ABSTRACT
The landscapes of southern Jordan have a long history of conflict and militarization associated with transport and mobility. They are ancient desert regions through which traders and pilgrims have journeyed for millennia. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and, two years later, a Hashemite Arab uprising supported by the British and French against the Ottoman Empire, quickly escalated into significant conflict in the region. A Bedouin Arab force accompanied by T.E. Lawrence took the Red Sea port of Aqaba on 6 July 1917, surprising both the British and Ottoman high commands. The early trade and pilgrimage routes within GARP’s study area were probably largely undefended during Nabataean, Roman, and Byzantine times. In July 1898, Sultan Abdülhamid II issued orders for the construction of a ‘telegraph line between Damascus and the cities of Medina and Mecca along the pilgrimage route’, and it was fully functional by 1 May 1900.
