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Hejaz

 
Dictionary: He·jaz  Hed·jaz (hē-jăz') pronunciation
 
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A region of northwest Saudi Arabia on the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. It includes the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

 

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Region of western Saudi Arabia. It occupies an extensive area along the Red Sea coast of the Arabian Peninsula, from Jordan to the 'Asir region. Its northern portion was inhabited by the 6th century BC. In the 7th century AD two of its cities, Mecca and Medina, were the birthplace of Islam; they remain Islam's holiest cities. In 1258 the region came under the control of the Mamluk dynasty, and in 1517 control passed to the Ottomans. In 1916 Sharif Husayn ibn 'Ali revolted and proclaimed himself king of the Hejaz. Ibn Sa'ud, the ruler of Nejd, assumed the title in 1926, and in 1932 he united Hejaz, Nejd, and other districts to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

For more information on Hejaz, visit Britannica.com.

 
Hejaz or Hedjaz (both: hējăz', hĕjäz') , region, c.150,000 sq mi (388,500 sq km), NW Saudi Arabia, on the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. Mecca is the chief city. Extending S to Asir, Hejaz is mainly a dissected highland region lying between the narrow, long coastal strip and the interior desert. There are several oases and some wadis (watercourses) where livestock and crops, such as dates and wheat, are raised. Economically important cities include Taif and Yanbu. The junction of the main north-south and east-west highways of Saudi Arabia, Taif is an important mountain city and market. Yanbu on the Red Sea is a major petrochemical city, the terminus for two oil pipelines. Hejaz is, however, more important as a place of pilgrimage. Each year many thousands of Muslim pilgrims come into Hejaz, mainly through Jidda, the chief port, to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Following the fall (1258) of the caliphate of Baghdad, Hejaz came under Egyptian control. In 1517 it came under Turkish suzerainty, although nominal rule remained in the hands of the Hashemite sherifs of Mecca. In the early 19th cent. Hejaz was raided by the Wahhabis; peace was restored in 1817 by the governor of Egypt. After 1845, Hejaz came again under direct Turkish control. To improve communications, the Turks built the Hejaz railway (completed 1908) from Damascus to Medina; it was severely damaged during World War I and later abandoned. The Hejaz was in 1916 proclaimed independent by Husayn ibn Ali, the sherif of Mecca, who with the aid of T. E. Lawrence destroyed Turkish authority. Husayn was himself defeated in 1924 by Ibn Saud, ruler of Nejd and founder of Saudi Arabia, who annexed his domain. The formal union of Hejaz and Nejd into Saudi Arabia was proclaimed in 1932.


 

The mountainous area along the west-central coast of the Arabian peninsula which gave rise to early Islam.

 
Wikipedia: Hejaz
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Map with the Saudi region outlined in red and the 1923 Kingdom in green

al-Hejaz (also Hijaz, Hedjaz; Arabic: الحجازal-Ḥiǧāz, literally "the barrier") is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia. Defined mostly by the Red Sea, it extends from Haql on the Gulf of Aqaba to Jizan. Its main city is Jeddah, but it is probably better-known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. As a region, The Hijaz, as it is often referred to, because of being the site of Islam's holy places, has significance in the Arab and Islamic historical and political landscape. In Arabic, Hejaz means literally "the barrier" as it separates the land of Najd in the east from the land of Tihamah in the west.

Contents

History

Evidence suggests the Hejaz (or parts of it) was part of the Roman province of Arabia [1]. Under the control of regional powers such as Egypt and the Ottoman Empire through most of its history, the Hejaz had a brief period of political independence in the early 20th century. It was one of several regions of the Ottoman Empire provoked into rebellion by T. E. Lawrence ("of Arabia") of the British during World War I. In 1916 its independence was proclaimed by Sharif Hussein ibn Ali, the Sharif of Makkah. In 1924, however, ibn Ali's authority was usurped by Ibn Saud of the neighboring region of Nejd and became known as the Kingdom of Hijaz and Nejd and later the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Even today, Hejazis adhere to a more moderate interpretation of Islam than does the Wahhabi sect that arose in Nejd.[2]

The Biblical story of the Garden of Eden is in Genesis 2:11: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone."

Havilah is usually associated with either the Arabian Peninsula or north-west Yemen, but in the work associated with the Garden of Eden by Juris Zarins, the Hejaz mountains appear to satisfactorily meet the description. The Hejaz includes both the Cradle of Gold at Mahd adh Dhahab (23°30′12.96″N 40°51′34.92″E / 23.5036°N 40.8597°E / 23.5036; 40.8597) and a potential source of the now dried out Pishon River that used to flow 600 miles north east to the Persian Gulf via the Wadi Al-Batin system. Archaeological research lead by Farouk El-Baz of Boston University indicates that the river system, now prospectively known as the Kuwait River, was active 2,500-3000BC[3]. Bdellium plants are also abundant in the Hijaz.

Geography

Geographically, the region is located along the Great Rift Valley. The region is also known for its darker, more volcanic sand. Depending on the previous definition, Hejaz includes the high mountains of Sarawat which topographically separate Najd from Tehamah.

Cities

Map showing location within Saudi Arabia

See also

References

  1. ^ Kesting, Piney (May/June 2001). "Well of Good Fortune". Saudi Aramco. http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200103/well.of.good.fortune.htm. Retrieved on 2007-03-20. 
  2. ^ James Minahan (2002), Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press).
  3. ^ The Pishon River - Found. by C.A. Salabach at Focus Magazine

 
 
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Saudi Arabia
Nejd (region, Saudi Arabia)
Husayn ibn Ali (Arabian politician & religious leader)

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Islamic Dictionary. Copyright © 2002 yourDictionary.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hejaz" Read more

 

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