jordan pulse -

1. A page from my book “The Jordanian Woman in History, Myths, and Folktales (12000 BCE – 2000 CE): An Analytical Study”

by Dr. Ahmad Oweidi Al- Abbadi  

Re-reading the Jordanian woman within the framework of the modern Jordanian narrative does not merely mean adding female names to the pages of history; rather, it means reconsidering the very way history itself is understood, as well as the deep forces that shaped Jordanian society and preserved its continuity throughout time.

History is not built solely through wars, kings, sultans, and political transformations, but also through memory, language, family, storytelling, popular consciousness, and the ability to preserve the human balance of society. The Jordanian woman was one of the most present and influential forces in all of these dimensions.

Thus, within the Jordanian narrative, the woman does not appear as a marginal or subordinate figure, but rather as a central element in constructing the civilizational and social identity of Jordanians. She preserved oral memory, connected generations to their history, and transmitted values, customs, language, songs, and folktales, until she became an essential part of the cultural and civilizational continuity of Jordanian society across centuries.

The Jordanian woman also carried within the collective consciousness a profound symbolic dimension. Her presence became associated with the land, the home, fertility, stability, mercy, dignity, wealth, migration, settlement, and even ruins, until she became part of the collective image of life itself and of the homeland. Hence, the woman was not merely an individual within society, but a symbol of continuity, identity, and human balance.

From this perspective emerges the importance of re-reading Jordanian history through a civilizational, social, and analytical lens, because traditional readings often marginalized the hidden roles women played in building society and safeguarding its cohesion. Many elements of Jordanian identity were not shaped solely within institutions of power, but rather within the home, storytelling, popular memory, and social relations—spaces in which women were central and foundational actors.

This civilizational perspective also allows us to understand the Jordanian woman as a producer of social and cultural meaning, not merely a passive recipient of it. She contributed to shaping concepts of dignity, belonging, mercy, family, hospitality, patience, labor, identity, legitimacy, and patriotism—values that became integral to the civilizational character of Jordanian society.

Therefore, re-reading the Jordanian woman within the modern Jordanian narrative is not simply an attempt to grant her historical justice, but also an effort to understand Jordanian society itself in a deeper and more balanced way: how it preserved its identity and legitimacy, how it transmitted its memory, and how it remained cohesive despite long historical transformations. In a significant sense, the woman was among the foremost guardians of the collective spirit and the civilizational identity of Jordanians through time.

The Importance of Re-reading History from a National, Civilizational, and Social Perspective

In modern scholarship, history is no longer read merely as a narrative of wars, kings, and political transformations, but rather as a comprehensive study of society in all its human, cultural, economic, and symbolic dimensions. The true history of nations is not built solely through events occurring in royal courts or battlefields, but also through what takes place within homes, popular memory, social relationships, daily customs, language, storytelling, and all the elements that shape the spirit and civilizational continuity of society.

Hence arises the importance of re-reading Jordanian history from a civilizational and social perspective, because many traditional readings focused primarily on political and military events, while the profound human, social, and cultural dimensions of Jordanian society remained less visible within historical narratives. Jordanian society was shaped not only through authority or conflict, but through a long system of values, relationships, memories, and customs that contributed to building its identity and stability over time.

This perspective also allows for a deeper understanding of the roles played by various social groups—especially women—as participants in the making of history rather than marginal figures within it. The Jordanian woman, for example, contributed to preserving popular memory, transmitting language and customs, maintaining social balance, and protecting cultural identity. These roles are no less important than political or military roles in understanding the development and continuity of Jordanian society.

The significance of the civilizational and social approach also lies in its ability to reveal the “unwritten history”—that history lived by ordinary people in the details of daily life, which was not always recorded in official documents. Folk tales, proverbs, songs, rituals, family relationships, and ways of living all constitute part of the authentic civilizational memory of Jordanian society. Without them, the image of history remains incomplete, dry, and incapable of explaining its true spirit.

Re-reading history in this way also helps explain social and cultural transformations more profoundly, revealing how Jordanian society managed to preserve its cohesion and identity despite wars, migrations, and recurring political and economic changes. The continuity of societies depends not only on material strength, but also on their ability to protect memory, values, and human bonds—dimensions emphasized by the civilizational and social approach to historical study.

