Samma () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in northern Jordan, located 80 kilometers

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

of the capital

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

and about 18 km West of the city

Irbid Irbid (), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of Irbid Governorate. It has the second-largest metropolitan population in Jordan after Amman, with a ...

. It is perched on a hilltop above sea level overlooking Jordan Valley and the

Sea of Tiberias The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest la ...

. It lies in the Al-Taybeh Department that is one of the nine departments that constitute the

Irbid Governorate Irbid or Irbed () is a governorate in Jordan, located north of Amman, the country's capital. The capital of the governorate is the city of Irbid. The governorate has the second largest population in Jordan after Amman Governorate, and the highest ...

, It covers 13.76 km² and has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 15761 people (as of 2015).

History

In 1596 it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers named as ''Samma'', situated in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (subdistrict) of Bani Kinana, part of the Sanjak of Hawran. It had 19 households and 13 bachelors; all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

products; including

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, summer crops, olive trees/fruit trees, goats and bee-hives; in addition to occasional revenues. The total tax was 4,000

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. In 1838 Samma's inhabitants were predominantly

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

s and

Greek Christians Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Roma ...

. In 1885,

Gottlieb Schumacher Gottlieb Schumacher (21 November 1857 – 26 November 1925) was an United States, American-born civil engineer, architecture, architect and archaeology, archaeologist of Germans, German descent, who was an important figure in the early archaeol ...

visited the village and wrote about it in his book "Northern Ajlun within the Decapolis": In 1961 the population of Samma was 1,649 inhabitants.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p
18
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Population

Depending on The Population and Housing Census report released in late February 2016: *Population: 15761 *Male: 8048 *Female: 7713 *Families: 3113

Gallery

File:غروب الشمس في صما.jpg, File:Samma (1).jpg, File:Samma (2).jpg, File:Samma (5).jpg, File:Samma (6).jpg, File:Samma (7).jpg, File:Samma (8).jpg, File:Samma (11).jpg, File:الحاووز.jpg, File:حجارة الصوان في صما.jpg, File:سد وادي العرب.jpg, File:شجرة.jpg, File:Oaijordan4.jpg, File:Oaijordan5.jpg, File:Oaijordan7.jpg, File:Oaijordan8.jpg, File:Oaijordan1.jpg, File:Oaijordan3.jpg, File:Samma (15).jpg, File:مدخل قرية صما.jpg, File:مثلث صما.jpg,

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Irbid Governorate Villages in Irbid governorate

History

Population

Gallery

See also

References

Bibliography