghdad road to director of health.
85. Ibid., doc. 56-57, 27 January 1940, Peake Pasha to director of health.
86. Ibid., doc. 61, 6 February 1940, Municipal Advisory Board to prime minister.
87. Ibid., doc. 75, 4 October 1941, petition of people of Mafraq to prime minister.
88. Ibid., doc. 90, 10 June 1942, petition of people of Mafraq to prime minister.
89. Ibid., doc. 102, 3 November 1942, petition of people of Mafraq to provincial governor of 'Ajlun.
90. Ibid., doc. 108, 9 February 1944, Cabinet of Ministers' decision to establish the municipality of Mafraq.
91. A. Kirkbride, "Report on the Political Situation for the Month of June 194l," 1 July 1941, Amman, CO 831/58/2, in Priestland, Records of Jordan, 5:191-92.
92. NLA, file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 108.
93. Ibid., doc. 10, 29 February 1936, prime minister to provincial governor of Ma'an.
94. Ibid., doc. 13, 26 December 1936, petition of notables et al. of Aqaba to provincial governor of Ma'an.
95. Ibid., doc. 14, 27 December 1936, provincial governor of Ma'an to prime minister.
96. Ibid., doc. 16, 28 February 1937, Peake to prime minister.
97. I have it from Michael Fischbach, an authority on the history of Jordan, that Peake owned property in 'Aqaba.
98. NLA, file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 4, 5 August 1935, Officer Muhammad Khatir to provincial governor of Ma'an.
99. Great Britain, Colonial Office, Report to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of Palestine and Transjordan (1935), 279.
100. Thus, for example, the baladiyya of Ma'an pleaded in 1935 that the poverty of the village made it impossible to collect the required sanitary dues from inhabitants: see NLA, file 21/18/1, "Wajibat al-baladiyyat al-sihhiyya - nizafa - taftish al-baladiyyat," doc. 8, 17 July 1935, decision of the town council of Ma'an (communicated to provincial governor).
101. Actually, this was not quite true. In the case of al-Husn, the director of the Lands and Survey Department noted that the incorporation of the village as a municipality would require a removal of the current land tax to avoid double taxation: see NLA, file 21/1/1, "Baladiyyat," doc. 27, 6 September 1938, director of Lands and Survey to prime minister. However, the following document in this file (doc. 27, 24 September 1938, prime minister to provincial governor of 'Ajlun) affirms that new taxes will be required of residents and clearly implies that the aggregate tax burden will increase if a baladiyya is formed.
102. Rogan, Frontiers of the State, 185.
103. Colonial Office, Report to League of Nations (1935), 277-78.
104. In addition to Shryock's work, the work by Joseph Massad, Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), offers a radical, post-colonial critique of nation-making in Jordan.
105. On the peasantry, the newest and most significant work is Michael Fischbach, State, Society, and Land in Jordan (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000); the most theoretically engaging work in English on the tribes is Shryock, Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination.
106. The 1938 code increased the central government's influence in the baladiyyas by authorizing the prime minister to appoint all mayors at his discretion and to appoint some of the members of every town council, although the majority were still elected. In addition, the prime minister was authorized to dismiss municipal councils at any time, send representatives to attend meetings, approve all municipal budgets and tranfers within budgets, order external audits of municipal accounts, and appoint an official to collect back taxes owed to the baladiyyas : see Official Gazette, 1 February 1938.
107. Referring to the Vilayet Law of 1864, see Roderic Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963), 164: "Even in theory the system was not perfect. The jurist Cevdet Pasha criticized the tergiversations of reforming statesmen who had not decided whether the empire was really to be governed on centralizing or decentralizing principles and had fallen somewhere between the two."
108. Shaher Ali al-Rawashdeh, al-Idara al-mahalliyya fi al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashimiyya (Amman: Dar Majdalawi, 1987), 97 ff.