Sweileh (, alternatively spelled Suwaylih, Swaylih or Swaileh) is district number sixteen in

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 ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

out of twenty-seven. It lies to the north of the city center. It was founded by Chechen settlers in 1906 during Ottoman rule. It had a population of 151,016 in the 2015 census. The town is known for having a good climate throughout the year, it is one of the few districts of Amman that sees snow during winter due to its high altitude. The cultivation of olives and grapes, heavy industries, such as auto assembly, steel, and cement, make up the local economy. Today, it is considered one of Amman's most populated districts since it has the University of Jordan and is a connection point to other cities such as

Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

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 ...

and Jarash.

History

Sweileh was founded as an agricultural village called Ayn Suwaylih in 1906 by Circassian and Chechen settlers who were moved to the area by the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

from other parts of the Empire. It was the fourth village in the Balqa region to be settled by Chechen refugees. On 3 May 1907 the settlement was raided by 2,000 Adwan, Abbad, Balqawiya and Bani Hasan tribesmen and townspeople from

and Fuheis in response to an earlier quarrel in which a Bedouin herder was wounded attempting to graze livestock on wheat fields claimed by the Chechens. The raid ended in the deaths of eleven settlers and the wounding of fifteen others, while a similar number of raiders were killed. All of the village's livestock and the entire contents of twenty-eight dwelling were stolen in the raid. The Ottoman authorities arrested sixty people allegedly involved the raid, including several tribal chiefs, dismissed the governor of the Salt

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

(district), and opened a wide-scale reparations project to compensate the Chechens. The population of the village according to the 1915 Ottoman census was 745. In the 1940s a road connecting Amman with Jabal Ajlun in the northeast of the country was opened through Sweileh; the new road was built for commercial and security purposes.

Notable People

* Hamza Arsbi, businessman

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Amman Governorate, jamiah 1906 establishments in Ottoman Syria Districts of Amman Populated places in Amman Governorate