thumb|right|Map with the Saudi region outlined in red and the 1923 [[Kingdom of Hejaz|Kingdom in green]]
al-Hejaz (also
Hijaz,
Hedjaz;
, literally "the barrier") is a region in the west of present-day
Saudi Arabia. Defined mostly by the
Red Sea, it extends from
Haql on the
Gulf of Aqaba to
Jizan. Its main city is
Jeddah, but it is probably better-known for the
Islamic holy cities of
Mecca and
Medina. As the site of Islam's holy places the Hejaz has significance in the
Arab and Islamic historical and political landscape. The region is so called as it separates the land of
Najd in the east from the land of
Tihamah in the west.
History
Evidence suggests the Hejaz (or parts of it) was part of the
Roman province of
Arabia Petraea. Under the control of regional powers such as
Egypt and the
Ottoman Empire through most of its history, the Hejaz had a brief
period of political independence in the early 20th century. In 1916, still a province of the Ottoman Empire,
Sharif Hussein ibn Ali proclaimed an independent Hejaz as a result of the
Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. In 1924, however, ibn Ali's authority was usurped by
Ibn Saud of the neighboring region of
Nejd and became known as the Kingdom of Hijaz and Nejd and later the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The
Biblical story of the
Garden of Eden is in
Genesis 2:11:
"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone."Havilah is usually associated with either the Arabian Peninsula or north-west
Yemen, but in the work associated with the Garden of Eden by
Juris Zarins, the Hejaz mountains appear to satisfactorily meet the description. The Hejaz includes both the
Cradle of Gold at
Mahd adh Dhahab () and a potential source of the now dried out
Pishon River that used to flow north east to the Persian Gulf via the
Wadi Al-Batin system. Archaeological research lead by Farouk El-Baz of
Boston University indicates that the river system, now prospectively known as the
Kuwait River, was active 2500–3000 BC. Bdellium plants are also abundant in the Hijaz.
Geography
Geographically, the region is located along the
Great Rift Valley. The region is also known for its darker, more volcanic sand. Depending on the previous definition, Hejaz includes the high mountains of
Sarawat which topographically separate Najd from Tehamah.
Cities
thumb|right|Map showing location within Saudi ArabiaSee also
- Hijaz is also the name of a mode (maqam) in Arabic music.
