Defining al-Balad

Before proceeding to explore the problem, it is important to define Al-Balad on multiple levels: the semantic choice of terminology, definition of al-Balad as a geographical space, its history up to the modern time, its conceptualisation in municipal masterplans, and its development and transformation as a part of the city.

2.2.1. Etymology and choice of term

In literature of prevalent Western urbanism, it is evident that the European city model is different from its American counterpart. These differences arise from several reasons such as the difference in historical development and continuity as well as differences in economical and social processes. The relevance of this difference to the research at hand is

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the emerging dichotomy in terms and concepts associated with the examined urban component– the centre.

European cities have generally progressed from small towns or feudal city states into much larger entities driven by changes in modes of industry and production, social movements and political attitudes. In general, the centre of the European city is its historical nucleus, central in the services it provides and the symbolism it projects. Extents and boundaries of these city centres differ according to their context, yet they share characteristics of historical low-rise architecture, uses differentiated vertically rather than horizontally and in many cases become the vehicle to promote the naturalisation of the nation that they belong to. As for the American model, it had much less time to develop. Concentric city models were introduced by planners such as members of the Chicago School, who generally argue that a city concentrates around or radiates from a core, which is the Central Business District (CBD). Much of the American thought on urbanism is produced in discussion of the role of this central district, its rise and fall and the degeneration and revival of the “inner city” that surrounds it. A more used synonym of CBD is the term “downtown.”

Fogelson (2001) offers a detailed definition of the term “downtown” as a uniquely American place and a uniquely American word. The first place to be referred to as

“downtown” was the southern part of Manhattan Island in New York, where the term, already used in the literature of the 1830s, had a geographical meaning. “Down” literally signified South, just as “up” signified North; hence, northern Manhattan was known as

“uptown” and New York State north of New York City is known as “upstate.” With the dramatic growth of New York in the following decades and the subsequent restructuring of the city, the original mixed use of that area was jeopardised, as residences were forced out and it was transformed into an exclusively business and services district. After these developments, the term lost its geographical symbolism and took on a functional meaning.

By the 1870s, downtown signified commerce, traffic and law, while uptown signified affluent residential districts. By the end of the nineteenth century, the term “downtown”

became synonymous with the central business district virtually everywhere in urban English-speaking America appearing in literature and dictionaries. Although the term

“uptown” retained its functional meaning, it did not catch on as well as its antonym (Fogelson, 2001).

The American downtown was a constricted area no larger than a car factory, with no clear boundaries. It did not exist legally as it did not correspond to the municipal partitioning of the city into wards. Yet it was the place where all means of transport converged and was very prominent by the height of its buildings. Downtown was a crowded, noisy, bustling place by day, and desolately empty at night, as city dwellers preferred to reside in the suburbs due to the high rise of downtown properties” prices, its transformation into a place of commerce and services and the availability of public transport in addition to the allure of the quality of life in the suburbs (Fogelson, 2001).

As for the historical Arab Islamic city, the term “madina” is used for an urban settlement, specifically its older part. Hakim (1986) analyses the morphology of Arab Islamic cities stating that a madina should have three main components congregated at its centre: a Masjid al-Jami’ – a congregational mosque where the Friday sermon is given and which

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should serve all the residents of the city; a governor and/or a kadi (judge) who can execute his duties within the city’s area, and whose place of residence (dar al-imara) and the place where he performs his duties (diwan) would be adjacent to the mosque; and a souk (market) consisting of numerous components to service the needs of city inhabitants, people living in the countryside and passersby (Hakim, 1986).

