Ha'il

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ha'il (Arabic: حائل‎) is an oasis city in Najd in northwestern Saudi Arabia and is the capital of the Ha'il Province. The city has a population of 267,005 (2004 census). Traditionally Ha'il derived its wealth from being on the camel caravan route of the Hadj.

1 Center of power: 1836-1921
2 Decline
3 Present
4 References
5 Hail City Resource Websites

[edit] Center of power: 1836-1921

The extent of Al Rashid's rule

Ha'il was the center of the ibn rashid amirs from 1836 until 1921. The 1st. ibn rashid amir, Abdullah bin Rashid, took power in 1836 from the former ruler of Hail, Mohammad Ibn Ali, who was a fellow member of the Jafaar linage of the Abde section of the Shammar tribe. Abdulla bin Rashid continued constructing the Barzan palace in Hail which had been started by Mohammad Ibn Ali. After the death of Abdullah bin Rashid (in 1847 or 1848) his son and successor, Talal (or Telal), completed the palace.

During the ibn rashid period many foreign travellers visited Ha'il and the ibn rashid amirs, and described their impressions in different journals/books, see e.g.: G. A. Wallin 1854, William Gifford Palgrave 1865, Lady Anne Blunt 1881, Charles Montagu Doughty 1888 and Gertrude Bell 1907.

The ibn rashid amirs were considered relatively tolerant towards foreigners, including traders in Ha'il:

"Many of these traders belonged to the Shiyaa sect, hated by all good Sonnites, doubly hated by the Wahabees. But Telal affected not to perceive their religious discrepancies, and silenced all murmurs by marks of special favour towards these very dissenters, and also by the advantages which their presence was not long in procuring for the town". William Gifford Palgrave, 1865.

[edit] Decline

The opening of the Hejaz railway between Damascus and Medina together with new inexpensive steamship routes to Jeddah undermined the traditional camel caravan economy of Ha'il.

The last ibn rashid amir was ousted from power by Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia in 1921. Ibn Saud then gave orders to destroy the Barzan palace and also ordered the ibn rashid leaders to move from Ha'il.

After this Ha'il fell into steep decline, as witnessed by E. Rutter in 1931:

"Hail seem like a city marooned among the sand....the population of Hail was plainly in decline. Numbers of houses in the northern quarter of the town were in ruins....many people of Hail had fled to the comfortable realms of King Faisal of Iraq..."

[edit] Present

Ha'il today is the center of the agricultural program of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Most of the wheat crops of the Kingdom comes from the area surrounding Ha'il.

[edit] References

G. A. Wallin (1854): Narrative of a journey from Cairo to Medina and Mecca, by Suez, Araba, Tawila, al-Jauf, Jublae, Hail and Negd in 1845, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol 24: 115-201. (Reprinted 1979).
William Gifford Palgrave (1865): Personal Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-1863), 2 vols (London: Macmillan & Co). (Reprinted many times, last(?) in 1985.)
Lady Anne Blunt (1881): A Pilgrimage to Nejd, The Cradle of the Arab Race: an Visit to the Court of the Arab Emir and `our Persian Campaign` (Reprinted 1968)
Charles Montagu Doughty (1888): Travels in Arabia Deserta. (Reprinted many times)
Gertrude Bell (1907): The Desert and the Sown (Republished 1987)
E. Rutter (1931): Damascus to Hail. Journal of Royal Central Asian Studies, vol 18: 61-73.
D. G. Hogarth (1905): The Penetration of Arabia: a Record of Western Knowledge Concerning the Arabian Peninsula.
Madawi Al Rasheed: Politics in an Arabian oasis. The ibn rashid Tribal Dynasty. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, London -New York 1991 (based on a Ph.D. thesis presented to Cambridge University, 1988). ISBN 1-85043-320-8
Lonely Planet: The Middle East, 3rd edition 2000. ISBN 0-86442-701-8