Maʿān

Maʿān, town, southern Jordan. It is a regional trade centre for the sparsely settled southern part of the country, which is inhabited mainly by the Ḥuwayṭat and other Bedouin tribes. Once a centre of Minaean power in northwestern Arabia, Maʿān was later controlled in turn by the Sabaeans, the Lihyanites, and the Nabataeans. Modern-day Maʿān is the chief road and rail junction of southern Jordan. The town lies on the Hejaz-Jordan Railway, which runs north-south and connects to Damascus in the north. The part of the rail line south of Maʿān that formerly reached Medina (now in Saudi Arabia) was largely destroyed by Arab guerrillas led by the English leader T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) during World War I; it has been replaced by the Desert Highway, which roughly follows the route of the former rail line in its Jordanian section. An all-weather road runs from the port of Al-ʿAqabah north to Maʿān and there connects to Jordan’s main north-south highway, which leads to Amman, the capital. Maʿān and Al-ʿAqabah are also connected by rail via Baṭn al-Ghūl.

After World War I the status of Maʿān and all of southern Jordan was disputed between the emirate of Transjordan (later the kingdom of Jordan) and the kingdom of the Hejaz to the south. When Ibn Saʿūd conquered the Hejaz (now part of Saudi Arabia) in 1925, the British placed the entire Maʿān area under Transjordan’s authority. The de facto annexation was not recognized by the Saudis until 1965, when a treaty was signed fixing the frontier and placing Maʿān and its environs well within Jordan.

The ancient ruins of Petra, now among Jordan’s primary tourist destinations, are located about 19 miles (30 km) northwest of Maʿān. King Ḥussein University (1999) is located in Maʿān. Pop. (2004 est.) 26,461.