Zarqa Governorate

Zarqa Governorate (Arabic محافظة الزرقاء Muħāfazat az-Zarqāʔ, local dialects ez-Zergā or ez-Zer'a) is the third largest governorate in Jordan by population. The capital of Zarqa governorate is Zarqa City, which is the largest city in the governorate. It is located 25 km east of the Jordanian capital Amman. The second largest city in the governorate is Russeifa.

Zarqa Governorate hosts the largest military and air bases for the Jordan armed forces in the kingdom.

History

The land of Zarqa Governorate has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, most prominent were the Ammonite kingdom and the Nabateans, who constructed the fort known as Qasr al Hallabat, which then was used as a fort by the Romans, and then as a desert palace by the Umayyads. The most significant historical remains are the Umayyad desert palaces, such as Qasr Amra, a World Heritage site, Qasr al Hallabat, Qasr Shabib in the center of the city of Zarqa, as well as the Castle of Azraq.

After the construction of the Hedjaz railway by the Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 1900s, Zarqa became a strategically important hub that connects Damascus to Medina, the cities along the railway started flourishing. Later, Jordan's Arab Legion led by Glubb Pasha had its main bases in Zarqa.

Zarqa

Az-Zarqā (Arabic: الزرقاء‎; BGN: Az Zarqāʼ; local pronunciation ez-Zergā, ez-Zer'a, or ez-Zarka) is a city in Jordan located to the northeast of Amman. Zarqa is the capital of Zarqa Governorate. Its name means "the blue one".

Geography

Zarqa is located in the Zarqa River basin in northeast Jordan.

It is situated 15 miles (24 km) from Amman, in a northeastern direction.

History

Although inhabited since the 1st century, the city of Zarqa was established by immigrants from the Caspian Sea region at the beginning of the 20th century. The first settlement in the city was established in 1902 by Chechen immigrants who were displaced from the wars between the Ottoman and Russian Empires. They settled along the Zarqa River. At that time a station on the Hejaz Railway was built in the new settlement. The railway station turned Zarqa into an important hub. On 10 April 1905, the Ottoman governor issued a decree that allowed the Chechen immigrants to own lands which they settled on. The population then quickly grew in size. On 18 November 1928, the new Jordanian government issued a decree to establish the first municipal council for Zarqa.

Zarka (trope)

Zarka or zarqa (Hebrew: זַרְקָא֮, with variant English spellings) is a cantillation mark found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. It is usually found together with the Segol, with a Munach preceding either or both. The symbol for a Zarka is a 90 degrees rotated, inverted S. The Hebrew word זַרְקָא֮ translates into English as scatterer, since it is a scattering of notes.

Zarka is part of the Segol group. In this group, Zarka is the connector and Segol is the separator.

Zarka, Tsinnor and Tsinnorit

Zarka is also sometimes called tsinnor. Properly speaking, tsinnor is the name it receives when appears on the three poetic books (Job, Proverbs and Psalms, or the א״מת books, from their initials in Hebrew), and zarqa the name it gets on the remaining 21 books of the Hebrew Bible (also known as the prosaic books). Both sets of books use a different cantillation system.

Caution must be take not to confuse this mark with the very similar mark tsinnorit, which has the same shape but different position and use. They differ in the following: