Nabataean Kingdom in the context of "Arabia Petraea"

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and both Israel and Palestine (West Bank) to the west. The Jordan River, flowing into the Dead Sea, is located along the country's western border within the Jordan Rift Valley. Jordan has a small coastline along the Red Sea in its southwest, separated by the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt. Amman is the country's capital and largest city, as well as the most populous city in the Levant.

Inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period, three kingdoms developed in Transjordan during the Iron Age: Ammon, Moab and Edom. In the third century BC, the Arab Nabataeans established their kingdom centered in Petra. The Greco-Roman period saw the establishment of several cities in Transjordan that comprised the Decapolis. After the end of Byzantine rule, the region became part of the Islamic caliphates of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and the Ottoman. Following the 1916 Great Arab Revolt during World War I, former Ottoman Syria was partitioned, leading to the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan gained independence and became officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan captured and annexed the West Bank during the 1948 Palestine war until it was occupied by Israel in 1967. Jordan renounced its claim to the territory to the Palestinians in 1988 and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

The era of pre-Islamic Arabia encompasses human history in all parts of the Arabian Peninsula before the rise of Islam. During the prehistoric period, humans first migrate and settle into the peninsula. In the early first millennium BC, writing and recorded history are introduced into the Peninsula, along with the rise of the first kingdoms in the south. In the early seventh century, the pre-Islamic period quickly comes to a close, from the beginning of Muhammad's preachings of Islam, to his establishment of the first Islamic state in 622 in Medina, and the subsequent conquest and political unification of the peninsula shortly after Muhammad's death, in the 630s. Some strands of Islamic tradition interpret the pre-Islamic period as a barbaric, morally un-enlightened period known as the "Jahiliyyah" (Arabic: جَاهِلِيَّة), but historians have not adopted this convention.

Pre-Islamic Arabia's demographics included both nomadic and settled populations, the latter of which eventually developed into distinctive civilizations. Eastern Arabia was home to the region's earliest civilizations, such as Dilmun, which is attested as a prominent trade partner of Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age; and its later pre-Islamic history is marked by the reign of consecutive Iranian empires, including those of the Parthians and the Sasanians. From the early 1st millennium BCE onward, South Arabia became home to a number of kingdoms, such as Sheba and Ma'in; while part of North Arabia became home to the Nabataean Kingdom, which was conquered and annexed by the Roman Empire in 106, thereafter being known as Arabia Petraea and initiating the centuries-long Roman period in Arabia.

The Nabataeans, also spelled Nabateans (/ˌnæbəˈtiːənz/; Nabataean Aramaic / Nabataean Arabic: 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈‎, romanized: NBṬW, vocalized: Nabāṭū; Arabic: الأنباط‎, romanized: al-ʾanbāṭ), were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. Their settlements—most prominently the assumed capital city of Raqmu (present-day Petra, Jordan)—gave the name Nabatene (Ancient Greek: Ναβατηνή, romanized: Nabatēnḗ) to the Arabian borderland that stretched from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The Nabateans emerged as a distinct civilization and political entity between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, with their kingdom centered around a loosely controlled trading network that brought considerable wealth and influence across the ancient world.

Described as fiercely independent by contemporary Greco-Roman accounts, the Nabataeans were annexed into the Roman Empire by Emperor Trajan in 106 AD. Nabataeans' individual culture, easily identified by their characteristic finely potted painted ceramics, was adopted into the larger Greco-Roman culture. They converted to Christianity during the Byzantine period. They have been described as one of the most gifted peoples of the ancient world and one of the "most unjustly forgotten".

