Jeddah (city): Difference between revisions

Jeddah’s weather is affected by its location. Since the sea temperature is high during the summer, the humidity rises, and the weather rises to 50 degrees centigrade.

It is said that the history of Jeddah goes back to the Stone Age. On some accounts, [[Quda’a]], an old Arab tribe, were the first people who settled in Jeddah. And on other accounts, during the [[Jahiliyya]] period, 'Amr b. Luhay who changed the [[Tawhid|monotheistic approach]] in Mecca, took some idols from Jeddah to Mecca, and called people to worship them.

However, there are other accounts that [[Salman al-Farsi]]’s Iranian kinsmen who were businessmen resided in Jeddah when they converted to Islam, or the city was built by a [[Sassanid]] monarch. According to Iranian accounts, when Bandar Siraf was destroyed, some of its people moved to Jeddah and settled there. On these accounts, the main inhabitants of Jeddah were Iranians.

When the Sassanids lost their power, Jeddah was abandoned such that during the emergence of Islam, it turned into a small village around Hijaz. After the emergence of [[Islam]] in 26/647, [['Uthman b. 'Affan]] turned Jeddah into Mecca’s port instead of Shu’aybiyya (a port south of Jeddah). After this, the city thrived again and became the center of the largest global market, especially during the [[hajj]] rituals.

Since 918/1512, when the Portuguese attacked Muslims’ ships, Jeddah was also threatened and it was defended by Mamluks and then the [[Ottomans]]. In 917/1511, Husayn Kurdi, Jeddah’s representative on behalf of Sultan Qansura al-Ghawri, built a fort around the city as a military base to attack the Portuguese. In 948/1541, Sharif Muhammad Abu Numay defeated Portuguese to occupy Jeddah in their last attempt to occupy Jeddah, and [[Sultan Sulaym al-Qanuni]] rewarded him with half of the tax incomes of Jeddah.

In 1217/1802, [[Wahhabis]] occupied Jeddah, but they could not take over the city because it was highly protected and fortified, until 1220/1805 when they attacked Jeddah and slaughtered many people in the city and pilgrims of the [[Ka'ba]]. Jeddah was occupied by the Wahhabis until 1226/1811.

Sharif Husayn, who fought for the independence of Arabs, saved Jeddah from the [[Ottomans]]. Since the Wahhabis occupied Mecca in order to dominate [[Hijaz]] in [[Rabi' I]], 1343/October 1924, Jeddah was the center of Sharif Husayn’s government. The city was under siege for one year and was finally dominated in [[Jumada II]] 1344/December 1925 by the Wahhabi ruler, 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Saud, and eventually the Saudi government was recognized under the Jeddah Treaty on [[Dhu l-Qa'da]] 1345/May 1927, and thus Jeddah was annexed to the Saudi realm.

In 1981, Jedda had a population of 1,000,000 people and in 1999, the population was over 2,000,000 with a population growth of 16 percent. Later the population grew into 3,000,000 showing its economic progress and job opportunities. With the growth of the population, governmental and national schools, as well as centers for language learning, were founded. King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah is the third ranking university in Saudi Arabia with 10 faculties. There are six newspapers (two in English) and several weekly and monthly magazines in Jeddah.

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