Roads of Arabia

ROADS OF ARABIA
(opposite)
Pilgrims on the way to Mecca, painting from
the Maqamat by al-Hariri, Baghdad, 1237.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Arabe 5847,
fol. 94 verso
Once the situation of the Umayyad dynasty had stabilized, the caliphs took an increasing
interest in the Syrian route. Al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik ordered the governor of the city,
‘Umar ibn ‘Abdulaziz, to improve the road’s condition and dig a number of wells. The governor
also constructed a series of mosques along the route in the places where the Prophet had
prayed during his expedition to Tabuk, the most important being Tabuk mosque itself. Al-
Tabari states that on account of these works and the milestones al-Walid had installed, the
inhabitants of Syria considered him the best of the caliphs. Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani adds
that ‘Abd al-Malik was the first to install water points on the Mecca–Damascus road. Later,
according to al-Mas‘udi, Caliph Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik had canals and cisterns built.
Following the fall of the Umayyad dynasty, the caliphate was transferred from Damascus
to Baghdad under the Abbasids. The major concern of the first Abbasid caliphs was to
improve the roads that linked Mecca and Medina to the main Iraqi cities of Kufa, Basra and
Baghdad. The sources provide little information on the Abbasid constructions on the Syrian
pilgrimage route, and simply allude to the thriving nature of the way stations along the route
that had developed into well-populated cities. These were described by the first Muslim geographers:
the Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik by Ibn Khurradadhbih, the Kitab al-manasik by
al-Harbi and the Kitab al-buldan by al-Ya‘qubi were the first to describe the way stations in
the 9th century. More accounts are given at the end of the 9th and at the start of the 10th
centuries, such as in the Kitab al-a‘laq al-nafisa by the Persian geographer Ibn Rustah, the
Kitab al-khiraj by Ibn Qudama and the Sifat Jazirat al-‘arab by al-Hamdani.
As the power and influence of the Fatimids increased, the dynasty emulated the
Abbasids who were reigning in Iraq, in particular in relation to how the two holy cities were
run and the state of the routes that converged on them. In the year 969 and the following
year, sermons were delivered in the name of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu‘izz li-din Allah, first
in Mecca, then in Medina. But the tensions that permanently disrupted the situation in the
Hijaz obliged the Fatimids to turn to force to impose their power and extend their influence
as far as Bilad al-Sham. In 988–89 the Fatimids had to deal with the insurrection instigated
by Hazim ibn Abi Hazim al-Ta’i, the governor of Wadi al-Qura, who controlled more
than half the Damascus road. The Fatimid army hurried to the town and crushed the revolt.
Then, hungry for more power, the Fatimids came down on the Bani’l-Jirah, the descendants
of al-Ta’i at al-Ramla, to control the Syrian road and ensure the safety of its travellers, in
particular in the section between Damascus and Wadi al-Qura. During this period, safety
became an increasing concern on the other pilgrimage routes leaving from Iraq, a state of
affairs that for several years obliged the official Iraqi pilgrimage caravan to change route and
join the caravans leaving from Damascus.
During the period of the Fatimids, several geographers and travellers described the
road from Damascus in their travel accounts and chronicles, such as al-Muqaddasi, the
author of the Kitab ahsan al-taqasim fi ma‘rifat al-aqalim, al-Istakhri, author of the
famous Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik, and Ibn Hawqal, author of the Kitab surat al-ard.
All these reports provide valuable information on the many towns and way stations along
the Syrian road.
2. The Syrian road during the Crusades
The presence of crusaders in the fortress of Karak in the south of Jordan proved a danger
that the caravans of pilgrims were obliged to brave if they took the Damascus road, particularly
in the early 12th century. Travellers’ safety was increasingly threatened by crusader
attacks and pilgrims eventually abandoned this route in favour of the Iraq road.
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