his rule, whose oppressive policies led to the unsuccessful Peasants' revolt in Palestine in 1834. Transjordanian cities of Al-Salt and Al-Karak were destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha's forces for harboring a fled Palestinian revolt leader. Egyptian rule was later forcibly ended after western intervention, the Ottoman rule was restored. Russian persecution of Sunni Muslim Circassians in Circassia, forced their immigration into the region in 1867, where they today form a small part of the country's ethnic fabric. Oppression and neglect for the people of the region forced the population to decline, the only people left were nomadic Bedouins. Urban settlements with small populations included; Al-Salt, Irbid, Jerash and Al-Karak. What added to the under-development of the urban life in Jordan was the fact that the settlements were raided by the Bedouins as a source of living, the urbanites had to pay them to stay safe. Jordan's location lies in a route that is taken by Muslims going on pilgrimage to Mecca; this helped the population economically when the Ottomans constructed the Hejaz Railway linking Mecca and Istanbul in 1910. Ottoman oppression provoked the region's Bedouin tribes, such as the Adwan, Bani Hassan, Bani Sakhr and the Howeitat, to revolt, Most notable revolts were the Shoubak revolt and the Karak revolt, they were only suppressed with great difficulty. Emirate of Transjordan After four centuries of stagnant Ottoman rule (1516–1918), Turkish control over Transjordan came to an end during World War I when the Hashemite Army of the Great Arab Revolt, took over and secured present-day Jordan with the help and support of the region's local Bedouin tribes, Circassians, and Christians. The revolt was launched by the Hashemites and led by Sharif Hussein of Mecca against the Ottoman Empire. The revolt was supported by the Allies of World War I, including Britain and France. Sharif Hussein's sons, Faisal and Abdullah, were promised territorial rule in return. With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the League of Nations and the occupying powers, Britain and France, redrew the borders of the Middle East. Their decisions, most notably the Sykes–Picot Agreement, led to the establishment of the French Mandate for Syria and British Mandate for Palestine. The latter included the territory of Transjordan, which had been already allocated to Abdullah approximately a year prior to the finalization of the Mandate document (the Mandate officially introduced in 1923). One reason