Ha'il

The oasis at the foot of the Aja mountains has been settled for thousands of years: the sandstone outcrops of the surrounding Nafud carry carvings of cattle, ibex and human figures made when the desert was far wetter. In pre-Islamic times this was the country of the Tayy tribe, whose chief Hatim al-Tai became the Arab byword for generosity, and the plain to the south was crossed by the Darb Zubaydah, the pilgrim road from Kufa to Mecca, with a walled station and cisterns at Fayd.

Ha'il's greatest period began in 1836, when the Al Rashid of the Shammar tribe established an emirate here. Under Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al Rashid in the 1870s and 1880s it became the strongest power in central Arabia, taking Riyadh in 1891 and driving the Al Saud into exile in Kuwait. The rulers held court in the great mud-brick palace of Barzan, protected caravans and won the loyalty of the Bedouin, and the emirate drew the European travellers who wrote the first outside accounts of the city, among them William Gifford Palgrave, Charles Doughty and Lady Anne Blunt.

Rashidi power collapsed in a series of family killings and in defeats by the resurgent Al Saud, and in 1921 Abdulaziz Ibn Saud took Ha'il, ending the emirate and completing his hold on the Najd. The Barzan palace was pulled down, and the town became a provincial centre of the new kingdom. In the second half of the 20th century deep wells turned the surrounding plains into large irrigated farms, and since 2006 a university, an expanded airport and the restoration of the forts have reshaped the city again.

Ha'il is Shammar country, and tribal identity remains strong. The generosity that Hatim al-Tai stands for is a matter of local pride, expressed in the forms of the majlis: guests are received with dates and pale, cardamom-scented Najdi coffee poured in small measures, and a meal for visitors is a matter of honour. Nabati poetry, composed and recited in the Bedouin dialect, is still a living art here, and camel husbandry, falconry and horse breeding all have deep roots in the region.

The city's culture is also shaped by the desert around it. Winter camps in the Nafud, with tents, fires and grilled meat, are the standard family weekend, and motor sport has grown out of the same landscape, with cross-country rallies drawing international teams to the dunes. The province is conservative in religion and custom, and the rhythm of prayer times structures shops, offices and the working day.

Crafts survive in the souq: woven camel-hair rugs and bags, coffee pots and palm-fibre work. Traditional Najdi building, with thick mud walls, crenellated parapets and small triangular openings, is visible in the restored forts and quoted by newer public buildings. The university has brought a younger and more mixed population, and the mix of old tribal forms with a student city is part of how residents describe the place.

About 500,000 people live in Ha'il, the largest city of its province, in a low-rise spread of villas and apartment blocks around the old centre. Agriculture is the base of the economy: wheat, fodder, fruit, vegetables and above all dates grown on irrigated fields and in the palm gardens of the oasis, with large farming companies alongside family holdings. Government offices, the university, hospitals, transport and trade employ most of the rest, and mining and logistics have been promoted as part of the province's development plans.

Daily life follows the pattern of the Najd. Offices and schools start early, the afternoon heat empties the streets, and the evening after sunset prayer is when families go out to the parks, the markets, the cafés and the shopping streets. Weekends fall on Friday and Saturday, and many households have a farm or a desert camp to go to. The city is quieter and more traditional than Riyadh, and residents often point out that everything in it is within a short drive.

The pressures are those of the whole region: falling groundwater under the irrigated farms, summer heat, and the need to create work for a young population. The regional war that began in late February 2026 has disrupted flights and events.

The food of Ha'il is the wheat-and-meat cooking of the northern Najd. Jareesh, cracked wheat simmered for hours with lamb or chicken and topped with fried onion and sometimes yoghurt, is the dish most associated with home cooking; margoog and matazeez are stews of meat and vegetables with pieces or discs of dough cooked in the sauce; and qursan is thin dry bread broken into a tray and soaked in broth with meat. Kabsa, spiced rice with lamb or chicken, is served whenever there are guests, and a whole lamb on rice is the dish of celebration.

Dates run through everything. The oasis grows many varieties, eaten fresh as rutab in late summer and dried through the year, pressed into paste or boiled into syrup. Kleija, a flat biscuit filled with spiced date paste, is the regional sweet and is made in both Ha'il and neighbouring Qassim, and hanini, dates mashed with crumbled bread and ghee, is a winter breakfast. Luqaimat, fried dough balls soaked in syrup, appear during Ramadan.

The drinks are Arabic coffee, lightly roasted and heavy with cardamom, served from a long-spouted dallah in small handleless cups, sweet black tea, laban, a salty buttermilk, and fresh camel's milk, which is still common in the countryside. Shawarma, grilled chicken and Yemeni mandi shops line the main roads, and alcohol is prohibited throughout the kingdom.