As-Salt ( As-Salt), also known as Salt, is an ancient trading city and administrative centre in west-central Jordan. It is on the old main highway leading from Amman to Jerusalem. Situated in the Balqa highland, about 790–1,100 metres above sea level, the city is built in the crook of three hills, close to the Jordan Valley. One of the three hills, Jabal al-Qal'a, is the site of a 13th-century ruined fortress. It is the capital of Balqa Governorate of Jordan.
The Greater Salt Municipality has about 107,874 inhabitants (2018).
In 2021, the city of Salt was inscribed at the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Etymology
The name "Salt" is derived from the Latin word saltus, which means "forest".
History
It is not known when the city was first inhabited, but it is believed to have been built by the Macedonian army during the reign of Alexander the Great. The city was known as Saltus in Byzantine times and was the seat of a bishopric. At this time, the city was considered to be the principal settlement on the East Bank of the Jordan River. The settlement was destroyed by the Mongols and then rebuilt during the reign of the Mamluk sultan Baibars (1260–1277).
Salt was once the most important settlement in the area between the Jordan Valley and the eastern desert. Because of its history as an important trading link between the eastern desert and the west, it was a significant place for the region's many rulers.
The Romans, Byzantines and Mameluks all contributed to the growth of the city, but it was at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, when the Ottomans established a regional administrative capital in Salt and encouraged settlement from other parts of their empire, that Salt enjoyed its most prosperous period.
Ottoman period
In 1596, during the Ottoman Empire, Salt was noted in the census as being located in the nahiya of Salt in the liwa of Ajlun, with a Muslim population of 40 households and 5 bachelors; and a Christian population of 25 households. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on various agricultural products; including wheat, barley, olive trees/vineyards, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a market toll; a total of 12,000 akçe.
By the end of the 18th century, Salt was the sole permanent settlement in the Balqa region, a situation which persisted well into the 19th century. The rest of the Balqa was dominated by the local Bedouin tribes. It was the most developed city and commercial center of Transjordan from the 18th century until the early years of the Emirate of Transjordan. The city's drinking water was supplied by two abundant springs, which also irrigated the town gardens along the Wadi Shu'ayb stream. It was situated along the slopes of a conical hill, at the top of which stood a fort, and along the ridges of two deep abutting valleys, which provided a natural defense against encroachments by neighboring Bedouin tribes. Salt's inhabitants negotiated terms with the tribes, who guaranteed the townspeople access to their wheat fields in the Balqa's eastern plains in return for giving the tribesmen access to the town's extensive markets. Sharecropping agreements were formed with the tribes whereby Salt townspeople would encamp in Amman and Wadi Wala in the spring until harvest and paid an annual tribute to the dominant tribe of the Balqa. Until around the 1810s, the paramount tribe was the Adwan, known as "lords of the Balqa". Afterward, the Banu Sakhr overtook the Adwan and collected the tribute from Salt.
The city's defenses and isolation in a land practically controlled by Bedouin tribes also enabled its inhabitants to ignore the impositions of the Ottoman authorities without consequence. Western travelers in the early 19th century reported that the leader of the town effectively wielded the same authority as any of the provincial governors of Ottoman Syria appointed by the sultan.