Transjordan

Transjordan is the historical term for the region east of the Jordan River in the Levant. The name distinguished the eastern lands from the western territories of Palestine and appears in Ottoman-era and early British Mandate maps. The area is mostly arid and mountainous, with Amman as the contemporary capital and major cities including Irbid and Mafraq.

Under Ottoman rule the area was part of the Damascus Eyalet and later the Vilayet of Syria. After World War I, the British established the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921 as a semi-autonomous rulerate under Emir Abdullah I, within the framework of the British Mandate. The emirate bordered the Arabian Peninsula to the south and east and the French and British mandates to the north and west.

Transjordan gained full independence in 1946 as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. In 1949 the country adopted the name Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordanian forces took control of parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem; the West Bank was formally annexed in 1950 but the annexation was not widely recognized. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Jordan lost effective control of the West Bank, and in 1988 it publicly relinquished its claim to that territory. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Today, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a constitutional monarchy on the eastern bank of the Jordan River. It is known for its historical and archaeological sites, including Petra, and for its role in Middle Eastern diplomacy and regional stability.