Tabuk

Tabuk grew from a well-watered oasis on the desert road between Syria and the Hejaz, a stopping place for caravans long before Islam. It is remembered above all for the expedition of 630 AD, when the Prophet Muhammad led a large force north to Tabuk and, finding no battle, made agreements with local leaders before returning; the campaign gave the settlement a lasting place in early Islamic history and its name is used for the event itself.

For centuries afterwards the oasis served the annual pilgrim caravan from Damascus to Medina. The Ottomans, who controlled the route, maintained a fort here to guard the wells and shelter pilgrims, and the castle that stands in the city centre today is the descendant of those works, rebuilt and repaired over generations. In the first decade of the 20th century the Hejaz Railway was pushed south through Tabuk, and a station, water tower and workshops were built beside the old town. The line was attacked repeatedly during the Arab Revolt of 1916–18 and was effectively abandoned by 1920.

The region became part of the Saudi state in the 20th century, and Tabuk was made the capital of the province that carries its name. An air base, a large garrison and government offices brought population and money; from the 1970s deep wells and centre-pivot irrigation turned the surrounding plain into one of the kingdom's agricultural districts, growing wheat, fruit and flowers. The University of Tabuk followed in the 2000s, and since the late 2010s the city has been repositioned as the gateway to the province's tourism and construction projects.

Tabuk is a tribal city in a tribal province. Bedouin descent matters socially, with families tracing themselves to the great northern tribes whose grazing grounds once crossed what are now the borders with Jordan, and tribal courtesy shapes daily manners: long greetings, careful hospitality and the serving of Arabic coffee from a brass pot in small handleless cups, poured for a guest before anything else is discussed.

Nabati poetry, recited and sung in the local dialect, is the region's strongest artistic tradition, along with camel breeding and the sword and stick dances performed at weddings and national holidays. Winter camping is the great seasonal pleasure: families drive out to the desert and the wadis with tents, firewood and coffee pots, and stay for days at a time. Falconry and hunting trips follow the same season.

Religious observance is public and structured. Shops close for each of the five daily prayers, Ramadan reshapes the working day and the evening, and the two Eid holidays empty the offices and fill the streets at night. Dress is conservative in the markets and the older districts, and the sexes mix less freely in social settings than in Riyadh or Jeddah, although the rapid social changes of recent years — women driving, mixed cafés, public concerts elsewhere in the kingdom — are visible here too, particularly among students.

About 600,000 people live in Tabuk, making it the largest city in the north-west. The population is overwhelmingly Saudi by the standards of the kingdom's big cities, with communities of Egyptian, Sudanese, Yemeni, Pakistani and Filipino workers in the shops, restaurants, farms and hospitals.

The economy rests on four things: the armed forces, whose base and garrison have been part of the city for decades; government administration as the provincial capital; agriculture, with dairy, poultry, wheat, fruit and cut flowers produced on the irrigated plain and trucked or flown to the rest of the country; and services, including the university and the regional hospitals. Construction projects in the wider province have added jobs and raised expectations, and younger residents increasingly work in tourism, logistics and retail rather than following their parents into government or farming.

The daily rhythm is shaped by heat and prayer. Business is done in the morning, much of the city rests in the afternoon, and shops, restaurants and parks fill again after sunset, later still in summer and during Ramadan. Weekends belong to family visits and, in the cooler months, to driving out of town. The pressures residents talk about are the cost of housing, water use on the farms, and whether the province's new developments will bring work that lasts.

Tabuk eats the food of northern Arabia. Kabsa — rice cooked with meat, tomato, onion and a mix of spices including dried lime — is the everyday feast dish, and mandi, meat slow-cooked over a pit or in an oven and served over rice, is the other standard. Jareesh, coarsely cracked wheat cooked with meat or yoghurt to a thick porridge, is a winter dish of the north, and so is qursan, thin dry flatbreads layered and softened in broth. Bread is central: round loaves from neighbourhood bakeries and flatbread baked against the wall of a clay oven.

After good winter rains the desert produces faqa, the pale desert truffles that appear in the markets in late winter and spring and are cooked with meat or rice or simply grilled. Dates are eaten daily and offered to every guest, and the farms of the plain supply the city with milk, laban, yoghurt, eggs, citrus and vegetables. Grilled chicken, shawarma and a strong Levantine influence in salads, hummus and fattoush reflect the old road to Syria as well as the Syrian and Egyptian cooks in many kitchens.

Drinks are non-alcoholic everywhere, since alcohol is illegal in the kingdom. Arabic coffee, pale and bitter with cardamom, is served with dates; sweet black tea with mint or sage follows meals; and camel's milk is still drunk. Speciality coffee shops have multiplied in recent years, and fresh fruit juice stands are a fixture of summer evenings.