5 Dinars 1995, Jordan
| in Krause book | Number: 30a |
| Years of issue: | 01.08.1995 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan: Said Nabulsi, Minister of Finance: Basel Jardaneh |
| Serie: | 1994-2002 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1992 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 144 x 70 |
| Printer: | TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London |
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Description
Watermark:
The King of Jordan Hussein ibn Talal in the Keffiyeh.
Avers:
The King of Jordan Hussein ibn Talal in the Keffiyeh.
Hussein bin Talal (Arabic: حسين بن طلال, Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, on 11 August 1952, until his death in 1999. According to Hussein, he was a 40th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad as he belonged to the Hashemite family which has ruled Jordan since 1921.
He was born in Amman as the eldest child of Crown Prince Talal and his wife, Princess Zein Al-Sharaf. Hussein began his schooling in Amman, continuing his education abroad. Hussein was named crown prince after his father became king. When Talal was forced to abdicate by Parliament a year after he became king due to illness, a Regency Council was appointed until Hussein came of age. He was enthroned at the age of 17 on 2 May 1953. He was married four separate times and fathered eleven children: Princess Alia from Dina bint Abdul-Hamid; Abdullah II, Prince Faisal, Princess Aisha, and Princess Zein from Antoinette Gardiner; Princess Haya and Prince Ali from Alia Touqan; Prince Hamzah, Prince Hashim, Princess Iman, and Princess Raiyah from Lisa Halaby.
Hussein, a constitutional monarch, started his rule with what was termed a "liberal experiment", allowing, in 1956, the formation of the only democratically elected government in Jordan's history. A few months later, he forced that government to resign, declaring martial law and banning political parties. Jordan fought three wars with Israel under Hussein, including the 1967 Six Day War, which ended in Jordan's loss of the West Bank. In 1970 Hussein expelled Palestinian fighters (fedayeen) from Jordan after they had threatened the country's security in what became known as Black September. The King renounced ties to the West Bank in 1988 after the Palestine Liberation Organization was recognized internationally as the sole representative of the Palestinians. He lifted martial law and reintroduced elections in 1989 when riots over price hikes spread in southern Jordan. In 1994 he became the second Arab head of state to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
In 1952, when he was a 17-year old schoolboy, Hussein became king to a young nation that included the then Jordanian-controlled West Bank. The country had few natural resources, and a large Palestinian refugee population as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Hussein led his country through four turbulent decades of the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Cold War, successfully balancing pressures from Arab nationalists, Soviet Union, Western countries, and Israel, transforming Jordan by the end of his 46-year reign to a stable modern state. After 1967 he increasingly engaged in efforts to solve the Palestinian problem, he also acted as conciliatory intermediate between various Middle Eastern rivals; Hussein came to be seen as the Middle East's peacemaker. He was revered for pardoning political dissidents and opponents, and giving them senior posts in the government. Hussein, who survived dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him, was the region's longest-reigning leader. The King died at the age of 63 from cancer on 7 February 1999. His funeral at the time, was the largest gathering of world leaders since 1995. He was succeeded by his eldest son Abdullah II. 
The keffiyeh or kufiya (Arabic: كوفية kūfiyyah, meaning "from the city of Kufa" (الكوفة); plural كوفيات kūfiyyāt), also known as a ghutrah (غُترَة), shemagh (شماغ šmāġ), ḥaṭṭah (حَطّة), mashadah (مَشَدة), chafiye (Persian: چَفیِه, dastmal yazdi (Persian: دستمال یزدی) or cemedanî (Kurdish: جه مه داني), is a traditional Middle Eastern headdress from Kufa, Iraq fashioned from a square scarf, usually made of cotton. It is typically worn by Arab people, as well as by some Mizrahi Jews and Iranic nomads (especially Kurdish people). It is commonly found in arid regions as it provides protection from sunburn, dust and sand. Toward the end of the 1980s, the keffiyeh became a fashion accessory in the United States.
For decades, keffiyeh have been issued to British soldiers who now almost exclusively refer to them as shemaghs (from Arabic شماغ šmāġ).Their use by some units and formations of the military and police forces of the former British Empire and subsequent Commonwealth dates back to before World War II.
Due to its utility it was adopted by the Palestine Police Force, the Transjordan Frontier Force, the Sudan Defence Force, the Arab Legion, the Jordanian Armed Forces, the Libyan Arab Force, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In the North African campaign of WWII the irregular raiding and reconnaissance units of the Long Range Desert Group, the Special Air Service and "Popski's Private Army" wore them while operating in the Western Desert. After the war, their use by the Army continued with the shemagh being worn in both desert and temperate environments in theatres such as Dhofar. Australian Army forces have also used the shemagh since the Vietnam War, and extensively during Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly by Australian Special Forces units. Since the beginning of the War on Terror, these keffiyeh, usually cotton and in military olive drab or khaki with black stitching, have been adopted by US troops as well, a reversal of previous policy which saw them strictly forbidden during the Gulf War.
Their practicality in an arid environment, as in Iraq, explains their enduring popularity with soldiers. Soldiers often wear the keffiyeh folded in half into a triangle and wrapped around the face, with the halfway point being placed over the mouth and nose, sometimes coupled with goggles, to keep sand out of the face. This is also commonly done by armoured, mechanised and other vehicle-borne troops who use it as a scarf in temperate climates to ward off wind chill caused by being in moving vehicles. British soldiers deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan are now issued with a tan-colored shemagh. Keffiyeh, called chafiyeh (چفیه) in Persian, was extensively used by Iranian infantrymen in Iran–Iraq War.
