Maan

Maan (məän`), town (1996 est. pop. 18,000), S Jordan. It is the terminus of the country's main rail line (which extends to Damascus, Syria) and carries on trade in agricultural produce. Important since biblical times, Maan was a point on an early Middle Eastern caravan route and on the pilgrimage road to Mecca. A modern desert highway links Maan and Medina. The ancient Nabatean trading town of Petra is in Maan's hinterland.

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Maan 

a Lebanese feudal family and a dynasty of rulers in medieval Lebanon. The founder of the family was Maan al-Ayubi (12th century). In 1516, Fakhr al-Din I Maan (died 1544) recognized the suzerainty of Sultan Selim I (reigned from 1512 to 1520) and received from him the investiture over the administration of Mount Lebanon. The Maan power reached its zenith under Fakhr al-Din II Maan (1590-1633, according to other data,—1635), when their rule extended over all of Lebanon. In the second half of the 17th century, the influence of the Maan family began to weaken. The last member of the Maan family, Ahmad Mulhim, died in 1697.

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Maan 

a city in southern Jordan; the administrative center of the liwa of Maan. Population, about 9,000 (1970). Maan is situated in an intramontane valley at an elevation of more than 1,100 m. A highway junction, it also has a railroad station and an airport. Maan is the commercial center of southern Jordan; it has a tobacco industry and a cottage industry in textiles.