The Hijaz (الحجاز) is a region in the west of the Arabian Peninsula. The name means literally barrier or separation, referring to the mountain ranges that divide the interior from the Red Sea. Within this region lie, among others, the holy cities of Islam: Mecca, Madina and Ta’if.
Geographical position and significance
The Hijaz stretches along the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula, from the area around Tabuk in the north to Asir in the south. The coastline borders the Red Sea, while the interior is bounded by desert. This strategic position made the Hijaz a crossroads of caravan routes that linked Arabia with Shaam in the north and Yemen in the south.
Because of its position the Hijaz became an economic and cultural centre. The annual trade caravans that called at Mecca, such as the Rihlat ash-Shita’ wa as-Saif (the winter and summer trading journeys), brought goods, ideas and news from the surrounding empires, such as Byzantium and Persia.
Population and tribes
Before the coming of Islam the population of the Hijaz consisted of a mixture of Arab tribes of various origins. Most of the local tribes belonged to the Adnanites, descendants of Isma’il عليه السلام, such as Quraysh, Kinana, Hudhayl and Thaqif. Further to the south and east there were also tribes of Qahtani descent, hailing from Yemen. In the towns of the Hijaz, especially in Yathrib (Madinah), there also lived Jewish tribes such as the Banu Qaynuqa’, the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qurayza, who practised agriculture and trade.
The Hijaz during the sirah of the Prophet ﷺ
The Hijaz is the geographical heart of the sirah (biography) of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. His birthplace Mecca, the city of the revelation, and his migration to al-Madinah al-Munawwarah both lie in the Hijaz.
Mecca was the religious centre, while Medina became the political and spiritual centre of the first Islamic community, the ummah. From this region the message of Islam spread across the entire Arabian Peninsula.
The battlefields of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq, all of them significant moments in Islamic history, lay in the Hijaz. The Hajj and ‘Umrah too, the two pilgrimages that belong to the pillars of Islam, are bound to this region.