kingdom · Anatolia and the Levant

Jordan

1946 CE – present · capital Amman

The Hashemite kingdom east of the Jordan, carved from the Arab revolt's inheritance and steered through war after war by its long-reigning kings.

Origins

Abdullah ibn Hussein, son of the sharif of Mecca, established himself at Amman in 1921, and Britain recognised the Emirate of Transjordan alongside its Palestine mandate. Full independence came in 1946, and after the war of 1948 Abdullah annexed the West Bank and took the title King of Jordan.

Rule and society

The monarchy survived Abdullah's assassination in 1951; his grandson Hussein reigned from 1952 to 1999 through coup attempts, the loss of the West Bank in the Six-Day War and civil war with the PLO in 1970. Waves of Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees made and remade Jordanian society around a resource-poor but strategically indispensable state.

To the present

Jordan renounced its claim to the West Bank in 1988 and signed peace with Israel in 1994. Under Abdullah II the kingdom remains a hub of regional diplomacy and a refuge amid its neighbours' wars.

Lineage

Emirate of Transjordan 1921 CE – 1946 CEJordan

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Jordan. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/jordan
MLA
“Jordan.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/jordan. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Jordan.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/jordan.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Jordan’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/jordan (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