Mecca Province (Arabic:مِنْطَقَة مَكَّة,romanized: Minṭaqat Makka,[a]Arabic pronunciation:[ˈmin.tˤa.qatˈmak.ka]), officiallyMakkah Province,[2] is one of the 13provinces of Saudi Arabia. It is the third-largest province by area at 153,128 km2 (59,123 sq mi) and the second most populous with 7,769,994 inhabitants as of 2022. It is located in the historicHejaz region, and has an extended coastline on theRed Sea. Its capital isMecca, theholiestcity inIslam, and its largest city isJeddah, which is Saudi Arabia's mainport city. The province accounts for 26.29% of the population ofSaudi Arabia[3] and is named after theIslamic holy city of Mecca.
Historically, the area was inhabited by theQuraysh, theBanu Kinanah and theThaqif, among other tribes. Part of theHejaz region, the province has seen several exchanges of power between many Islamic realms within a short period of time. The province gains its significance as it contains the city ofMecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, and several other historic Islamic sites, such as the village of Hudaybiyyah, where theTreaty of Hudaybiyyah is said to have been agreed upon. More recently, the province was modernized under theOttoman Empire and theKingdom of Saudi Arabia after theoil boom.[4]Most of the population is concentrated in three cities: Jeddah, Mecca andTaif. Jeddah is the largest city in the province and the second-largest inSaudi Arabia with an estimated population of 2,867,446 as of 2020.[5] Mecca is the second-largest city in the province and third-largest in the kingdom at 1,323,624.[5] After the city of Ta'if at third place,Rabigh,Shafa, Turbah andJumum are other populous cities and towns in the region.[5] The region receives Muslimpilgrims of theUmrah and theHajj around the year and its population increases by up to 2 million during the Hajj. It has approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) of coastline on the Red Sea and hosts oil refineries inRabigh, port and oil export facilities inJeddah, theKing Abdullah University of Science and Technology and theKing Abdullah Economic City. The province also hosts part of theHaramain High Speed Railway line, which is Saudi Arabia's first and only high-speed railway line.[6]
The province is divided into 11 governorates, of which 5 have been classified Category A and the rest, Category B, with Mecca serving as the administrative headquarters and capital of the province. It is governed by anEmir, translated as Governor from Arabic, who is assisted by the Deputy Governor, both appointed by theKing of Saudi Arabia. The current emir isKhalid Al-Faisal, who has held the position for a second term since 2015.[7]
AncientMecca was an oasis on the old caravan trade route that linked the Mediterranean world with South Arabia, East Africa, and South Asia. The town was located about midway between Maʾrib in the south and Petra in the north, and it gradually developed by Roman and Byzantine times into an important trade and religious centre. Ptolemy's inclusion of Macoraba (Μακοράβα),[8] a city of the Arabian interior, in hisGuide to Geography was long held to show that Mecca was known to theHellenistic world. Since the late 20th century, however, some scholarship has called the identification of Macoraba with Mecca into question.[4]
According toIslamic tradition,Abraham andIshmael, his son byHagar, built theKaʿbah as the house of God. The central point of pilgrimage in Mecca before the advent ofIslam in the 7th century, the cube-shaped stone building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. During pre-Islamic times the region was ruled by a series ofSaudi tribes. Under theQuraysh it became a type of city-state, with strong commercial links to the rest ofArabia,Ethiopia, andEurope. Mecca became a place for trade, for pilgrimage, and for tribal gatherings.[4] The city of Jeddah is believed to have been afishinghamlet occupied by early Yemeni tribes. The region has held significant religious importance greatly increased with theexpeditions of Muhammad in the early 7th century. As the ancient caravan route fell into decline, Mecca lost its commercial significance and has since lived mainly on the proceeds from the annual pilgrimages and the gifts of Muslim rulers.
