Mecca, Medina & the Hejaz

Mecca lay in a barren valley on the caravan routes between Yemen and Syria, its shrine, the Kaaba, drawing Arab pilgrims long before Islam. The Prophet Muhammad was born there around 570 into the Quraysh tribe; in 622 he and his followers emigrated to Yathrib, renamed Medina, an event that begins the Islamic calendar. Early battles at Badr and Uhud were fought near Medina, and Mecca surrendered in 630. Medina served as the capital of the first caliphs until the centre of power moved to Iraq and Damascus.

For most of the next thousand years the Hejaz was a province of distant empires, prized for the prestige of the holy cities. From the 10th century the Sharifs of Mecca, descendants of the Prophet, governed locally under the Fatimids, the Mamluks and, from 1517, the Ottomans. Jeddah grew as the port where pilgrims landed, and in 1908 the Hejaz Railway reached Medina from Damascus.

In 1916 Sharif Hussein launched the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans and declared the Kingdom of Hejaz, but in 1924–25 Ibn Saud's forces took Taif, Mecca, Medina and Jeddah. Jeddah remained the kingdom's diplomatic capital until embassies moved to Riyadh, and Taif served as a summer seat of government. Since then the state has repeatedly enlarged the holy mosques, replacing much of old Mecca with hotels and the clock-tower complex, and the Haramain railway opened in 2018.

The Hejaz has always been the most cosmopolitan part of Arabia. Pilgrims who stayed on — from Indonesia, India, Central Asia, Africa and the Levant — left their mark in family names, faces and food, and Hejazi Arabic, softer than the Najdi dialect, absorbed words from Turkish, Persian and beyond. Jeddah in particular sees itself as more relaxed and outward-looking than Riyadh, a reputation reinforced by the Red Sea International Film Festival and the Formula One race on its Corniche circuit, both launched in 2021.

Religion shapes the rhythm of Mecca and Medina entirely. The Hajj in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah and the Umrah, especially in Ramadan, set the calendar, and generations of local families have made their living guiding and housing pilgrims. Non-Muslims may not enter Mecca.

Hejazi traditions include the mizmar, a dance with long sticks to drums; the roshan, the carved wooden balcony screen of Jeddah's houses; and the rose culture of Taif, where rosewater and rose oil are distilled. Ramadan evenings in Al-Balad, with food stalls and lanterns, are a local institution.

Jeddah, with about four million people, is the kingdom's commercial port and second city; Mecca has over two million residents and Medina around one and a half million, both swelling enormously during pilgrimage seasons. Taif, Yanbu and Rabigh are the other main towns.

The economy rests on the pilgrimage — hotels, transport, catering and services for millions of Hajj and Umrah visitors a year — and on trade through Jeddah Islamic Port, one of the busiest on the Red Sea. Yanbu has oil refineries and petrochemical plants, and new projects such as King Abdullah Economic City near Rabigh add to the coast's industry.

Jeddah life runs late: families walk the Corniche after sunset, cafés and restaurants fill until after midnight, and the weekend means the beach clubs of Obhur. In Mecca and Medina the day is ordered by the five prayers at the holy mosques. Current issues include the large-scale demolition of older and informal neighbourhoods in Jeddah for redevelopment, and the pressure of growing pilgrim numbers on the holy cities.

Hejazi cooking reflects the pilgrim trade. Saleeg, rice simmered in broth and milk until creamy and served with chicken, is linked to Taif and the west; mandi, meat and rice cooked in a pit oven, came with Yemeni settlers; and sayadiya, fish with spiced rice and caramelised onion, is the coast's dish. Breakfast is ful, stewed fava beans, eaten with tamees, a large round flatbread of Afghan origin baked in clay ovens.

Street food is where the Hejaz stands out: mutabbaq, a thin pastry folded around egg, minced meat and leek and fried on a griddle; balila, boiled chickpeas with cumin; and sambusak pastries at Ramadan. Sobia, a fermented drink of bread or barley, sweetened and spiced, is drunk in Ramadan.

Medina is famous for its dates, above all ajwa, a small dark variety tied to the Prophet's tradition, and pilgrims carry home Zamzam water from Mecca's well. Taif grows pomegranates, figs, grapes and honey, and its roses flavour sweets and drinks. Desserts include kunafa and basbousa.

Mecca is open only to Muslims. At its centre the Masjid al-Haram encloses the Kaaba and the Zamzam well, overlooked by the Abraj Al Bait clock tower, and the Hajj rites lead out to Mina, Muzdalifah and the plain of Mount Arafat; Jabal al-Nour holds the cave of Hira, where the first revelation is placed.

Medina centres on the Prophet's Mosque, with the tomb of Muhammad beneath the Green Dome. Around it are the Quba Mosque, the first built in Islam, the Qiblatayn Mosque, Mount Uhud and the old Hejaz Railway station, now a museum. Access for non-Muslims to the sacred core around the mosque is restricted.

Jeddah's Al-Balad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a maze of coral-stone houses with roshan balconies, souqs and old mosques, with Nasseef House as its best-known merchant home. The Corniche runs north past King Fahd's Fountain, among the tallest in the world, and the mosque built out over the water, to the creek of Obhur.

Inland, Taif sits in the Sarawat mountains, reached up the hairpin road of Al Hada; its sights are the rose farms, the Shubra Palace, the fruit orchards of Al Shafa and the revived Souq Okaz fair site. Along the Red Sea coast, coral reefs off Jeddah and Yanbu draw divers.