Thus, re-reading Jordanian history through a civilizational and social lens does not merely represent a change in historical narration, but rather a transition toward a deeper and more humane understanding of Jordanian society as one shaped by memory, identity, and human relationships as much as by politics and major events.

The subject of the Jordanian woman in history, myths, and folktales over fourteen thousand years—from 12000 BCE to 2000 CE—cannot be viewed merely as a social study or as an attempt to document women’s presence in society. Rather, it is a comprehensive civilizational project seeking to reinterpret the history of Jordan and the Arab East through the woman herself: she who was never a marginal element in the movement of Jordanian history from ancient times until the dawn of the twentieth century.

In many instances, she was the center of memory, the guardian of identity, language, behavior, and deeply rooted legitimacy extending across thousands of years. She was a maker of stability, prosperity, reconstruction, harmony, and even conflict, alongside the loyal Jordanians. She became the vessel of culture and one of the most important elements around which concepts of land, family, society, authority, faith, and sanctity were formed.

According to this vision, the Jordanian woman was not merely a witness to civilizational transformations, but a participant in shaping them from the earliest beginnings of human settlement. In the land of Jordan—where the first agricultural villages emerged and patterns of early settlement took shape—the woman became associated with the discovery of agriculture, the preparation of food, the preservation and grinding of seeds for nourishment, and the production of bread. She thus came to be viewed as one of the first to contribute to humanity’s transition from nomadic life to settled existence, and from gathering and foraging to storage, granary construction, and livestock enclosures.

The biological nature of women—particularly their connection to pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing—also contributed to establishing periods of temporary stability within ancient human groups and tribes. Settlements became longer and migration less frequent whenever pregnant women, elderly women, or young children in need of protection and care were present.

Pregnancy was not viewed merely as an individual condition concerning the woman alone, but as a guarantee for the continuation of the tribe and the renewal of its human strength. Consequently, tribes tended to delay movement and preferred safer and more stable locations to protect mothers and unborn children from the dangers and hardships that might lead to miscarriage, illness, or death.

Relative stability under such circumstances also allowed women to recover physically and psychologically after childbirth, enabling them to conceive again and ensuring the continued natural reproduction of the community and the increase of its population over time. In this sense, the woman became a central figure in the cycle of settlement and mobility within tribal society, because her physical well-being was directly connected to the continuity of the tribe’s demographic structure.

A newborn child was not viewed simply as another individual, but as a numerical addition and future strength for the tribe—a potential warrior and defender who would later contribute to protecting the community. Thus, protecting the pregnant woman became synonymous with protecting the tribe’s future itself. This influenced patterns of settlement and movement, reduced temporary conflicts, slowed migration, and provided a safer environment for social continuity and demographic growth.

From here emerges the great symbolism of Tyche, the goddess of Ammon, who is also “The Lady of Ain Ghazal.” She is not merely a silent archaeological statue, but rather a witness to the birth of social and spiritual consciousness in the earliest Jordanian societies, where the woman appeared as the source of fertility, life, and continuity.

Her role was not limited to agriculture alone. It extended to the invention of the earliest forms of food preparation. The ancient Jordanian woman was among the first to bake bread nearly twelve thousand years before Christ, and among the first to transform milk into cheese, dried yogurt (jameed), butter, and clarified butter (samin). This took place in Moab, where jameed became known as the famous Karaki jameed before spreading to other Jordanian regions.

She was also among the first to produce butter and clarified butter in al-Salt, which became known as Balqawi samin—products that later formed part of the identity of Jordanian cuisine and its Bedouin and rural cultural memory. Likewise, women were among the first to extract olive oil more than ten thousand years ago in Wadi Rum, within the Hurrian/Edomite kingdom, where the ancient olive tree of Rum still stands as a witness to that legacy.

From this deep civilizational foundation, one may understand the relationship between the Jordanian woman and the details of daily life that eventually became part of the cultural identity of Jordanian society before spreading to neighboring Jordanian Thamudic kingdoms and across the Mediterranean basin.

The Jordanian woman was not only a producer of food and drink, but also a maker of tents, garments, and tools of survival. She spun goat hair, sheep wool, and camel hair into clothes, tents, and Bedouin dwellings that for centuries formed the essential living spaces of Jordan’s desert life.

Thus, the Jordanian woman became a central partner in building the household and tribal economy and a preserver of the craft knowledge that enabled Jordanian communities to adapt to harsh desert and mountainous environments, as well as to conditions of drought and fertility alike.

