page_title: Al Hashimiyya
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Al Hashimiyya / History
context_page_description: Al Hashimiyya is a village in the Ajloun Governorate of north-western Jordan. The village is located 7 km northwest of Ajloun, 22 km south of Irbid and 108 km north of Amman. It is near Ajloun Castle and Tell Mar Elias. The largest tribes are Bani 'Ata, Qwaqnah, Gharaibeh, Rababah, Za'areer, Abu Sini and Haddad. Hashimiyya is one of the three villages that are part of the Ash Shefa Municipality along with Halawah and Al Wahadinah.
context_section_description: The region around Hashimiyya has been settled since the Bronze Age, as evidenced by archeological excavations in nearby Pella and Abila.  The Roman era saw increased settlement and population growth in the region as the Decapolis cities prospered.  Though there is little archeological evidence of an ancient town on the site of modern Hashimiyya, the town contains an ancient olive grove known locally as Al Maisor (الميسر).  Furthermore, the village's ancient name, Farah (فارة), may be derived from Viera, a Roman town located in the area.  Evidence from pottery found in the area indicates that there was a settlement on the site of modern Hashimiyya during Mamluk/Ayyubid period.
  During the Byzantine era the area around Hashimiyya was highly Christianized.  Today, ruins from Byzantine churches are strewn throughout the Ajloun Governorate, most notably at Tell Mar Elias.  Though Hashimiyya itself does not contain any churches the Haddad family of Christians still lives in the town.
  Jordan's 1967 war had a dramatic impact on the population of Hashimiyya.  Before the war the town's population was so small that the oldest mosque, The Great Hashimiyya Mosque, wasn't built until 1949 by Hajj Ahmed Abusini.  Most of the village's population lived in the western end, with Al-Maisor marking the village's eastern boundary.  However, in the aftermath of the war many families from the Jordan Valley chose to move further inside Jordan's border.  By 2000 6 more mosques were constructed to accommodate the population swell.  Al-Maisor was now within the village's limits and houses reached more than a kilometer further east.  Because of this population influx the more established western part of the village became a downtown with shops, bakeries, butchers and blacksmiths.  The municipal building grew to contain a health center and later a dentist's office opened nearby.  When paved roads came in the 1970s buses between Hashimiyya and Ajloun soon followed, making travel easy between Hashimiyya and Amman.
  The development of the town was witnessed by a member of the royal family who visited the town in the 1980s.  He was so impressed by the town that he reportedly said that it could no longer be called Farah (meaning musk) and changed the name to Hashimiyya (meaning Hashemite, the name of Jordan's ruling dynasty).
caption: Oil Lamp from Mamluk/Ayyubid period found in Hashimiyya
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