19/05/2022
The oldest settlement in al-Humayma was monitored in the Nabataean period in the first century AD, and it was in the form of an agricultural and commercial settlement, where the Sultanate line linked the location of al-Humayma with a secondary road, which is located on a flood plain with fertile red soil suitable for agriculture.
Al-Humayma contains the first dug canal in the eastern Jordan region. It was irrigated from the “Al-Jamam” spring that stems from “Ras Al-Naqab,” which was transferred by channels dug in stone sometimes and made of pottery in some areas, with a length of up to 13 kilometers. It was used to draw water to the people of Al-Humayma within a line. Contouring and carried out a precise engineering process. Also, a series of huge basins into which the canal water was poured, in addition to a series of small basins that filter and purify water for drinking.[1]
Historically, Al-Hamima was linked with the royal commercial line established by the Al-Dhubyani leader “Masha” in 850 BC. It started in the Levant and ended in Ayla (currently Aqaba). It was paved in the Nabataean and Roman periods, so that horse-drawn carts could travel on it. Some traces of these wheels and their route are still engraved on this road.
Umayyad period
Its status increased when it was inhabited by the great followers, Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, may God be pleased with them; After the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid bin Abd al-Malik gave it to him in the year (95 AH / 713 AD), he made it a permanent residence and a guest house, and built a palace in it, and he died in it in 125 AH / 743 AD) and there is his tomb, but the grave is unknown today, and the Abbasid Mosque remains to this day.
Abbasid era
Many Abbasid caliphs, scholars and leaders lived in Al-Humayma, and some of them were born there. Ibn Sa`d quoted one of them as saying: I heard the sheikhs say: The caliphate has led to them, and there is no one on earth who recites the Qur’an more, nor is a worshiper or hermit better than them in Al-Humayma; Among these virtuous and virtuous ones are: the great followers Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, may God be pleased with him, Muhammad bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, Daoud bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, Suleiman bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, and Abdullah bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas Abbas, Abdul Samad bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas, Fatima bint Ali bin Abdullah bin Al Abbas, Musa bin Muhammad bin Ali, Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Al Abbas, and the butcher; Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ali, Abu Jaafar Al-Mansour, Issa bin Musa bin Muhammad bin Ali, Zainab bint Prince Suleiman, Muhammad bin Jaafar bin Obaidullah bin Al-Abbas, Suleiman bin Mujalid bin Abi Al-Majalid.
And it happened that the Umayyad Caliph Al-Waleed bin Abdul-Malik Aliya bin Abdullah bin Al-Abbas was beaten with whips three times. When he married Lubaba bint Abdullah bin Jaafar bin Abi Talib, the widow of Abdul Malik bin Marwan. And when he was informed that the matter would go to his son, and the third, when he was accused of killing Sulait, who was related to the Umayyads, and Al-Waleed thought about banishing Ali bin Abdullah to the island of Dahlak, but he contented himself with banishing him to Hajar after the intervention of Suleiman bin Abdul-Malik, and he continued with it until Al-Walid died in the year 96 AH. Ali to the partner and switched from Adhrh to Al-Hamimah and retired from it.
And when Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik assumed the caliphate, and despite his friendship with Ali, the news reported that the Abbasids aspired to the caliphate, so Suleiman said: 'This sheikh has become confused, old, and confused,' so he started saying that this matter will go to his son.
On the other hand, Abu Hashim Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Al-Hanafiya had met Muhammad bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Al-Abbas in Damascus during the caliphate of Al-Waleed bin Abdul-Malik, because Zaid bin Al-Hussain bin Ali bin Abi Talib had told the caliph that he had followers They carry their alms to him, and Muhammad bin Ali was a student of Abu Hashem, and they both left Damascus and Abu Hashem was ill. Ibn al-Abbas in al-Humayma in Jordan, and Abu Hashem had recommended Salama ibn Bajir ibn Abdullah to join him in al-Balqa’ when he said: “Follow our trail, for I am taking al-Balqa with my cousin Muhammad ibn Ali, and I will not leave his house until you join, and I count the judiciary without that.” '.