She was also associated with textile and silk production in Edom, and with domestic crafts that became part of the economic and social structure of ancient kingdoms, making her a true partner in building material civilization rather than a passive recipient of it. In Bashan, in northern Jordan, women skillfully utilized grains and their derivatives to meet the needs of both families and domesticated livestock.

Even traditional foods that survived within popular memory—such as lazzaqi, rashouf, and haytaliyya—were not merely household recipes, but expressions of a social and civilizational taste created and preserved by the Jordanian woman across generations.

The presence of the Jordanian woman was not confined to economic or social domains, but extended into the world of myth, symbolism, and sanctity. In ancient Jordanian religious myths, the woman appeared as a symbol of fertility, water, land, and life. Some female figures became sacred symbols associated with protection, sovereignty, and social and political legitimacy, as reflected in the symbolism of Ashtaroth and Tyche—Jordanian women who over time evolved into goddesses occupying central places within the religious and social consciousness of ancient Jordanian kingdoms.

With the succession of civilizations, the image of the Jordanian woman both influenced and was influenced by Greek and Roman civilizations. Concepts of sacred beauty, female statues, and royal symbolism entered major Jordanian cities such as Jerash, Petra, Philadelphia, and Umm Qais, making the woman part of the civilizational interaction between East and West while preserving her local identity rooted in tribal structures and authentic Jordanian heritage. Later, she was also influenced by Islamic civilization.

In the religious dimension, the Jordanian woman emerged as a symbol of purity, piety, faith, modesty, and moral conduct. This is particularly evident in the spiritual status of the Virgin Mary within Jordanian and Levantine consciousness, especially given the association of several Jordanian sites with early Christian memory.

Historical narratives also reveal how several Ghassanid princesses embraced monastic life, reflecting the profound spiritual dimension attained by Arab Jordanian women in Bilad al-Sham and Jordan. Some princesses moved from palace life and politics into lives of asceticism and devotion, creating a unique intersection between authority, religion, and spirituality.

This presence also extends to righteous women in religious and social memory. Figures such as the daughters of Shuʿayb (Jethro)—one of whom married the Prophet Moses—appear as models of labor, modesty, chastity, ethical responsibility, and wisdom. Likewise, Ruth the Moabite (grandmother of the Prophet David) and Naamah the Ammonite (wife of the Prophet Solomon and mother of his heir Rehoboam) appear within a context revealing the role of Jordanian women in building political alliances and royal dynasties in the ancient Near East.

The image then shifts to queens and female leaders such as Hawraʾ, founder of the Jordanian Hurrian kingdom twelve thousand years ago; Bilqis, Queen of Northern Sheba, mentioned in the Noble Qur’an in her story with the Prophet Solomon; Queen Shaqeela and Queen Khalida, wives of King Aretas IV; and Mawiya al-Tanukhiyya of al-Salt (d. 427 CE), queen of the Jordanian kingdom of Berea, whose capital was al-Salt al-Mahrousa.

Here, the woman becomes a symbol of sovereignty, legitimacy, identity, and the ability to manage major conflicts and alliances. The Jordanian and Arab woman thus emerges as part of political and military decision-making throughout history, rather than a marginal presence in a history dominated by men.

In contrast to the image of the sacred, leading, or life-preserving woman, this book project also examines female figures that transformed within certain religious and historical narratives into symbols of moral and social warning, such as the wife of Lot and the women who incited the killing of the she-camel of the Prophet صالح (Ṣāliḥ). Here, the image of the “evil woman” reflects the rise or fall of societies and demonstrates how values themselves can become instruments either of construction or of collapse within social structures.

The book also dedicates broad space to the ordinary woman—the woman who preserved songs, folktales, and proverbs; who raised generations; who transformed poverty into patience, knowledge, greatness, and genius; and who often served as the hidden pillar upon which family and society relied, especially in modern times.

She was also the woman who entered prisons and detention centers during the early twentieth century and afterward, yet managed to transform oppression into awareness, suffering into resistance, and imprisonment into freedom, becoming part of the history of national and social liberation in Jordan and a symbol within the stories passed down through generations.

This project does not merely seek to write the history of the Jordanian woman, but to rewrite the history of Jordanian society itself through the woman as a foundational force of civilization, a bearer of memory, a creator of life, and a guardian of identity and legitimacy across thousands of years.