A Study of the History of the Town of Salt

خريسات،
محمد عبد القادر. دراسات في تاريخ مدينة السلط
(الصلت). عمان: وزارة الثقافة ، ١٩٩۷، ١٩۷ص.

Khuraysat, Muhammad ʻAbd al-Qadir. Dirasat fi
Tarikh Madinat al-Salt. Aman: Wizarat al-Thaqafah, 1997, 197pp.

ABSTRACT

A
Study of the History of the Town of Salt

دراسات في تاريخ مدينة السلط (الصلت)

The book is
composed of five sections and deals with the history of the town of Salt. It
provides an anthropological study based on legal court records from Salt
between 1881 and 1926. These shed light on the demography during this period,
as well as providing a description of shops and houses, along with the role of
the municipality in supervising urbanisation. The book also touches upon
education in Salt between 1850 and 1936 through a study of documents from Salt
preparatory school and legal court records. These sources not only provide a
picture of education during the Ottoman era and the foundation of Salt
secondary school, but also explain the ranking divisions within the school and
roles played by the school in the local society.

A major section
of the book is dedicated to the role of leading personalities in Salt from the
eighth century AH (fourteenth century AC) until the end of the eleventh century
AH (seventeenth century AC). In the fifth and last section the reader is
introduced to the religious endowments found in Salt from the end of the
nineteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century through texts
from legal court records specifically relating to this subject.

The author
relies upon endnotes found in each section to explain the meaning of words and
provide details of references mentioned within the texts. There is also a list
of both Arabic and English references. However, the book does not have a table
of contents. There is a lack of consistency in the layout of the different
sections as each is an independent study by the author gathered from other
documents. With regard to the content, the author does not deal with the town’s
economy, cultural life, political developments or the customs of its
inhabitants. To remedy this drawback, the author appeals in his introduction to
the municipality of Salt to undertake a project on the detailed history of the
town.

Dahlia
Sabry

Translated
by Hugh Lovatt