In the
6th century A.D., the city of Ta'if was dominated by the
Thaqif tribe, which still lives in and around the city of Ta'if today. It has been suggested that
Jewish tribes who were displaced in the wars of the
Himyarite Kingdom by Ethiopian Christians settled near Ta'if. The walled city was a religious centre as it housed the idol of the goddess
Lāt, who was then known as "the lady of Ta'if." Its climate marked the city out from its dry and barren neighbours closer to the
Red Sea.
Wheat,
vines and
fruit orchards were grown around Ta'if, and this is how the city earned its title "the Garden of the Hejaz." Both Ta'if and
Mecca were resorts of pilgrimage. Ta'if was more pleasantly situated than Mecca itself, and their people of Ta'if had close trading relations. The people of Ta'if carried on agriculture and fruit‑growing in addition to their trade activities. The city then went through many exchanges-of-power, but most of the action within these conflicts took place between Makkah and Medina, and Ta'if dwindled in importance in contrast to the two holy cities.
Under Ottoman rule On 17 July 1517, the
Sharif of Mecca capitulated to the
Ottoman Sultan Selim I. As a sign of this, he surrendered to him the keys of the Islamic cities of Mecca and
Medina. As part of the Hijaz, Ta'if was also given over to Ottoman control and the city remained Ottoman for a further three centuries, until in 1802, when it was taken by rebels allied with the
House of Saud. These forces then proceeded to take Mecca and Medina. The loss was keenly felt by the Ottoman Empire, which viewed itself as the protector of the holy cities. The Ottoman sultan,
Mahmud II, called upon the
Wali of
Egypt,
Muhammad Ali, who launched an attack on the Hejaz and reconquered Ta'if in 1813. The castle and military barracks in Ta'if were repaired by the Ottomans in 1843, a '''' – mansion for government business – was built in 1869, and a post office was established sometime later.
Arab Revolt in the background Prior to the
Arab Revolt,
Ahmed Bey had been made the commander of Ottoman forces in Tā'if. He had under him a force of 3,000 soldiers and 10 pieces of
mountain artillery. Ghalib Pasha, the governor of the Hejaz was also present in the city. In 1916, the
Hashemites launched their revolt against the Ottoman Empire in Mecca in June. That city had fallen and then in July,
Abdullah, the eldest son of the Hashemite leader and
Sharif of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, came with seventy men to Tā'if. Whilst his activities in the area aroused the suspicion of Ahmed Bey, Ghalib Pasha was unconcerned by so small a force. Abdullah secretly built up his army to 5,000 men. He then cut the telegraph wires to the city and took the offensive. All Hashemite assaults on the city were repelled by the mountain guns, and both sides settled down to an uneasy siege. However, Hashemite guns were slowly brought up to Tā'if, and then the city held out a little longer; before finally surrendering on 22 September. The city thus later became a part of the self-proclaimed
Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz.
Saudi conquest and modern history Ta'if did not remain in Hashemite hands for very long. Tensions between the King of the Hejaz, Husayn ibn Ali, and
Abdulaziz al-Saud, the
Emir of Nejd and Hasa, soon broke out into violence. Although hostilities subsided in 1919, by September 1924, the then Saudi-sponsored
Ikhwan militia, under the leadership of
Sultan bin Bajad and Khaled bin Luwai', was ready to attack Ta'if. The city was supposed to have been defended by the king's son,
'Ali, but he fled in panic with his troops. Three hundred of 'Ali's men were slain by the Ikhwan in what became known as the
Ta'if massacre. The king himself was later to die in the city on 9 November 1953, as did
King Khalid on 13 June 1982. Ta'if was still little more than a medieval city when the Saudis took control of it. However, they later embarked on a project of modernizing the city. Saudi Arabia's first public power generator was set up in Ta'if in the late 1940s. In terms of building roads to the isolated city, in 1965 the then King Faisal inaugurated the mountain highway between Mecca and Ta'if, now part of Highway 15 and known as the Taif – Al-Hada Road. In 1974, the approximately-650-kilometer Ta'if-
Abha–
Jizan highway was commissioned part of the Highway 15. By the
1991 Gulf War, Ta'if was such a modern city in terms of communications that it was chosen as the site of the
Rendon Group's television and radio network, which was used for communication with
Kuwait during the
Iraqi occupation. == Geography ==