Sakib

Etymology

Sakib's name is relative to the water pouring, where rain comes from the high mountains to the valleys. Alternatively, the town of Sakib took its name from from a nice smell flower.

Byzantine period

During the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), the town was home to a Roman mint, and was also a major center for the pressing of olives. This is evidenced by the large number of old Roman olive presses and by a large Byzantine cemetery.

Umayyad Empire

The town was populated around the time of the Umayyad Caliphate in an area called Umm Jawzeh (south-west of Sakib), as evidenced by the remnants of mosques present in the area.

The Crusaders

Sakib was known as "Seecip" from in the middle Islamic period.

Sakib was the eastern border for the Kingdom of Jerusalem with the Seljuk Empire. By the year 1119, a garrison of forty men stationed in Jerash by Zahir ad-Din Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus converted the Temple of Artemis into a fortress which was captured by Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem (1118–31), and utterly destroyed. Then after, the Crusaders abandoned Jerash for Sakib. They initiated a re-treatment of the eastern border of settlement. This, however, was not yet permanent, since Jerash re-appeared on Ottoman tax registers of the 16th century.

Ottoman period

As mentioned in Ottoman documents, Sakib, as well as the villages of Aysarah and Be'na, joined the "Naheyat Ajloun" region of "Liwa Ajloun" in 1538, and later the "Naheyat Bani Alwan" region of "Liwa Ajloun" in 1596. Later, the town belonged to an area called "Alme'rad". The region was named "Alme'rad" ("resistance") due to its resistance against the oppression of Ottoman rule.

In the 16th century, the total population of Sakib, Aysarah, and Be'na was 33 households, including three Imams. The townspeople were required to pay a tax on both livestock and crops, as well as Waqf (charity due to Muhyiddin Ibn Sharaf al-Din Kharroub), all collected for the army.

Ma'an State - Prince Fakhr-al-Din II

Sakib witnessed important military campaigns, including the campaign of Prince Ali the son of Fakhr-al-Din II in 1612, when he led a military campaign on the orders of his father to pursue Farroukh who was Sanjak of Ajlun, Karak and Nablus. Prince Ali was able to defeat him, after which he set up camp in Sakib and remained there. However, the Levant ruler Hafiz Pasha wrote to the minister Nassouh Pasha that Fakhr al-Din had besieged Damascus. Nassouh Pasha then set out on a major campaign to defeat Fakhr al-Din, who called on the help of his son, Prince Ali.

Saving Christian refugees

The Ayasrah family in Sakib showed a religious consciousness when they received Christian refugees from the Levant and provided protection to Christians in Transjordan. This triggered the sedition which began in 1860 and continued for many years. Prince Abdelkader El-Djazairi is personally credited with saving large numbers of Christians by offering them shelter.

Martyrs

Al-Ayasrah tribe in Sakib provided a large number of martyrs during the resistance against the British Mandate and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

King George V

Sakib was the focus of attention of England in the late nineteenth century. George, Prince of Wales (later King George V of England), and his brother Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, visited Sakib in 1882 during their visit to the Levant aboard Her Majesty's Ship "Bacchante", bound for the East. The two princes at that time took notes about Sakib, in which they said:

"Next we passed Sakib village at 9.10, and entered the Wady Hamur at 9.30 ; long stretches of corn (wheat) were growing at the bottom, and the cliffs were wooded at the side with pines and oaks intermixed. A most enjoyable English-like morning as we ride along by the stream which goes gurgling over its pebble bed down the valley ; we cross it ever and anon, and dip in and out of the copses which cling to the hill-side and remind some of us much of Wales, and others of Scotland...

According to King Gearoge V, the town might used to be an important station on a trade road, with inhabitants trading with towns and cities in the west (Palestine). Saying if there was a bridge over the Jordan (river) the traffic from the east to the west side of Jordan would probably show significant increase as former days. However, he said that Acre and Haifa already export wheat at the rate of 200 cargoes a day, all September and October, and the only difficulty connected with the trans-Jordanic wheat is its transit from these fields to the coast.

Then the Princes mentioned a wide range kinds of trees, flowers, birds and animals, repeated they can scarcely believe themselves in Levant, everything looks so much like in England.

Claude Reignier Conder

The British soldier and explorer Claude Reignier Conder also visited the town between 1881-1882, and described it in details. He said:

...And by Sakib, on its cliff down which a stream falls in a long cascade, we gain the beautiful glens which run down from the rugged Ajlun to the green valley of Jordan. With exception of the woods of Tabor (now sadly thinned), the copses of Carmel, the oaks of Harosheth, and the groves of Banias, there is nothing in western Palestine which can at all compare with the beauty of the ravines of Gilead between Wady Hesban on the south and the Hairomax on the north. Beside clear mountain brooks the horseman wanders through glades of oak and terebinth, with dark pines above. The valleys green with corn (wheat), the streams fringed with oleander, the magnificent screens of yellow, green, and russet foliage, which cover the steep slopes, present a scene of quiet beauty, of chequered light and shade...

He also mentioned many kinds of animals, birds, trees and herbs.

Rev. Klein

According to Rev. Klein, who visited Sakib and other areas in 1868, noted that some Christian families lived in the area side-by-side with Muslims, and stated that those Christian families produced tools needed by the inhabitants in exchange for a certain amount of grain. In 1869, Rev. Klein in the journal Church Missionary Intelligencer made a mention of Sakib, describing it as a beautiful, densely populated town, but lamenting the fact that there was a single Greek priest to look after the spiritual affairs of Christians in an area of 17 towns including Sakib.

Topographic

Sakib's elevation is 900m to 1200 m above sea level, and the area with farms and forests is about 16 km². Land and forests constitute 75% of this area. The city is located in the mountains and on an area about 4 km². The distribution of land above the cliffs of limestone ranging in intensity. Built along the highest mountains in north of Jordan which are:

Climate

Generally dominated by the climate of the Mediterranean basin, Sakib has cold winters and mild summers. The average rainfall is about 422 mm (16.6 inches) per year. The minimum temperature is about 12.25 °C (54.05 °F) and the highest temperature about 23.5 °C (74.3 °F) .

Nature life

The city is famous for its olive, fig, grape and other fruit trees; it is also famous for its thick forests, which extend from Dibeen to Ajloun and cover part of the areas where oak and Aleppo Pine inhabit. The Aleppo pine in that area earlier in Jordan, representing the southwestern limit for this type of forest on the planet.

In addition to the evergreen oak, there are some of rare trees such as Arbutus, Ceratonia siliqua, Pistacia, Malloul, juniper, cypress and Maple. Over the years these trees have been very important to area residents as a source of firewood and sometimes food and medicines. It is also home to many animals and plants, such as wild boar, marten rock and jackals, which exist in large numbers, red foxes, hyenas, squirrel Persian, Hedgehog and wolves. There are also many wild flowers such as Black Iris and Orchid and it is home to important birds in Jordan. Forests in Sakib and Dibbin are home to at least 17 species threatened with extinction, such as the Persian Squirrel. Today, it contains a small reserve for deers.

Population

As of 2015, all of the inhabitants of Sakib are Muslims. The 2015 census indicates that the population of Sakib is more than 11,586 people.

Education

There are several schools in various categories for both males and females, and people of Sakib have a high level of education.