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The English Complex is a large landmark ensemble in As-Salt, located on Jebel Qala'a, the hill north of Al-Ain Plaza. It is composed of two groups of buildings on two levels. The lower one includes the Church of the Good Shepherd, the Sunday School, and the priest's residence, all built around an open yard. On the upper level is the three-story English Hospital with its distinctive columned open gallery on the main floor. It was the first hospital in Jordan at the turn of the 20th century. The adjacent two-story house used to be the doctors’ residence.
The former English Hospital
Columned open gallery on the main floor
Massive retaining wall on the back
The premises of the English Complex, today owned and managed by the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf, extend from Al-Khader Street to Al Qala'a Lookout on the upper street. The main entrance is on Haddadin Stairs, just a 5 minute climb from Al-Ain Plaza.
Main entrance on Haddadin Stairs
Some of the facilities can be visited, including a small museum, ancient chapel, kitchen and dormitory excavated into the rock.
Cave chapel
Bellow for a blacksmith in the museum
Old kitchen and dormitory
The Holy Land Institute runs a terrace café which overlooks the city center, from where visitors can enjoy phantastic views of the historical houses on Jebel Jada'a, the opposite hill.
Terrace café
European missionaries started their activities in As-Salt in the second half of the 19th century. In addition to building churches, they reached out to local communities introducing modern education and healthcare. They took advantage of the fact that the Ottoman authorities of that time didn't care about providing social services to the local population.
In 1866, Samuel Gobat, the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem, acquired a property in the center of Salt. A mission house and school was started to be built, and church shortly thereafter. The first Protestant missionary clinic was established in 1872. In the following years, the English Protestants of the Church Missionary Society (Evangelical Anglicanism) took charge of the mission work in As-Salt. By 1879, their school began to distinguish itself from the schools of other faiths by expanding considerably its facilities and by hiring accomplished teachers such as Khalil Al-Jamal. According to his writings, the exams in geography, history, arithmetic, Arabic, etc., lasted more than three hours.
Church of the Good Shepherd
English Complex School
From 1883 on, Dr. Ibrahim Zou’rab, a graduate of the Beirut Medical School, was appointed to the mission's clinic. Free medical attention was given to everyone three mornings a week. Construction work of the current hospital structure began in 1889 on the ground floor, soon expanding to the second floor and other buildings, including a dispensary. According to the records, from 7,000 patients in 1894, the medical attention grew up to about 19,000 patients in 1902, some of them coming as far away as from Morocco and Yemen. The clinic evolved to become a qualified hospital in 1904. The English Hospital played an important role in providing medical relief during the 1927 earthquake. As-Salt was the most affected city in Transjordan in which 80 people were killed, and hundreds injured.
When the Government established a new Hospital in the Salalem area in 1938, the English Hospital was turned into an outpatient clinic. Later it became an UNRWA Center for Refugee Aid.
The two-story house used to be the doctors’ residence.
Since 1996, the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf and Deafblind has undertaken major renovation works to transform the Complex into a center for the rehabilitation of the physically challenged, in particular the hearing and visually impaired to provide different types of vocational training to Jordanian students in addition to local community outreach programs.
Fully eqquipped kitchen for Vocational Training in Culinary Arts for male and female deaf and hearing impaired youths.
Dining premises next to the kitchen.
© Text and photos: Pat Binder & Gerhard Haupt. Universes in Universe.
Sources include:
As-Salt. The Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality. Nomination Document for the Inscription on the World Heritage List, 2019. File Coordinator, Author & Preparer: Dr. Rami Farouk Daher
Adaptive Re-Use of the Old Evangelical English Hospital in the Town of Salt. By Jawdat S. Goussous. Published in CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, Number 5, Volume 2, 2008.
Missionary Rivalries in Ottoman Transjordan at the Turn of the 20th Century. By Eugene Rogan. Published in: Antonin Jaussen, Sciences Sociales Occidentales Et Patrimoine Arabe. Ed.: Géraldine Chatelard, Mohammed Tarawneh; Presses de l’Ifpo, 1999.
The English Complex
Main entrance: Haddadin Stairs, just a 5 minute climb from Al-Ain Plaza.
As-Salt
Tel.: +962 5 3554953. To check if the café and museum are open.
© Texts and photos are protected by copyright.
Compilation of information, editing, translations, photos: Universes in Universe, unless otherwise indicated
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