Historically there has been an overlap between the terms of “madina” and “balad” in the Arab language. In one of the most authorised references on Arab terminology, Lisan al-Arab, composed by Ibn Manthour in the thirteenth century AD, “balad” ( ْدَلَب) is defined as

“any location or piece of land, built upon or not, that is owned by someone,” the definition continues to elaborate that “balad” ( ْدَلَب) also refers to the type of place such as Iraq or Sham (Syria), and “balda” (ةد ) is “a specific part therein such as Busra or Damascus.” As a verb, ْلَب

“balada” ( َدَلَب) means “settled in a place.” As a verb, “madana” ( َن َدَم) means the same thing, and the noun of this verb is “madina” (ةنيدم), indicating a settlement. However, the dictionary elaborates on the term adding that “madina” is “any land that has a citadel at its highest grounds.” The term “madina” indicating a “city” was already in circulation at the beginning of Islam in the seventh century AD, as the Prophet Mohammad renamed the second most important city in Islam in Arabia from its pre-Islamic name Yathrib to al-Madina (the City) to indicate its new status and religion. Mecca, the most important city in Islam nevertheless, was also known as al-Balad al-Haram (Holy City) or al-Balad al-Ameen (Secure City), which indicates the inter-changeability of the two terms “madina” and

“balad.”

However, with the development of Western urbanism and the differentiation of city and town in terms of size and function in urban theory, the Arab terminology was similarly differentiated; al-madina (ةنيدملا) came to indicate a city, while al-balda (ةد ) came to ْلَب indicate a town. The term al-balad has developed to become the vernacular equivalent of al-balda, and is used in the everyday language of Jordan in reference to any town, or to what was historically known to be a town, such as the centre of Amman.

Although the Arabic official municipal title for the area referred to as al-Balad in Amman is

“al-Madina” (ةنيدملا) or “wasat al-Madina” (ةنيدملا طسو), meaning “city” and “city centre”

respectively; the term popularly used for the centre of Ammanis “al-balad” (دلبلا), or more simply “Amman,” although this term can be easily confused with the name of the city as a whole. A more recent term that has been used for the place is “wasat al-Balad” which means “centre of town” and can be considered the adaptation of the term “city centre,”

applied to Amman by British and European city planners, to the vernacular language. In conducted pilot fieldwork, the interviews revealed that the term “al-balad” is the main used name of the centre of Amman in the everyday vernacular of the people of Amman. It refers to the old part of the city centring on the market; “wasat al-balad” sometimes indicates only the area contained in King Faisal street and the plaza in front of Husseini Mosque (Annex 6), however it is not a term used by frequent users of the place. As one interviewee commented: “there is no north-al-balad or south-al-balad, so why should there be a wasat-al-balad?” (Ma'aytah, 2010).

Furthermore, in the Jordanian use of English terminology, which is the second language in academia, official nomenclature and the expressions of younger generations, a

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contradiction occurs. The terms “city centre” and “downtown” are used interchangeably and without conscious differentiation. The term “downtown” seems to be the term of choice for the majority of people who are active or potential users of the place. A simple search on google.com for “downtown Amman” comes back with thousands of hits consisting of blogs, pictures and websites produced by a plethora of contributors, many of which are Jordanians themselves and tourists who visited the location. The term can be found adorning all of the maps of Amman in English, in official documents relating to and describing the centre of Amman, and in some academic literature and critiques as well as newspaper articles. On the other hand a Google search for the term “Amman city centre”

returns with hits produced by foreign news agencies and hotel booking websites, and it is the term of choice use on signage produced by GAM and Ministry of Public Works (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1: Differing English terminology for al-Balad. The term ‘downtown’ is used in Google Earth (2007) (top left) and a tourists’ brochure produced by Ministry of Tourism (bottom left). The term ‘city center’ is used street signs (right).

The preference of the term “downtown” over the term “city centre” in the media described above can be attributed to several reasons, the first being that the act of going to this place literally translates from Arabic as “descending to town” or “going down to town” (nazel ‘al balad, دلبلا ىلع لزان), since its location is in a valley. The second reason can be linked to globalisation, or more specifically the Americanisation of culture, where this word could have permeated Jordanian vocabulary through media. The Americanisation process was of special relevance when American agencies and planners became involved in urban planning in the late 1960s and 1970s, as explained below, when the term Central Business District was first used to define the area, with the synonym “downtown” possibly attached.

