Pre-Islam Traces of early activity in the area are attested by
Thamudic inscriptions excavated in Wadi Briman (), east of the city, and
Wadi Boweb (), northwest of the city. The oldest
Mashrabiya found in Jeddah dates back to the
pre-Islamic era. Some believe that Jeddah was inhabited before
Alexander the Great, who led a naval expedition to the Red Sea, by fishermen who considered it a center from which they sailed, as well as a place for rest and well-being. According to the Ministry of Hajj, Jeddah has been settled for more than 2,500 years. Excavations in the
old city have been interpreted to give the fact that Jeddah was founded as a fishing hamlet by the Yemeni
Quda'a tribe (), who left to settle in Makkah after the collapse of
Marib Dam in Yemen in 115 BC.
Under the Caliphates Jeddah first achieved prominence around A.D. 647, when the third Muslim
Caliph,
Uthman Ibn Affan, turned it into a port making it the port of Makkah instead of Al Shoaib port, which was southwest of Makkah. The
Umayyads inherited the entire
Rashidun Caliphate including
Hejaz and ruled from 661 to 750. In 702, Jeddah was briefly occupied by pirates from the
Kingdom of Axum. However, Jeddah remained a key civilian harbor, serving fishermen and pilgrims travelling by sea for the
Hajj. It is also believed that the
Sharifdom of Makkah, an honorary Viceroy to the holy land, was first started in this period of the Islamic Caliphate. Jeddah has been established as the main city of the historic Hijaz province and a historic port for pilgrims arriving by sea to perform their Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. In 750 in the
Abbasid Revolution, the
Abbasids successfully took control of almost the whole Umayyad Empire, excluding
Morocco (Maghrib) and
Spain (Al-Andalus). From 876, Jeddah and the surrounding area became the object of wars between the Abbasids and the
Tulunids of Egypt, who at one point gained control of the emirates of
Egypt,
Syria,
Jordan and
Hejaz. The power struggle between the Tulunid Governors and the Abbasids over Hejaz lasted for nearly twenty-five years, until the Tulunids finally withdrew from
Arabia in 900. In 930 AD, the main Hejazi cities of
Medina,
Mecca and
Taif were heavily sacked by the
Qarmatians. It is probable, though not historically confirmed, that Jeddah itself was attacked. Soon after, in early 935, the
Ikhshidids, the new power in Egypt, took control of the Hejaz region. There are no historical records that detail the Ikhshidid rule of Hejaz. At this point in time, Jeddah was still unfortified and without walls.
The Fatimids, Ayyubids, and Mamluks '', a reproduction of one of the most advanced
early world maps, by
Muhammad al-Idrisi produced in 1154 shows the location of Jeddah. This is a
south-up map orientation. In 969 AD, the
Fatimids from Algeria took control in Egypt from the
Ikhshidid Governors of Abbasids and expanded their empire to the surrounding regions, including The Hijaz and Jeddah. The Fatimids developed an extensive trade network in both the
Mediterranean and the
Indian Ocean through the
Red Sea. Their trade and diplomatic ties extended all the way to China and its
Song dynasty, which eventually determined the economic course of
Tihamah during the
High Middle Ages. After
Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in 1171, he proclaimed himself sultan of Egypt, after dissolving the
Fatimid Caliphate upon the death of
al-Adid, thus establishing the
Ayyubid dynasty. Ayyubid conquests in Hejaz included Jeddah, which joined the Ayyubid dynasty in 1177 during the leadership of
Sharif Ibn Abul-Hashim Al-Thalab (1094–1201). During their relatively short-lived tenure, the Ayyubids ushered in an era of economic prosperity in the lands they ruled and the facilities and patronage provided by the Ayyubids led to a resurgence in intellectual activity in the
Islamic world. This period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening
Sunni dominance in the region by constructing numerous
madrasas (Islamic schools) in their major cities. Jeddah attracted Muslim sailors and merchants from
Sindh,
Southeast Asia and
East Africa, and other distant regions. The Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama, having found his way around the
Cape and obtaining pilots from the coast of
Zanzibar in AD 1497, pushed his way across the
Indian Ocean to the shores of
Malabar and
Calicut, attacked fleets that carried freight and Muslim pilgrims from India to the
Red Sea, and struck terror into the surrounding potentates. The Princes of
Gujarat and
Yemen turned for help to
Egypt. Sultan
Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri accordingly fitted out a fleet of 50 vessels under the Governor of Jeddah,
Hussein the Kurd (aka. Mirocem). Jeddah was soon fortified with a wall, using forced labor, as a harbor of refuge from the
Portuguese, allowing
Arabia and the Red Sea to be protected.
