Bringing the State Back: The Limits of Ottoman Rule in Jordan, 1840–1910 1

The Ottoman legacy in Jordan is at once over-estimated and under valued. In most histories of Jordan, the Ottoman period is cursorily summarized as four centuries of neglect. Drawn into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Greater Syria in 1516, Jordan came under Istanbul’s authority in name alone until the second half of the nineteenth century. ² Rather than speaking in terms of four centuries, it is perhaps more relevant to focus on the last seven decades of Ottoman rule. Far from neglect, this period witnessed intense state involvement in what was then the southern frontier lands of the province of Damascus. Istanbul’s initiatives to recuperate its Jordanian territories served to overcome certain regional particularisms and make parts of Jordan amenable to direct state rule. Although there were limits to this process, many of the features of Jordanian society and politics attributed to the Mandate period and Hashemite rule may in fact be traced back to this Ottoman legacy.