But the semantic plurality of the place does not pass without conflict. For example, a major quasi-governmental real-estate project in central Amman – al-Abdali, claims on its marketing billboards and website that: “In the heart of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Amman, a new downtown is being created. A downtown blossoming with energy. Jordan’s hub for business interaction. Lifestyles will be forever enhanced.” (Abdali, 2006) The use of

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the term “new downtown” could thus be understood in a sense of opposition to the “old downtown,” or in a purely independent sense meaning that this “new downtown” is a unique a novel phenomenon in the city. Daher (2006 & 2007), on the other hand, criticises this claim for the establishment of a “new downtown” arguing that this “represents a symbolic replacement of the existing historic downtown.” In a purely terminological sense, Daher equates the historical downtown and al-Abdali district, and thus perceives al-Abdali as a symbolic threat. In this sense he does not distinguish between the phenomena of

“downtown” and “city centre,” but perceives them both as competing places of collective symbolism.

And so, it appears that the place we research here has several names: Amman, wasat al-Madina, al-al-Madina, al-Balad, wasat al-Balad, Central Business District, downtown and city centre. However, for the purpose of this research and in the spirit of reflecting popular culture, the language of the common man we choose to use the term “al-Balad.”

Nevertheless, the process of choosing and using a term is not entirely straight-forward, as the literature used in this research employs the numerous terms interchangeably.

2.2.2. Spatial definition of al-Balad and the study area

Just like downtown Manhattan, al-Balad is not a clearly defined place, it is a place demarcated in the public imagination. When asked to define the boundaries of al-Balad in the survey, the respondents supplied 266 different answers, of which the most frequent,

“from Raghadan Station and Hashemite Plaza to Ras al-Ain,” accounted only for 6% of the responses. The closest area that coincides with al-Balad, or the city centre in official demarcation is termed al-Madina. However, the variance observed in the naming of the centre extends to the official demarcation of its geographical boundaries. The two main authorities responsible for demarcation, as well management and planning of land in Amman are the Department of Lands and Surveys (DLS) and Greater Amman Municipality (GAM). Despite the overlapping responsibilities of the two authorities, the boundaries, definitions and names used for the subdivisions of al-Madina and in fact for many areas across the city differ significantly. While GAM demarcates al-Madina by the valleys contained in the early extension of the city and the Citadel Hill (Figure 2-2 and 2-5, compare with Figure 2-6) and subdivides it into 8 neighbourhoods identified according to commonly and locally agreed names, DLS defines al-Madina as approximately the extension of the city in the 1950s and subdivides it into “neighbourhoods” named after landmarks (streets or buildings) they contain (Figures 2-3 and 2-7).

This discrepancy in definition and division can be attributed to the different time and circumstances under which the two authorities were established and operated. While the first municipal council was established under the Ottomans in 1909 to oversee a settlement of 1,500-2,000 people (GAM, 2005), land was still registered under the Ottoman tabu system which did not perform comprehensive surveying but depended on oral description to demarcate ownership boundaries (Fischbach, 2000). In 1927, the first Law of Land Surveying and Valuation was issued in the Emirate of Transjordan, and the Lands Department was formalised in 1929 (DLS, 2007). This department was administrated by British officials and conducted a comprehensive land survey across the country completed in 1952 (Fischbach, 2000).

31 Figure 2-2: An aerial photograph of Amman in 1918 (in grayscale), taken from a German airplane. It can be observed that Amman was no more than a village surrounding a T and a Y junction. The slopes of the adjacent hills are empty. The 1918 aerial photograph is overlaid on an orthographic photograph from 2000 (colored) for the sake of consistency of scale. It can be assumed that the 1918 photograph had a degree of distortion, which contributes to imperfect alignment of the edges and the direction of the North. (Aerial photographs courtesy of the Royal Scientific Society, Jordan, 2005).

Figure 2-3: An aerial photograph of Amman in 1953. We can observe that the city expanded little in 35 years, and generally in the direction of the West.

