Hejaz

The Hejaz is a region of western Arabia along the Red Sea, including Mecca and Medina. Its cities and routes have made it central to Islamic history and pilgrimage.

Mecca: A city in western Saudi Arabia and Islam’s holiest city, home to the Kaaba. The Hejaz’s principal holy city and destination of the Hajj.
Muhammad: The religious and political leader who founded Islam in seventh-century Arabia. His life in Mecca and Medina made the Hejaz foundational to Islamic history.
Islamic pilgrimage: Religious journeys undertaken by Muslims to sacred places, especially Mecca and Medina. The Hejaz is the principal destination of Islam’s obligatory pilgrimage and other devotional journeys.
Islamic sacred geography: The arrangement of places regarded as holy or spiritually significant in Islam. Mecca and Medina make the Hejaz the central landscape of Islamic sacred geography.
Medina: A city in western Saudi Arabia where Muhammad established the first Muslim community. The region’s other major holy city and an early center of Islam.
Early Muslim conquests: The seventh-century expansion of Muslim rule beyond Arabia under the early caliphs. They carried political authority outward from the Hejaz’s early Islamic centers.
Hajj routes: Overland and maritime paths historically used by pilgrims traveling to Mecca. Routes converging on the Hejaz brought people, goods, and ideas from across the Muslim world.
Qibla: The direction Muslims face during ritual prayer, toward the Kaaba in Mecca. The Hejaz gives prayer a shared geographic orientation across the Muslim world.
Red Sea: A seawater inlet between northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Its coast forms the Hejaz’s western edge and links the region to maritime trade.
Sharifate of Mecca: A succession of Hashemite rulers who governed Mecca and parts of the Hejaz for centuries. Its rulers administered Mecca and pilgrimage affairs before modern Saudi rule.

Linked from 9 pages