The city of Mecca was sacked by theUmayyad generalal-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, and thereafter the city, and at the time, the region, acknowledged the power of the Umayyad caliphate atDamascus and, following the eclipse of that dynasty, of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate ofBaghdad. The city suffered great indignity at the hands of theShīʿiteQarmatians in 930 when that sect's leader Ṭāhir Sulaymānpillaged Mecca and carried off theBlack Stone from the Kaʿbah. Beginning in the mid-10th century, the rulers of the city were chosen from thesharifs, or descendants of Muhammad, who retained a stronghold on the surrounding region while often paying homage to stronger political entities. The ability of the sharifs, originally moderate Shīʿites, to adapt to the changing political and religious climate ensured their preeminence in local affairs for the next 1,000 years. In 1269, the region came under the control of the EgyptianMamlūk sultans. In 1517, dominion over the area passed to theOttoman Empire, with its capital inConstantinople (nowIstanbul). With the Ottoman collapse afterWorld War I, control of Mecca was contested between the sharifs and theHouse of Saʿūd of central Arabia, adherents to an austere, puritanical form of Islam known asWahhābism. King Ibn Saʿūd conquered the region in 1925, and the region of Mecca became a province of theKingdom of Saudi Arabia and the city became the capital of the province.[4]
The region underwent extensive economic development as Saudi Arabia's petroleum resources were exploited afterWorld War II, and the number of yearly pilgrims to Mecca has increased significantly.[4]
Most of the central and eastern portions of the province are desert, with theHejaz mountains, which vary in elevation from 600 meters to 2000 meters, separating the relatively flatNafud desert and coastal plains.Agriculture takes place in the region's manywadis andoases, with the most commonly-grown crops beingdates andbarley, alongside othervegetables andfruits. The city ofTa'if is famous for its cultivation of theRosa × damascena flower, simplified as Damask rose and locally known as Ta'if rose.
The province has an extendedcoastline that is approximately 700 kilometers (430 mi) long, with many cities spread out across the coastline. Severalarchipelagos can be found across the coast of the province, along with somecoral reefs, such as the Great Coral Reef, located approximately 15 km (9 mi) northwest ofJeddah and the Five Coral Reef, located 25 km (16 mi). The coastline facesSudan to the west andEritrea andEthiopia to the south. The province is bordered by theMadinah Province to the north, theRiyadh Province to the east, and theAl Baha andʽAsir provinces to the south.
The Mecca Region hosts two of Saudi Arabia's 15 designated protected areas managed by theSaudi Wildlife Authority: theMahazat as-Sayd Protected Area and theSaja Umm Ar-Rimth Natural Reserve, located on the eastern extremes of the province. Other minor sanctuaries in the province include the Saiysad Natural Reserve in the city of Ta'if and the Eastern Forest near Jeddah. The Hejaz mountains run through the center of the province, separating theNafud desert from the western coastal plains, which run parallel to the coast of the province on theRed Sea.
According to the Population Characteristics Surveys conducted by the General Authority of Statistics, the Mecca Province had a population of 8,557,766 as of December 2017, of which 4,516,577 were Saudis and 4,041,189 were foreign nationals. Divided by gender, 4,864,584 were males and 3,693,182 were females. The Mecca Province is the most populous province ofSaudi Arabia and it has a population even larger than that of theRiyadh Region. With an estimated population of 4,076,000 as of 2019,Jeddah is the most populous city in the province and the second-most populous city in the country. 1.233 The governorate with the largest population is the Jeddah Governorate. Thesex ratio was approximately 132 males per 100 females.
Censuses in Saudi Arabia do not collect or report data concerning religion.Sunni Islam in itsWahhabi version is the predominant religious tradition overall in the country, with smaller numbers ofHanafis,Hanbalis,Shafi‘is andMalikis. Muslims are estimated to live within the province, with even smaller numbers ofHindus,Christians and other religious groups, most of whom areexpatriates fromIndia and thePhilippines, who mostly reside inJeddah.
The official language of Saudi Arabia isArabic. The main regional dialect of the Mecca Province spoken by Saudis isHejazi Arabic, with a minority ofNajdi Arabic speakers in the eastern parts of the region.Saudi Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are some of theIndian languages,Filipino/Tagalog,Bengali andUrdu.
From 1,823,598 Saudi male residents above the age of 10, 87.57%, representing 1,596,946 persons had some form offormal education, while 226,652 wereilliterate. As for females, from the 1,765,666 residents above the age of 10, 77.28% or 1,364,529 persons were formally educated, while 401,137 were illiterate.
Of the province's Saudi residents who were above the age of 15, 1.15% reported some form ofdisability in 2016, withvisual impairment being the most common form of disability, followed byreduced mobility, while 107,770 persons reported severe or extreme disability.
The Mecca region has 17 governorates, of which 5, Jeddah, Rabigh, Ta'if, Qunfudhah, and Laith, have been classified Category A, while the rest are Category B. The City of Mecca (Arabic:أمانة مكة) constitutesMecca and the area surrounding the city and is the administrative center and capital of the province.
Governorates of the Mecca Region with 2022 population[11]
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