32 Figure 2-4: An aerial photograph of Amman in 1990. We can notice the relative intensity of expansion in the 37 years since 1953, mainly due to the arrival of thousands of Palestinian refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars; and funds made available by the oil boom in the region. The white area is the area of the Royal Palaces, cut out from the photograph by the Royal Scientific Society for security reasons, as was the practice at the time. This photograph is also overlaid on the 2000 aerial photograph for the sake of scale consistency among the photographs.

Figure 2-5: An aerial photograph of Amman in 2000. The central part of the city was already densely built up by the 1990s, hence there is not much change in this photograph from the previous one.

33 Figure 2-6: The 8 neighbourhoods that comprise the Al-Madina area according to the Greater Amman Municipality’s subdivision. Note that Hay Jabal Amman and Hay Jabal Llwebdeh that fall outside Al-Madina area were already built-up in 1953.

Figure 2-7: Al-Madina area, number 33, according to Department of Lands and Surveys. Note that this demarcation roughly overlaps with the extension of the city in 1953, represented by the aerial photograph on which the line-drawing is overlaid, and does not hold similarities with the division of Greater Amman Municipality. The red and blue text and numbers are part of the original map.

34 Figure 2-8: Land use zoning in Al-Madina area as planned by Greater Amman Municipality.

Figure 2-9: Demarcation of the study area according to the concentration of commercial use and public land in al-Madina area, or as termed in this research - al-Balad.

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The empirical approach to the demarcation of al-Madina produced different boundaries.

However, what both mapping systems agree on is the conception of al-Madina streets as edges, which in turn designate neighbourhood boundaries. Even symbolically important streets such as Faisal St. were not considered an entity per se, but a physical separation of urban fabric clusters.

For the purposes of this study, and when required, the used demarcation is that of Madina, designated by GAM as a reference to Balad. This demarcation defines al-Madina, as an area of about 300 hectares, divided into 8 neighbourhoods: Wadi Haddadeh, El-Adliyyeh, Jabal Qal’a, El-Rjoum, Mohajireen, WadiSrour, Mudarraj, Jabal Al-Jofeh. This area comprises of different land uses with the bulk dedicated to commercial use (50% of total area) and residential use (37% of total area) (Table 2-1). The population size of the area was approximately 38,500 in 2008¹; which translates in a general density of 128 persons per hectare, versus the city average of 53; for reference, the city maximum is 312.

However, the population measured consists of the populace of residential areas, so the density of residential areas can be approximated at 343 people per hectare.

Total area of al-Madina 300 ha

Table 2-1: Area and population of al-Madina and the study area (MEEM, 2006).

Having thus roughly described the geographical boundaries of al-Madina, it is important to emphasise that it is not the actual geographical area that is the subject of this study. This thesis is concerned with “al-Balad as a place of heritage” as a concept, and as a space of meaning and practices; the scale of heritage addressed here is the collective rather than the individual; as such, in defining the area of the study, an emphasis is placed on the areas that are accessible to the public, both physically and symbolically. The area of the study is roughly limited to what can be considered “public space” within the larger area of al-Balad (or al-Madina). The attribute “public” in this case refers to both ownership and use, as both of these categories appear in al-Balad (Figure 2-8), and thus the study area can be clearly defined by the extent of these categories (Figure 2-8 and 2-9). The space of private ownership and public use is the area of the market, massed around three main streets:

Faisal St., Hashemi St. and King Talal St., while the space of both public ownership and use

1This number was obtained from the reference mentioned above for the year 2002. The same number was obtained from GAM directly as part of information on their latest census of city population in summer 2008. The number of population for al-Madina area as per DoS for 2004 is 29,792; although it is not certain that DoS uses the same delineation of the area as GAM does. Of the al-Madina population 75% are of Jordanian nationality, and the gender ratio for Jordanians is 1.03 males per female; for the non-Jordanian nationals this ratio is 3.26 males per female (DLS, 2004), which corresponds to a context of a majority of immigrant single male workers living in the area for the non-Jordanian nationals.