Abu Hashim gave the yellow paper that he received from Ali bin Abi Talib, he gave it to Muhammad bin Ali, for his knowledge, kinship, companionship, and discipleship. Muhammad bin Ali became an imam following this covenant from six 98 AH 716 AD, and Muhammad bin Ali sent followers to Kufa and Khorasan, and in the year 125 AH Imam Muhammad bin Ali died in al-Humayma, so he recommended to his son Ibrahim, who continued to send preachers from al-Humayma to Kufa and Khurasan, then sent Abu Muslim al-Khorasani to Khurasan in the year 128 AH, while Abu Salama kept al-Khallal in Kufa, then handed over the order to organize the da’wah in Khurasan to Suleiman ibn Kathir al-Khuza’i. He was sent to Merv, and the Abbasid da'wa continued in secrecy for thirty years, then moved to the public. The Umayyad governor Nasr ibn Sayyar felt the danger of the da'wa, Fasil to Caliph Marwan ibn Muhammad, where he faced three revolutions in Khurasan, the Kharijites, the Yamaniyya, and the Abbasid da'wa, then Imam Ibrahim ibn Muhammad surrendered in The intimate brigade and banner were sent to Qahtaba bin Shabib Al-Ta’i and sent to Khurasan, marking the beginning of the public role of the Abbasid call. Then, when Nasr bin Sayyar did not receive the support of the Caliph, he sought the help of the Governor of Iraq, Ibn Hubayrah, and when this did not answer him, he sent to the Caliph saying:
I see through the ashes a flash of fire = and it is about to have a flamevan that sane people did not quench it = its fuel is corpses and the fire with chopsticks is smart = and the war begins with words. Then say: Peace be upon Islam and the Arabs
The Caliph wrote to Ibn Hubayrah to extend a victory, but he did not respond, and the matter of the Abbasid call worsened, and Abu Muslim was able to stoke a dispute between the parties to the conflict between Al-Madhari and Al-Yamani, and he took advantage of that and entered Marv and made it his headquarters. Circumstances wished that a letter from Ibrahim the Imam to Abu Muslim would fall into the hands of the Umayyads. So the Caliph Marwan bin Muhammad, the Wali of Al-Balqa, residing in Amman, ordered that Ibrahim the Imam be arrested in Al-Humayma and sent to him in his capital, Harran. And when he was sent to him, he imprisoned him there, and then it was broadcast that the imam died in his prison, after he recommended the order of da’wah to Abdullah bin Al-Harithiya Abu Al-Abbas, who later became the first Abbasid caliph and called him “The Butcher”.
He was born in al-Humayma to Ali bin Abdullah, twenty-five males, all of whom died during his lifetime. Among them are Saleh bin Ali, who was born in Humayma, Muhammad bin Ali, who died in Humayma in the year 125 A.H., Issa bin Musa bin Muhammad bin Ali, and Jafar bin Suleiman bin Ali. He was born in Al-Humayma from the Abbasid Caliphs, Abu Al-Abbas Abdullah bin Muhammad (Al-Saffah), who was born in Al-Humayma in the year 104 AH and lived there for 28 years, and Abu Jaafar Abdullah bin Muhammad (Al-Mansur), who was born in Al-Humayma in the year 101 AH and lived there for 31 years, and Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ali, nicknamed Al-Mahdi, who was born in Al-Humayma in the year 126 AH and lived in Al-Humayma for six years. David bin Ali, Yahya bin Ja`far bin Tammam bin Al-Abbas, and a group of their loyalists were with them.
Among the Abbasid women were in al-Hamima: Rita Umm al-Saffah, and before his marriage to Muhammad bin Ali, she was with Abdullah bin Abdul-Malik bin Marwan, and Zainab bint Suleiman bin Ali, the wife of Ibrahim bin Muhammad al-Imam, and to her the Zaynabis are attributed to the sons of al-Abbas, and Fatimah bint Ali is the aunt of al-Saffah. Al-Aaliyah bint Abdullah bin Al-Abbas. Al-Azdi depicted the conditions of Banu al-Abbas in al-Humayma in southern Jordan, when he transmitted the words of Muhammad ibn Ali: 'When a severe year struck us in the time of the Umayyads, and the caliphate was scorned, and the people were dismissed, and we avoided the caliph's dismissing us, but they did so because of hadiths they heard in which it is mentioned that the caliphate It would come to us and be with us, and we were intimately isolated, hardly or capable of anything, and hardly anyone followed us except in fear and dread of the sultan.