Ottoman Empire attack in 1517 by Gaspar Correia (c. 1496–1563) - originally from
Lendas da India by
Gaspar Correia. In 1517, the
Ottoman Turks conquered the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria during the reign of
Selim I. The Ottomans rebuilt the weak walls of Jeddah in 1525 following the defense of the city against the
Lopo Soares de Albergaria's Armada at the
Siege of Jeddah (1517). The new stone wall included six
watchtowers and six
city gates. They were constructed to defend against the Portuguese attack. Of the six gates, the Gate of Mecca was the eastern gate and the Gate of
Al-Magharibah, facing the port, was the western gate. The Gate of Sharif faces south. The other gates were the Gate of Al-Bunt, Gate of Al-Sham (also called Gate of Al-Sharaf), and Gate of
Medina, facing north. The Turks also built
The Qishla of Jeddah, a small castle for the city's soldiers. In the 19th century, these seven gates were minimized into four giant gates with four towers. These giant gates were the Gate of Sham to the north, the Gate of Mecca to the east, the Gate of Sharif to the south, and the Gate of Al-Magharibah on the seaside. Jeddah became a direct Ottoman
Eyalet, while the remaining
Hejaz under Sharif Barakat II became a vassal state to the Ottoman Empire eight years after the Siege of Jeddah in 1517. The Portuguese attempted to attack the port again in 1541, but were
repelled. Parts of the city wall still survive today in the
old city. Even though the Portuguese were successfully repelled from the city, fleets in the
Indian Ocean were at their mercy. This was evidenced by the
Battle of Diu. The Portuguese soldiers' cemetery can still be found within the old city today and is referred to as the site of the
Christian Graves.
Ahmed Al-Jazzar, the Ottoman military man mainly known for his role in the
Siege of Acre, spent the earlier part of his career at Jeddah. In Jeddah in 1750, he killed some seventy rioting nomads in retaliation for the killing of his commander, Abdullah Beg, earning him the nickname "Jezzar" (butcher). On 15 June 1858, rioting in the city, believed to have been instigated by a former police chief in reaction to British policy in the
Red Sea, led to the
massacre of 25 Christians, including the British and French consuls, members of their families, and wealthy Greek merchants. The British frigate , anchored at the port, bombarded the city for two days in retaliation.
First Saudi State and Ottoman–Saudi War In 1802,
Nejdi forces conquered both Mecca and Jeddah from the Ottomans. When Sharif
Ghalib Efendi informed
Sultan Mahmud II of this, the Sultan ordered his
Egyptian viceroy
Muhammad Ali Pasha to retake the city. Muhammad Ali successfully regained the city in the
Battle of Jeddah in 1813.
World War I and the Hashemite Kingdom during the surrender to
King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud in 1925. During
World War I, Sharif
Hussein bin Ali declared a revolt against the
Ottoman Empire, seeking independence from the Ottoman Turks and the creation of a single unified
Arab state spanning from
Aleppo in
Syria to
Aden in
Yemen. King Hussein declared the
Kingdom of Hejaz. Later, Hussein was involved in a war with
Ibn Saud, who was the Sultan of
Nejd. Hussein abdicated following the fall of
Mecca, in December 1924, and his son
Ali bin Hussein became the new king.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sitting with Abdullah Ali Reda on the day he entered Jeddah in 1925 A few months later,
Ibn Saud, whose clan originated in the central
Nejd province, conquered
Medina and Jeddah via an agreement with Jeddans following the
Second Battle of Jeddah. He deposed
Ali bin Hussein, who fled to
Baghdad, eventually settling in
Amman,
Jordan, where his descendants became part of its
Hashemite royalty. As a result, Jeddah came under the sway of the
Al-Saud dynasty in December 1925. In 1926, Ibn Saud added the title King of Hejaz to his position of Sultan of Nejd. Today, Jeddah has lost its historical role in peninsular politics after it fell within the new province of
Makkah, whose provincial capital is the city of
Mecca. From 1928 to 1932, the new Khuzam Palace was built as the new residence of King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah. The palace lies south of the old walled city and was constructed under the supervision of the engineer
Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden. After 1963, the palace was used as a royal guesthouse; since 1995, it has housed the Regional Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography. The remaining walls and gates of the old city were demolished in 1947. In 1939, a
military airstrip was built in Jeddah, serving as the first airport in Jeddah. It was upgraded into the headquarters of the RSAF by the 1950s. On 14 October 1952, Jeddah Airport was officially inaugurated and opened under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Saud Bin Abdulaziz. A fire in 1982 destroyed some ancient buildings in the old town center, called
Al-Balad, but much is still preserved. A house-by-house survey of the old districts was made in 1979, showing that some 1000 traditional buildings still existed, though the number of structures with great historic value was far less. In 1990, a Jeddah Historical Area Preservation Department was founded. The modern city has expanded wildly beyond its old boundaries. The built-up area expanded mainly to the north along the Red Sea coastline, reaching the new airport during the 1990s and since edging its way around it toward the
Obhur Creek, some from the old city center. In October 2021, Saudi authorities, led by
Mohammad bin Salman, initiated a
large-scale demolition and eviction plan in neighborhoods in the southern part of Jeddah to make way for the
Jeddah Central Project, a revitalization project under
Saudi Vision 2030. The demolitions affected 558,000 people in more than 60 neighborhoods.
Amnesty International confirmed through official documents that some of the residents were notified about evictions only 24 hours before, while others were between 1–6 weeks. In some cases "evacuate" was written on the buildings, while the state media and billboards informed others about the demolitions to others. Saudi state media claimed the majority of affected neighborhoods were "rife with diseases, crime, drugs and theft" and home to predominantly
undocumented immigrants. In January 2022, Saudi authorities announced a compensation scheme that accounted for 47% of those evicted. ==Geography==