Middle East - Anthony Ham [285]
SPORT
In common with most Arabs, Jordanians are football crazy, and watching football in the bars and coffeehouses is free and can be lots of fun. Amman’s two main teams are Wahadat (generally supported by Palestinians) and Faisaly (supported by other Jordanians). Games are mostly played on Friday at the Amman International Stadium near Sports City in Shmeisani.
RELIGION
Over 92% of the population are Sunni Muslims. A further 6% are Christians living mainly in Amman, Salt, Madaba and Karak. There are tiny Shiite and Druze groups.
Most Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, but there are also some Greek Catholics, a small Roman Catholic community, and Syrian, Coptic and Armenian Orthodox communities.
ARTS
As Jordan has been at the crossroads of so many international ‘caravans’ of art and culture over the centuries, it’s quite hard to define an essentially Jordanian aesthetic. The modern arts, especially popular literature, fine arts and music, are dominated by the Egyptian and Lebanese, and show strong Western influence. That said, there are a few local names to look out for and Jordanians will be well chuffed if you are able to identify them.
Literature
Mounis al-Razzaz, who died in 2002, was regarded by many as the driving force behind modern Jordanian literature. His works spoke of wider turmoil in the Arab world, notably in his satirical final work Sweetest Night, and of Amman’s transition from a small village to a modern metropolis.
Diana Abu-Jaber, a celebrated Jordanian-American author, draws on her family’s memories of Jordanian cultural identity, a love of Jordanian food and her life as an immigrant in the USA. Her works include Arabian Jazz, Crescent and The Language of Baklava.
Other modern novels include the Palestinian Yasmin Zahran’s A Beggar at Damascus Gate and Pillars of Salt by Fadia Faqir, the tale of two women in a Jordanian asylum.
Jordan has produced several famous journalists in recent years. Rana Husseini is a human-rights activist dedicated to exposing the problem of crimes of honour through her writing. In 2003 she won the Ida B Wells award for Bravery in Journalism. Fouad Hussein is another high-profile journalist, investigating the so-called ‘Grand Strategy’ of Al-Qaeda: it makes for an uncomfortable read.
Cinema & TV
David Lean’s epic masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia was partially filmed in Wadi Rum. Everyone headed to Petra will get to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with its famous parting shots of Petra’s Siq and Treasury.
Most Jordanians have access to satellite TV, which shows programs from across the Arab world. Jordanians are still wistful that it was a Jordanian singer who won the first ever Superstar competition, an Arab version of Pop Idol.
Music
Sakher Hattar (born 1963 in Amman) is renowned as the finest oud player in the region, winning many awards such as first place in the International Competition for Oud in Cairo in 1993. He has performed in Germany, USA, France and Tunisia.
Hani Naser is known as the ‘Hand Drum Wizard’ of Jordan, specialising in hand percussion instruments like the goblet drum and djembe. He has made recordings with the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder, Santana, Lou Reed and many other famous international artists.
Jordan’s traditional Bedouin music remains distinctive and vibrant. The most popular instrument is the rubaba, a melancholy one-stringed violin. If you take the Petra by Night Tour (Click here), you may well be treated to a performance in front of Petra’s famous Treasury.
Painting
The 7th-century Umayyad frescoes at the desert castle, Qusayr Amra, in Jordan’s eastern badia (basalt desert), and the Byzantine mosaics of the Madaba region, are high points of Jordan’s historical visual arts.
To explore Jordan’s contemporary art scene, visit Darat al-Funun (Click here) and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (Click here) in Amman. While you are there, you may come across Mohammed al-Saifi, a young Jordanian painter from Amman, renowned for employing industrial tools like aerosol