Hejaz, together with the other provinces of Arabia which on the overthrow of the Bagdad Caliphate in 1258 had fallen under Egyptian domination, became by the conquest of Egypt in 1517 a dependency of the Ottoman empire. Beyond assuming the title of Caliph, neither Salim I. nor his successors interfered much in the government, which remained in the hands of the sharifs of Mecca until the religious upheaval which culminated at the beginning of the 19th century in the pillage of the holy cities by the Wahhabi fanatics. Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, was entrusted by the sultan with the task of establishing order, and after several arduous campaigns the Wahhabis were routed and their capital Deraiya in Nejd taken by Ibrahim Pasha in 1817. Hejaz remained in Egyptian occupation until 1845, when its administration was taken over directly by Constantinople, and it was constituted a vilayet under a vali or governor-general. The population is estimated at 300,000, about half of which are inhabitants of the towns and the remainder Bedouin, leading a nomad or pastoral life. The principal tribes are the Sherarat, Beni Atiya and Huwetat in the north; the Juhena between Yambu’ and Medina, and the various sections of the Harb throughout the centre and south; the Ateba also touch the Mecca border on the south-east. All these tribes receive surra or money payments of large amount from the Turkish government to ensure the safe conduct of the annual pilgrimage, otherwise they are practically independent of the Turkish administration, which is limited to the large towns and garrisons. The troops occupying these latter belong to the 16th (Hejaz) division of the Turkish army.
The difficulties of communication with his Arabian provinces, and of relieving or reinforcing the garrisons there, induced the sultan Abdul Hamid in 1900 to undertake the construction of a railway directly connecting the Hejaz The Hejaz railway. cities with Damascus without the necessity of leaving Turkish territory at any point, as hitherto required by the Suez Canal. Actual construction was begun in May 1901 and on the 1st of September 1904 the section Damascus-Ma’an (285 m.) was officially opened. The line has a narrow gauge of 1.05 metre = 41 in., the same gauge as that of the Damascus-Beirut line; it has a ruling gradient of 1 in 50 and follows generally the pilgrim track, through a desert country presenting no serious engineering difficulties. The graver difficulties due to the scarcity of water, and the lack of fuel, supplies and labour were successfully overcome; in 1906 the line was completed to El Akhdar, 470 m. from Damascus and 350 from Medina, In time to be used by the pilgrim caravan of that year; and the section to Medina was opened in 1908. Its military value was shown in the previous year, when it conveyed 28 battalions from Damascus to Ma’an, from which station the troops marched to Akaba for embarkation en route to Hodeda. The length of the line from Damascus to Medina is approximately 820 m., and from Medina to Mecca 280 m.; the highest level attained is about 4000 ft. at Dar el Hamra in the section Ma‘an-Medina.
Authorities.—J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (London, 1829); ‘Ali Bey, Travels (London, 1816); R. F. Burton, Pilgrimage to Medinah and Mecca (1893); Land of Midian (London, 1879); J. S. Hurgronje, Mekka (Hague, 1888); C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta (Cambridge, 1888); Auler Pasha, Die Hedschasbahn (Gotha, 1906).
(R. A. W.)
HEJIRA,[1] or Hegira (Arab. hijra, flight, departure from one’s country, from hajara, to go away), the name of the Mahommedan era. It dates from 622, the year in which Mahomet “fled” from Mecca to Medina to escape the persecution of his kinsmen of the Koreish tribe. The years of this era are distinguished by the initials “A.H.” (anno hegirae). The Mahommedan year is a lunar one, about 11 days shorter than the Christian; allowance must be made for this in translating Hegira dates into Christian dates; thus A.H. 1321 corresponds roughly to A.D. 1903. The actual date of the “flight” is fixed as 8 Rabia I., i.e. 20th of September 622, by the tradition that Mahomet arrived at Kufa on the Hebrew Day of Atonement. Although Mahomet himself appears to have dated events by his flight, it was not till seventeen years later that the actual era was systematized by Omar, the second caliph (see [Caliphate]), as beginning from the 1st day of Muharram (the first lunar month of the year) which in that year (639) corresponded to July 16. The term hejira is also applied in its more general sense to other “emigrations” of the faithful, e.g. to that to Abyssinia (see [Mahomet]), and to that of Mahomet’s followers to Medina before the capture of Mecca. These latter are known as Muhajirun.
For the problems of Moslem chronology and comparative tables of dates see (beside the articles [Calendar], [Chronology] and [Mahomet]), Wüstenfeld, Vergleichungstabellen der muhammedanischen und christlichen Zeitrechnung (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1903); Mas Latrie, Trésor de chronologie (Paris, 1889); Durbaneh, Universal Calendar (Cairo, 1896); Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, ii. 326-350; D. Nielson, Die altarabische Mondreligion (Strassburg, 1904); Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, s.v. “Hijrah.”
[1] The i in the second syllable is short.