About Wadi Rum, Jordan:
Although we wouldn’t call Wadi Rum a Catholic travel destination, it is an interesting look in to the history of Jordan.
The Bedouins, or desert dwellers, played a role in trade and sometimes conquest. Christianity existed among Arab populations, including Bedouin communities. The New Testament mentions early Christian missionaries preaching to Arabs: Paul states in Galatians 1:17 that he went away into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. While details are sparse, this is considered one of the earliest instances of Christian interaction with the region. In Acts 2, individuals from Arabia are mentioned as witnesses to the events of Pentecost, suggesting the gospel message reached Arabic speakers early in the church’s history..
There were Arab bishops and Christian tribes, including the Ghassanids, Christian Bedouins that established a significant kingdom in the area, flourishing from the 3rd to the 7th centuries AD. Originating from South Arabia, likely Yemen, they migrated northward and settled in regions that now encompass parts of modern-day Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. They are historically notable as one of the earliest Arab groups to convert to Christianity, adopting it in its Miaphysite form, which emphasized the single, unified nature of Christ—a stance that often put them at odds with the Byzantine Empire’s Chalcedonian orthodoxy.
As allies of the Byzantines, the Ghassanids served as a buffer state, protecting the empire’s southern and eastern frontiers against Persian Sassanids and rival Arab tribes like the Lakhmids. Their kingdom, centered around Jabiyah in the Golan Heights, reached its peak under leaders like al-Harith ibn Jabalah (reigned 529–569 AD), who was granted the prestigious Byzantine title of patricius by Emperor Justinian I. This alliance brought them military and economic benefits, including control over key trade routes, such as the spice trade from South Arabia. They were not just warriors but also patrons of culture, supporting poets like Hassan ibn Thabit and building churches and other structures, some of whose ruins still dot the Hauran region.
Their relationship with Byzantium soured over time, particularly due to their staunch Miaphysitism, which the empire deemed heretical. This tension led to the exile of King al-Mundhir III in 582 AD and the eventual dissolution of their federation after 586 AD. The Ghassanid kingdom fell definitively in 636 AD following the Battle of Yarmouk, where Muslim forces defeated the Byzantines and their allies. After this, some Ghassanids converted to Islam, integrating into the emerging caliphate, while others remained Christian, either fleeing to Byzantine territory or persisting in the Levant.
Their legacy endures in the region’s Christian and Muslim communities, with many families in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine tracing their roots to Ghassanid ancestry. They’re often seen as a bridge between pre-Islamic Arab culture and the Islamic era, their adoption of a monotheistic faith and sophisticated governance hinting at the transformations to come.
Currently, the majority is made up by the Zalabieh Bedouins who arrived to the region around 1980. The word “Bedouin” comes from the Arabic word for desert, pronounced badiya in the Arabic language. The root of this word is bad’a, which translates to “clear” and “obvious” in Arabic. One central characteristic for Bedouin tribes is the sense of belonging that tribe members feel.[10]
When they first arrived, the Zalabieh bedouins lived in tents. Their village held about 700–800 people. 80% of those people were either retired from the army or the police.[10]
The camel is the favorite animal of the Zalabieh bedouins. It is a symbol for male pride. Camel racing is an important sport for the Bedouins. These races allow Bedouins to engage in male competition, and establish manhood and power within the community.
Wadi Rum was documented by British officer T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), who passed through several times during the Arab Revolt of 1917–18.[12] In the 1980s one of the rock formations in Wadi Rum, originally known as “Jabal al-Mazmar” (The Mountain of (the) Plague), was named “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” after Lawrence’s book penned in the aftermath of the war, though the ‘Seven Pillars’ referred to in the book have no connection with Rum.
Lawrence described his entrance into the Valley of Rumm: “The hills on the right grew taller and sharper, a fair counterpart of the other side which straightened itself to one massive rampart of redness. They drew together until only two miles divided them: and then, towering gradually till their parallel parapets must have been a thousand feet above us, ran forward in an avenue for miles. The crags were capped in nests of domes, less hotly red than the body of the hill; rather grey and shallow. They gave the finishing semblance of Byzantine architecture to this irresistible place: this processional way greater than imagination.”
Lawrence also described his encounter with the spring, Ain Shalaaleh, “On the rock-bulge above were clear-cut Nabathaean inscriptions, and a sunk panel incised with a monogram or symbol. Around and about were Arab scratches, including tribe-marks, some of which were witnesses of forgotten migrations: but my attention was only for the splashing of water in a crevice under the shadow of the overhanging rock. I looked in to see the spout, a little thinner than my wrist, jetting out firmly from a fissure in the roof, and falling with that clean sound into a shallow, frothing pool, behind the step which served as an entrance. Thick ferns and grasses of the finest green made it a paradise just five feet square.”
Key sights include the, Seven Pillars of Wisdom rock formation, Khazali Canyon’s ancient petroglyphs, Lawrence’s Spring, and dramatic,rock arches likeUmm al-Samn and Um Frouth (the iconic Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Mushroom Rock, Um Frouth Rock Bridge, and Burdha Rock Bridge. Wadi Rum also contains the ancient petroglyphs in Khazali Canyon, the Lawrence House ruins, and the natural spring at Lawrence’s Spring
The discovery of the Nabataean Temple (located walking distance from the Rest House) in 1933 briefly returned the spotlight to the desert. A French team of archaeologists completed the excavations in 1997.