Although the area has been inhabited since the first century AD, the city of Zarqa was only established in 1902, by Chechen immigrants who were displaced due to the wars between the Ottoman and Russian Empires.

On 10 April 1905, the Ottoman governor issued a decree that allowed the Chechen immigrants to own the land they had settled on.

It was set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1949, after the Nakba and the subsequent exodus of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

[6] During the Black September conflict in 1970, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members hijacked five airplanes, and forced three to land at Dawson's Field, an airstrip in the desert near Zarqa.

[8] About one-third of Jordanians who left to fight in the Syrian Civil War, mainly for Islamist groups, are believed to have come from Zarqa - more than from any other area in the country.

[clarification needed] From 1908-20, the Hejaz Railway connected Zarqa to Amman, to the south; and to Syria, to the north.

The growth of industry in the city is the result of low real estate costs and proximity to the capital Amman.

[citation needed] In September 2020, massive explosions occurred at an army munitions depot for mortars near Zarqa, caused by a short circuit.