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Top, left is the Top of a pillar in Al Khazneh, a.k.a. The Treasury (الخزنة). Petra, Jordan.
As a through image is Monastery tomb urn on top of Ad-Deir (the monastery), in Nabataeans capital city Petra (Al Khazneh), Jordan.
Revers:
Top, left, is the Stone flower, as a decoration, from Chaznat al-Firʿaun in Petra.
Al-Khazneh (Arabic: الخزنة; "The Treasury") is one of the most elaborate temples in Petra, a city of the Nabatean Kingdom inhabited by the Arabs in ancient times. As with most of the other buildings in this ancient town, including the Monastery (Arabic: Ad Deir), this structure was carved out of a sandstone rock face.
The structure is believed to have been the mausoleum of the Nabatean King Aretas IV in the I century AD. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in both Jordan and the region. It became known as "Al-Khazneh", or The Treasury, in the early XIX century by the area's Bedouins as they had believed it contained treasures.
Al-Khazneh means "The Treasury" in Arabic, a name derived from legends regarding the decorative stone urn high on the second level, which in reality is solid sandstone.
One legend is that the Egyptian Pharaoh and some of his army escaped the closing of the Red Sea, created the Khazneh by magic as a safe place for his treasury and continued in his pursuit of Moses. This led to the name Khaznet el-Far'oun, "Treasury of the Pharaoh".
Another legend claims that bandits or pirates hid their loot in the urn. Significant damage from bullets can be seen on the urn, attributed by local lore to Bedouins who are said to have shot at the urn in the early XX century, in hopes of breaking it open and spilling out the "treasure".
Al-Khazneh was originally built as a mausoleum and crypt at the beginning of the I century AD during the reign of Aretas IV Philopatris.
Many of the building's architectural details have eroded away during the two thousand years since it was carved and sculpted from the cliff. The sculptures are thought to be those of various mythological figures associated with the afterlife. On top are figures of four eagles that would carry away the souls. The figures on the upper level are dancing Amazons with double-axes. The entrance is flanked by statues of the twins Castor and Pollux who lived partly on Olympus and partly in the underworld.
In 1812, the city of Petra and Al-Khazneh was rediscovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. As Western Europe continued to explore the Middle East, tourism became more common, and by the 1920s, a small hotel had opened near Petra. While Petra was not as popular as larger, more central cities like Cairo, tourism started to change the economy and social structure of the Bedouin people who lived nearby.
Tourism is now the main source of income in Jordan. Hotels, souvenir shops, restaurants and horse rental services are all found within a few-mile radius of Petra itself. While the economic effects have been largely positive, the site faces threats from the increased tourism.
Humidity from large crowds of people visiting the site can cause damage to the dry sandstone. White spots have appeared on walls and columns from stearic acid deposition due to hands resting against the walls. The Khazneh surface itself has receded by 40 mm. in less than ten years from touching, leaning, or rubbing on the walls of the Khazneh.
The Treasury has appeared in many Hollywood films, gaining particular fame after being featured in climactic scenes in the popular 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which its facade is represented as the entrance to the final resting place of the Holy Grail near Hatay. The interior scenes of the temple were filmed at Elstree Studios in England.
To the right of the center is shown one of the columns of the central sculptural group, which was already mentioned in the description of the obverse.
To the left of the center there are plants Typha (Cattail), more likely type Typha domingensis Pers. (1807).
Typha is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in Australia as cumbungi or bulrush, in Canada as cattail, and in New Zealand as raupo. Other taxa of plants may be known as bulrush, including some sedges in Scirpus and related genera.
The genus is largely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is found in a variety of wetland habitats.
There are a few additional wetland plants to consider in addition to giant cane, common reed, and papyrus. Like so many other references it is not possible to state with certainty the botanical names of these plants. Several candidates are likely, however, for the words translated from the Hebrew tse'el.
"Under the lotus plant (tse'el) he lies, hidden among the reeds (qaneh)," Job 40:21 and 40:22, "the lotuses conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him.". The King James Version translates this verse as, "under the shady (tse'el) trees ('ets). This description of the behemoth includes its riverine habitat. It is unfortunate that NIV translators used "lotus plant" in this verse. Lotus is the common name applied to water lilies, most often Nelumbo lutea. But it is also the Latin name of a genus of legumes, Lotus. Species of this genus are not aquatic plants. What is this mysterious plant linked with the likewise enigmatic behemoth?
Tse'el can mean, among other things, stalk or stick--in any case implying something slender. This could hardly be Nelumbo which has large round, usually floating leaves up to 1m across. A tall, sender, stick-like plant could be giant cane or common reed which would fit here except that qaneh is used later in the same verse. Papyrus could conceivably fit the description except that in Job 8: 11 the word achuw is translated papyrus.
Could this mysterious plant be one of the other aquatic plants frequent in the Middle East? In the context of Job 40, it should have the following features: form a stand dense enough to hide the behemoth (" . . . under the lotus plant he lies"); grow in a stream that might flood ( . . . "when the river rages"); be part of a guild that includes poplars, possibly Populus alba (v. 22); and be a plant compatible with vegetation found along the Jordan River (v. 23).
Of plants found under such conditions, the most likely is Typha domingensis known in English as cattail. It forms dense stands and has long, narrow leaves that would be within the circumscription of the Hebrew word for something slender. The thick heavy rhizomes can withstand flooding and it is a common plant in the Jordan Valley. (ww2.odu.edu)
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