Islam's two holiest cities sit in Arabia's separating ridge
The Hejaz is western Saudi Arabia's historical province along the Red Sea—home to Mecca and Medina, Islam's first and second holiest cities, plus major ports such as Jeddah. Arabic root ḥ-j-z, to separate, names the highland that divides Najd from coastal Tihāmah.
Pilgrimage traffic and Arabic speech dominate a strip that the kingdom counts as its most populated region. Islamic tradition places Muhammad's birth in Mecca and ties the city's legendary founding to Abraham, Ishmael, and Hagar. Early Muslim conquests folded the ridge into successive caliphates after the Prophet's community took shape there.
Beyond the two holy cities lie oasis towns such as Fadak, Khaybar, Taymah and Al-Ula, which had reliable water and grew into trading centres from the Bronze Age, especially once camels made long caravans possible. The Mahd adh-Dhahab, Cradle of the Gold, is here, as is the bed of a now-dry river that once ran some 970 kilometres northeast to the Persian Gulf along the valleys of Al-Rummah and Al-Bātin.
From the 5th to the 1st century BCE the Kingdom of Lihyan ruled from Dedan in the Al-Ula oasis, lending its name to the Dadanitic script; the Nabataeans took over until Rome annexed them under Trajan in 106 CE. The Thamud, centred at Hegra, appear in texts from the 8th century BCE to the 5th century CE and are named 26 times in the Quran. Al-Hijr, with tombs carved into rock like Petra, became Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Later the Quraysh of the Mudar confederation ruled Mecca and tended the Kaaba.
Medina was the capital of the first Islamic state and the Rashidun Caliphate from 622 to 656. From 967 to 1916 local Sharifs ran the semi-sovereign Sharifate of Mecca under a succession of overlords, the Ottomans among them. Hussein bin Ali proclaimed an independent Hejaz in 1916, but after wars with the Al Saud he surrendered on 23 December 1925, and on 23 September 1932 the kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd were renamed Saudi Arabia, a date now marked as Saudi National Day.
Source: Hejaz
