Editing As-Salt (section)

===Ottoman period===
[[File:Al-Salt City.jpg|thumb|right|220px|A street in the Old City with Ottoman motifs]]
[[File:As Salt Old town stairs.JPG|thumb|right|Stairs leading past houses in the Old City]]
In 1596, during the [[Ottoman Empire]], Salt was noted in the [[Defter|census]] as being located in the ''[[nahiya]]'' of Salt in the ''[[Liwa (Arabic)|liwa]]'' of [[Ajlun]], with a [[Muslim]] population of 40 households and 5 bachelors; and a [[Christians|Christian]] population of 25 households. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on various agricultural products; including wheat, barley, olive trees/vineyards, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a market toll; a total of 12,000 [[akçe]].<ref>Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 169</ref>

By the end of the 18th century, Salt was the sole permanent settlement in the [[Balqa (region)|Balqa region]], a situation which persisted well into the 19th century.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=27}} The rest of the Balqa was dominated by the local Bedouin tribes.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=27}} It was the most developed city and commercial center of Transjordan from the 18th century until the early years of the [[Emirate of Transjordan]].{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=27}} The city's drinking water was supplied by two abundant springs, which also irrigated the town gardens along the [[Wadi Shu'ayb]] stream. It was situated along the slopes of a conical hill, at the top of which stood a fort, and along the ridges of two deep abutting valleys, which provided a natural defense against encroachments by neighboring Bedouin tribes. Salt's inhabitants negotiated terms with the tribes, who guaranteed the townspeople access to their wheat fields in the Balqa's eastern plains in return for giving the tribesmen access to the town's extensive markets.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=27}} Sharecropping agreements were formed with the tribes whereby Salt townspeople would encamp in Amman and Wadi Wala in the spring until harvest and paid an annual tribute to the dominant tribe of the Balqa.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}} Until around the 1810s, the paramount tribe was the [[Banu 'Adwan|Adwan]], known as "lords of the Balqa".{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}} Afterward, the Banu Sakhr overtook the Adwan and collected the tribute from Salt.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}}

The city's defenses and isolation in a land practically controlled by Bedouin tribes also enabled its inhabitants to ignore the impositions of the Ottoman authorities without consequence.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}} Western travelers in the early 19th century reported that the leader of the town effectively wielded the same authority as any of the provincial governors of [[Ottoman Syria]] appointed by the sultan.{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|p=189}}

In the early 19th century, the townspeople mostly belonged to the clans of Fakhoury, Akrad, Awamila and Qatishat. Each clan was headed by its own sheikh, one or two of whom would act as the ''shaykh al-balad'' (city leader), who was based in the fort and was in charge of protecting Salt from Bedouin attack.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}} The population consisted of about four hundred Muslim and eighty Christian families.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}} According to the observations of Buckingham in the 1820s, roughly 100 Christians in Salt were immigrants from [[Nazareth]] who moved to the town to avoid the exactions of [[Jazzar Pasha]], the Ottoman governor of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]].{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|pp=180–181, 248}} Muslim–Christian relations were amicable and the two communities shared the same lifestyles, dress and the Arabic language.{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|p=248}} Salt was organized into quarters, each controlled by one of three main clans, and contained a number of mosques, a church and about twenty shops during this period.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}}{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|p=140}} Salt served the surrounding countryside as far as [[Al-Karak|Karak]], which lacked a market until the late 19th century, and goods in its market originated as far as [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and Egypt.{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|p=181}} It exported raisins, [[sumac]] leaves for the tanneries of [[Jerusalem]], ''qili'' (a type of ash, a key ingredient of [[Nabulsi soap]]) to [[Nablus]], and ostrich feathers supplied by the Bedouin to Damascus.{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|p=181}}{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=29}} Nablus was Salt's primary partner,{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=28}} and Salt served as the Transjordanian center of the Nablus-based [[Tuqan family]].{{sfn|Rood|2004|p=127}} Although most of the inhabitants were farmers, there were also craftsmen and smaller numbers of shopkeepers, the latter of whom were commissioned by merchants in Nablus, Nazareth and Damascus.{{sfn|van der Steen|2014|p=140}}{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=29}}

In 1834 the townspeople and local Bedouin fought together to drive out the forces of the practically autonomous province of [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Egypt]] led by [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]], the first recorded clash of the [[Peasants' revolt in Palestine]].{{sfn|Rood|2004|p=127}} Ottoman rule in the Levant was restored in 1840, but Salt remained only nominally part of the Empire.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} In 1866–1867, the governor of Damascus [[Mehmed Rashid Pasha]] (1866–1871) extended the imperial [[Tanzimat]] centralization and modernization reforms in Transjordan.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} He led a large force of Bedouin tribesmen from the [[Rwala]], [[Wuld Ali]] and Banu Hasan, [[Hauran]] plainsmen, [[Druze]] mountaineers and regular infantry, cavalry and artillery troops toward Salt, stopping three hours north of the city.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} From there, he offered to pardon Salt's inhabitants for allying with the Adwan and Banu Sakhr against the authorities.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} The city organized a delegation of Muslim and Christian grandees who negotiated the unopposed entry of the Ottomans into Salt on 17 August.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} Rashid Pasha repaired the damaged fort where he garrisoned 400 troops.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} He appointed the Damascene Kurd Faris Agha Kadru as Salt's first district governor and established an elected administrative council composed of Salt's elite families.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}} Rashid Pasha confiscated huge qualities of grain and livestock from the town as compensation for tax arrears.{{sfn|Rogan|2002|p=49}}

Salt's heyday was in the late 19th century, when traders arrived from [[Nablus]] to expand their trading network eastwards beyond the [[Jordan River]]. As a result of the influx of newcomers this period saw the rapid expansion of Salt from a simple village into a city with many architecturally elegant buildings, many built in the ''Nablusi'' style from the attractive honey-coloured local stone. A large number of buildings from this era survive {{As of|2009|lc=y}}.