Petra (Arabic: ٱلْبَتْراء‎, romanized: Al-Batrāʾ; Ancient Greek: Πέτρα, lit. 'Rock'), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢛𐢚𐢒‎ or 𐢛𐢚𐢓𐢈‎, *Raqēmō), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, Petra is also called the "Rose City" because of the colour of the sandstone from which it is carved. The city is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The area around Petra has been inhabited from as early as 7000 BC, and was settled by the Nabataeans, a nomadic Arab people, in the 4th century BC. Petra would later become the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom in the second century BC. The Nabataeans invested in Petra's proximity to the incense trade routes by establishing it as a major regional trading hub, which gained them considerable revenue. Unlike their enemies, the Nabataeans were accustomed to living in the barren deserts and thus were able to defend their kingdom. They were particularly skillful in agriculture, stone carving, and rainwater harvesting.

The Decapolis (Greek: Δεκάπολις, Dekápolis, 'Ten Cities') was a group of ten Greek Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Greek and late Roman Empire in the Southern Levant in the first centuries BC and AD. Most of the cities were located to the east of the Jordan Rift Valley, between Judaea, Iturea, Nabataea, and Syria.

The Decapolis was a center of Hellenistic culture in a region which was otherwise populated by Jews, Arab Nabataeans and Arameans. The cities formed a group because of their language, culture, religion, location, and political status, with each functioning as an autonomous city-state dependent on Rome. They are sometimes described as a league of cities, although some scholars believe that they were never formally organized as a political unit.

Western Aramaic is a group of Aramaic dialects once spoken widely throughout the ancient Levant, predominantly in the south, and Sinai, including ancient Damascus, Nabataea, across the Palestine region with Judea, Transjordan and Samaria, as well as today's Lebanon and the basins of the Orontes as far as Aleppo in the north. The group was divided into several regional variants, spoken mainly by the Palmyrenes in the east and the Aramaeans who settled on Mount Lebanon - ancestors of the early Maronites. In the south, it was spoken by Judeans (early Jews), Galileans, Samaritans, Pagans, Melkites (descendants of the aforementioned peoples who followed Chalcedonian Christianity), Nabataeans and possibly the Itureans. All of the Western Aramaic dialects are considered extinct today, except for the modern variety known as Western Neo-Aramaic. This dialect, which descends from Damascene Aramaic, is still spoken by the Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula, Bakh'a and Jubb'adin near Damascus, Syria.

The influence of ancient Rome in the Arabian Peninsula took root through extensive commerce between Arabs and Romans, who frequently traded with each other on the incense route and the spice route. The Romans knew of Arabia in three roughly divided regions: Arabia Petraea (lit. 'Rocky Arabia'), Arabia Deserta (lit. 'Deserted Arabia'), and Arabia Felix (lit. 'Fertile Arabia'). Collectively, they were a natural stop on the Roman trade route with India, especially by way of the Red Sea. While the Roman Republic had held territory in the Levant, it was not until the time of the Roman Empire that parts of Arabia proper came under Roman rule.

Arabia Petraea was a Roman province that was established after the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Kingdom in 106, consisting of the Sinai Peninsula and parts of the Southern Levant. Arabia Deserta referred to the uncontrolled and sparsely populated interior of the Arabian Peninsula, namely the vast Arabian Desert, which was inhabited by various Arab tribes. Arabia Felix, referring to South Arabia, was home to many independent Arab kingdoms, which variously traded with or fought wars against the Romans.

Philadelphia (Ancient Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια) was a historical city located in the southern Levant, which was part of the Greek, Nabataean, Roman, and Byzantine realms between the third century BC and the seventh century AD. With the start of the Islamic era, the city regained its ancient name of Amman, eventually becoming the capital of Jordan. Philadelphia was initially centered on the Citadel Hill, later spreading to the nearby valley, where a stream flowed.

Around 255 BC, Rabbath Amman was seized by Ptolemy II, the Macedonian Greek ruler of Egypt, who rebuilt and renamed it Philadelphia in honor of his nickname–a name change which contemporary sources mostly ignored. The city's significance grew as it became a frontier in the Syrian Wars, frequently changing hands between the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires. By the early second century BC, Philadelphia became part of the Nabataean Kingdom, with a large Arab Nabataean community residing in the city before and after the kingdom's rule.