The Abbasids worked to find a secret organization for their da’wah, and took advantage of trade as a means of transmitting information, and he was at the head of the merchants who came to Al-Hamimah; Fadala bin Muadh bin Abdullah, a corporal in the office of Banu Hashim, used to go to Damascus, and Muhammad bin Ali had withdrawn from Al-Humayma aside to Kedad, two miles from Al-Humayma, further secretly. The Umayyad efforts did not succeed in detecting the growing movement of the Abbasids, which was planned in Humayma and implemented in Kufa and Khurasan. The Abbasids were able to win in the year 132 AH, although most of the people of Al-Balqa' were loyal to the Umayyad state. As for the soldiers of Jordan, they did not show any resistance to the Abbasid army. When the Abbasids assumed the caliphate in the year 132 AH 750 AD, the areas that resisted the Abbasids were subjected to some destruction and sabotage, so the poet Abu Nakhila chanted in front of Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah after the killing of Marwan bin Muhammad, where he said:
And in the evening the fascination was a home that lived = and it was destroyed from the Levant, Adour Homs, Bab Al-Taban and Al-Muwaqar = and it was destroyed after Palmyra abstained
Because of the importance of Balqa, Jordan and the rest of the Levant; The Abbasids tightened their grip on it, so most of the Abbasid rulers in Jordan, Balqa, Sham and Palestine were from the Abbasids. It included the soldiers of Jordan, Homs, Qansrine, and Damascus in one state under which Abdullah bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Al-Abbas was, and it included Al-Balqa and the soldiers of Palestine in one state, and Saleh bin Ali was placed in it. Salih bin Ali appointed Ali bin Safwan bin Salamah Al-Arashi to be the master of the whole of Levant, and the guardian of the Saifa. Thus, the Abbasids put an end to the influence of the Qaisi tribes that had opposed them in al-Balqa.
Archaeology

The first Nabatean coin, made of silver and inscribed in Greek: the third minted by Al-Harith.
Al Humayma - Hawara as it was known in the past - is one of the main settlements in the Husni area in southern Jordan. Housing continued in Al-Hamima without interruption since the year 90 BC. AD until the end of the Umayyad period. It has an annual average of 80 mm of rain, which is a good example of how to adapt and live in a dry desert environment.
Archaeological excavations and surveys that took place in Al-Humayma revealed a group of buildings and facilities dating back to the Nabatean, Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods. These facilities include housing units, a large Roman fortress measuring 206 x 146 m, a bathroom from the late Roman period, five Byzantine churches, a palace adjacent to a mosque from the Umayyad period, two ponds, more than fifty water collection and storage tanks dug in the rock, and a group of dams. There is also a canal extending 26.5 km in length that brought water from three natural springs in Ras al-Naqab to a pond at the northern edge of the Humayma site. Historical accounts attribute the establishment of the settlement to the Nabatean King Harith III (78 - 52 BC). As it is located on the road from Petra to Ailat Al-Aqaba, Al-Humayma flourished for the passage of trade caravans. After the completion of the construction of the new Trajan Road (111-114 AD), which ran from Bosra in the south of the Levant to Aqaba, al-Humayma gained more importance as a commercial station. The intimate Arab historical sources also mention it as a place where some members of the Abbasid family lived. Around the year AH 80 / AD 700, Ali Ibn Abdullah Ibn al-Abbas left the Hejaz for Syria. He settled in Adrah, near Petra, then bought al-Hamima and built a palace and a garden there. From this strategic location, through which the caravans of pilgrims and merchants were passing, the Abbasids began to send their preachers to neighboring countries and prepare to overthrow the Umayyad regime until they succeeded in that in the year 132 / 749. It should be noted that both of the two caliphs, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah (ruled in the period 132 - 136 / 749 - 754) and Abu Jaafar al-Mansur (r. 136-158 / 754 - 775) had been born and raised in al-Humayma before they moved to Iraq.
Archaeological excavations revealed the palace that was inhabited by the Abbasid dynasty and a mosque adjacent to it. The palace, which is located at the eastern edge of al-Humayma, is shaped like a rectangle, with dimensions of 61 x 50 m. The main entrance to the palace is located in the eastern wall, in a section of 21 m in length receding from the azimuth of the surrounding wall. The entrance leads to a corridor overlooking from its far end on an irregular open space, surrounded by three rows of rooms indicating expansion and additions. It is noted that the palace is free of the semi-circular towers that usually support the surrounding walls, and that the distribution of rooms according to the “house” system is not restricted: independent units, each of which consists of a middle hall surrounded by and connected on two sides by a pair of rooms. In this way, it does not resemble the Umayyad desert palaces such as Al-Mashta, Al-Kharana and Al-Qastal. Rather, its construction may have been influenced by the architecture of the Hejaz. Opposite the entrance, on the western side, is a room whose walls are decorated with frescoes consisting of vegetal and geometric patterns. In this room were found ivory flakes engraved with various decorations, including the image of a warrior in his helmet and military uniform. At a distance of 10 m to the southeast of the palace, there is a mosque measuring 5.75 x 5.60 m. The inside of the mosque was divided into two equal parts by means of a transverse arch, and a mihrab protrudes from its southern wall
