Umm el-Jimal

The ruins of an ancient village lie in the midst of modern Umm el-Jimal [1]. The ruins date from the Nabataean through the Abbasid periods [1]. The Nabataean peoples were the first to build permanent homesteads in the area in the first century AD [1]. The settlement was mainly a farming community and a trading outpost dependent on Bostra [1]. The 150 houses still standing today were constructed in this period, the fifth and sixth centuries [1]. In the sixth century there was an explosion of church construction, 15 of which can still be seen today [1]. The Islamic era at Umm el-Jimal began in 640 when the Rashidun Caliphs took control of the area [1]. The site was completely deserted under the Abbasid Caliphs in the ninth century [1].