A History of Jeddah
The Gate to Mecca in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

An urban history of Jeddah from the late Ottoman period to the present day, seen through its diverse and changing population.

Ulrike Freitag (Author)

9781108746205, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2022

408 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.5 cm, 0.59 kg

'A History of Jeddah is based on careful and competent historiographical scholarship. It provides a comprehensive and analytical account of Jeddah's history and fills a significant void in the literature on Ottoman and Middle Eastern urban history, history of the Hijaz, and of port cities.' M. Talha Çiçek, Kadim

Known as the 'Gate to Mecca' or 'Bride of the Red Sea', Jeddah has been a gateway for pilgrims travelling to Mecca and Medina and a station for international trade routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean for centuries. Seen from the perspective of its diverse population, this first biography of Jeddah traces the city's urban history and cosmopolitanism from the late Ottoman period to its present-day claim to multiculturalism, within the conservative environment of the Arabian Peninsula. Contextualising Jeddah with developments in the wider Muslim world, Ulrike Freitag investigates how different groups of migrants interacted in a changing urban space and how their economic activities influenced the political framework of the city. Richly illustrated, this study reveals how the transformation of Jeddah's urban space, population and politics has been indicative of changes in the wider Arab and Red Sea region, re-evaluating its place in the Middle East at a time when both its cosmopolitan practices and old city are changing dramatically against a backdrop of modernisation and Saudi nation-building.

1. Introduction: why Jeddah?
2. Between sea and land: Jeddah through the ages
3. The changing faces of Jeddah
4. The changing urban space of Jeddah
5. Solidarity and competition: the socio-cultural foundations of life in Jeddah
6. The economic lifelines of Jeddah: trade and pilgrimage
7. Governing and regulating diversity: urban government in Jeddah
8. The disappearance and return of old Jeddah: on the temporality of translocal relations.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]