Which of the following statements with reference to Jordan is/are correct? 1. The country of Jordan was created through the British Mandate after World War I. 2. It is a landlocked country. Select the answer using the code given below:

Correct — A, 1 only. Statement 1 is sound. Jordan did not exist as a state before the First World War; the territory east of the Jordan river was Ottoman. After the war Britain held the mandate for Palestine, and within it the Emirate of Transjordan was set up on 11 April 1921 under Abdullah, recognised as a state by the League of Nations Council in September 1922 and administered as a British mandate until full independence on 25 May 1946. Statement 2 is the one that fails, and it fails on a single narrow but decisive fact: Jordan holds a short coastline in its far south-west at Aqaba, on the Gulf of Aqaba, which is the north-eastern arm of the Red Sea. A country with a seaport is not landlocked, however short its coast. Aqaba is Jordan's only port and its outlet for maritime trade, which is precisely why it matters.

• (b)2 only — Wrong on both counts. Jordan is not landlocked — it has a coast at Aqaba on the Red Sea — and the mandate origin in statement 1 is accurate.
• (c)Both 1 and 2 — The tempting pick if you picture Jordan as an inland desert state. Its coast is very short — Aqaba is the country's only coastal city and the Port of Aqaba its only port — but a coast is a coast, and that port is a working outlet to the sea.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects the true statement. Jordan is a direct creation of the post-war mandate settlement, established as the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921.

The modern political map of West Asia was largely drawn between 1916 and 1923, when the Ottoman Empire's Arab provinces were divided into League of Nations mandates — Britain taking Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, France taking Syria and Lebanon. Transjordan was carved out of the eastern part of the British mandate for Palestine and given to Abdullah, of the Hashemite family that had led the Arab Revolt. It became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on independence.

Landlocked-or-not questions are decided by whether a state touches an ocean or a sea connected to the ocean, not by how much coast it has. Jordan's coast is tiny, roughly the width of a city, but it opens on the Gulf of Aqaba and through it on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, so the state is coastal. The same reasoning catches out candidates on other near-landlocked countries — Iraq at Umm Qasr, Democratic Republic of the Congo at Muanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum. Jordan is also the standard odd-one-out in questions on the Arabian Peninsula, because it is classed with the Levant even though its southern desert extends onto the peninsular landmass.

• The Emirate of Transjordan was established on 11 April 1921 with Abdullah as emir, within the British mandate territory.
• The Council of the League of Nations recognised Transjordan as a state in September 1922; it remained a British mandate until independence on 25 May 1946.
• Jordan has a short coastline in its south-west on the Gulf of Aqaba, the north-eastern arm of the Red Sea, separated by that gulf from Egypt.
• Aqaba is Jordan's only seaport, so the country is coastal and not landlocked.
• Jordan is a Levantine state rather than a wholly peninsular one; only its southern desert extends onto the Arabian Peninsula landmass.

• Calling Jordan landlocked because most of its territory is inland desert; the Aqaba coast settles it.
• Confusing the Jordan river, which drains into the Dead Sea and reaches no ocean, with the country's sea access.
• Assuming Jordan is part of the Arabian Peninsula proper; it is normally classed with the Levant.

As a two-statement item pairing a country's colonial origin with a physical fact about it, or as a 'which of these is landlocked' or 'not part of the Arabian Peninsula' question.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Aqaba, the only seaport of Jordan, lies on which one of the following?

  • (a)The Mediterranean Sea
  • (b)The Persian Gulf
  • (c)The Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea
  • (d)The Dead Sea

  Answer(c) The Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea — the short south-western coast that keeps Jordan from being landlocked.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Emirate of Transjordan, the predecessor of the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was established in which one of the following years?

  • (a)1916
  • (b)1921
  • (c)1946
  • (d)1948

  Answer(b) 1921 — established on 11 April 1921 with Abdullah as emir; independence followed on 25 May 1946.