Karak Resources Project

The social organization of the Levant has always, from the Early Bronze Age on, and probably before that, been determined by tribal structures. This means that the tribe was the basis of society. Often there was a ruling superstructure, like a kingdom or an empire. The tribes could either cooperate with the ruling powers of the day, or be independent and oppose those powers. Their attitude towards them, as well as their mutual relationships were determined by a combination of territorial claims and economic interests.

In the 13th and 14th centuries Transjordan was largely divided between two powerful tribal confederations. The whole region from south of Aqaba up to the Wadi Mujib was the territory of the Beni Okba, while the Mehdawi dwelled in the region north of the Wadi Mujib. These confederations generally were on good terms with the ruling government, that of the Ayyubid, and later the Mamluk empire.

Power structures like these are never very stable, however, and especially in times of unrest they tend to shift. West of the Jordan a tribe, supported by the Mamluk government, expanded its territory to the east side of the Jordan. The Beni Hareta were descendants from the old confederation of the Tay, who had moved into Sinai and the Negev after the first Islamic conquest. The main territory of the Beni Hareta was still west of the Jordan, between Yafo and Haifa, but they had extended their power to the east, and controlled the plain of Karak as well.

While the Mamluk empire was losing its grip on Transjordan, a new power started to build up in the south: that of the Beni Atiyeh. We first hear from them in the early 16th century, when they rob the sheep of the Egyptian Sultan. By then they were already a force to be reckoned with, that seriously threatened the Beni Okba. The fall of the Mamluk empire in Egypt, and the rise to power of the Ottomans gave them the chance they needed: they plundered the east part of Egypt, and declared themselves allies of the new government.

In the beginning of the 16th century an ambitious and highly cultured Druse leader acquired power in Lebanon. Fakhr ed-Din had a dream of civilizing the Levant, and he came close to realizing it. Ahmed Ibn Turabai, the leader of the Beni Hareta, had already in 1613 opposed Fakhr ed-Din, but now the Druse leader wanted Karak, to gain a foothold in southern Transjordan. He contacted the sheikh of the Uhedat, and promised him the release of his son from a Nablus prison, in exchange for the conquest of Karak.

What happened next is not entirely clear. Apparently the Uhedat gathered before the gates of Karak, and fell upon a food caravan headed by a Turabai leader. In the following skirmishes the Turabai was killed, and next we find the Uhedat in control of Karak. For Fakhr ed-Din it was too late: in 1633 he was taken prisoner by the Turks, and later killed.

Although the confederation of the Beni Okba had fallen apart, its tribes remained in the region, and one of them grew to be powerful enough to threaten the power of the Uhedat. This was the tribe of the Beni Amr. In a historic raid they managed to drive them out. (The Ghazu of the Beni Amr) The Uhedat moved to the Gaza region, where they had long had their summer quarters. The Beni Amr became the new rulers of the region, including the town of Karak. At the beginning of the 18th century the region was divided among the Sardiye north of the Wadi Mujib, and the Beni Amr in the south. But a new power was stirring in the south already: that of the Howeitat, one of the tribes from the old confederation of the Beni Atiye.

The population of Karak itself was rather heterogeneous. There was the tribe of the Azezat (The Azeizat), who were Christians, and who had lived in the Karak plateau, according to their own tradition, from before the Islamic conquest. Other groups had wandered in later, like the Halasa, who came from Egypt, or the Imamiye, who were descendants from the turkish Janissars that had originally been sent to control the town by the Mamluk Pashas.

Two thirds of the population of Karak spent at least part of the year outside the town, in tents, guarding their flocks or harvesting their crop. Relationships between the tribes from the town and those from ‘the land’ played a vital role in the history of the Karak Plateau.

The Beni Amr were divided into several subtribes, two of which dwelt on the Karak Plateau: the Qaisum to the west and north of Karak, and also in the fertile region of the Ghor Safiye and Ghor Mezra’a; and the Ibn Tebet, who were the ruling branch, and who stayed in Jof. Their sheikh only came to the west occasionally to collect his dues.

Diab Ibn Qaisum was the leader of the Qaisum. He was a greedy man, who tried to extend his power by all means. He robbed the caravans that came from Sirhan, in spite of the fact that they travelled under the protection of the Amr, and he refused the dues to the main sheikh. Eventually he allied himself to the Hameide, who also camped north of Karak, and challenged the power of the Amr Ibn Tebet. The outcome of this struggle was undecided, but it gave Diab an excuse to expel all the inhabitants of Karak, and plunder the town.

Diab, as we said, strived for absolute power. His new allies, the Hameide, were demanding, and he began to look for a way to get rid of them. This came when one of the Hameide sheikhs made avdances to his (Diab’s) wife, when he was away. The woman informed her husband, with the words “a common stallion wants to mount the noble mare”.

Events further to the west and in Egypt initially hardly touched the Karak Plateau. Neither Mohammed Ali nor his son Ibrahim Pasha were very interested in Karak. It was only after Qasim al-Ahmed, leader of the Nablus revolt fled to Karak, that it was taken, and savagely plundered and sacked. The walls were blown up with gunpowder, so that the explosion could be heard in Jerusalem. Ibrahim Pasha then moved north to subdue the Beni Sakhr in fort Ziza, which was also sacked and demolished, and from there on to Salt. Karak was left desolate until the defeat of Ibrahim Pasha, in 1841.

In 1850 there was a renewed struggle between the Hameide and the Karakis, over the territory north of Karak. Most of the Hameide now moved to the north of the Wadi Mujib.

During the 19th century, as part of their overall policy, the Ottoman government started to become interested in Karak. In the Salname (yearbook of the Turkish government) of 1854 Karak is not mentioned. In the salname of the next year it is, as part of the province of Ajlun. Between 1861 and 1880 some five attempts were made by the Ottoman government to collect taxes in Karak, none of which were very successful however.

In the 1870s the Sattam ibn Fayez, of the Fayez tribe of the Beni Sakhr controlled the Hajj fortress of Ziza, with an official appointment of the Ottoman government. In practice he was his own master, controlling the whole area south of the Zerqa and north of Katrani in the Karak province for his own tribe. There was no Ottoman presence in the Karak area, the Ibn Fayez were the real power.

The Majali resented this power of the Beni Sakhr, and looked for a way to curb it. When the Ruala, an Anaze tribe from the east, attacked the Beni Sakhr, they saw their chance. They started negociations with the Ruala. The Beni Sakhr, realizing that they could not withstand both the Karaki tribes and the Ruala, took a decision that ended the independence of the bedouin in the region: they asked the Ottoman government for help. An expedition was sent to the south, and in 1893 the Turks were invited by the Majali sheikh to establish a government in Karak.