"Mecca" is the familiar form of the English transliteration for the Arabic name of the city, although the

official transliteration used by the Saudi government is Makkah, which is closer to the Arabic pronunciation.[12][13] The word "Mecca" in English has come to be used to refer to any place that draws large numbers o f people, and because of this many Muslims regard the use of this spelling for t he city as offensive.[12] The Saudi government adopted Makkah as the official sp elling in the 1980s, but is not universally known or used worldwide.[12] The ful l official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah (??? ???????, pronounced [makka lmukarra ma] or [makkah almukarrama]), which means "Mecca the Honored", but is also loose ly translated as "The Holy City of Mecca".[12] The ancient or early name for the site of Mecca is Bakkah (also transliterated B aca, Baka, Bakah, Bakka, Becca, Bekka, etc.).[14][15][16] An Arabic language wor d, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure.[17] Widely believed to be a sy nonym for Mecca, it is said to be more specifically the early name for the valle y located therein, while Muslim scholars generally use it to refer to the sacred area of the city that immediately surrounds and includes the Kaaba.[18][19] The form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran in 3:96, while the form Mecca is used in 48:24.[17][20] In South Arabic, the language in use in the sout hern portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad, the b and m were interchangeable.[20] Other references to Mecca in the Quran (6:92, 42:5) call it Umm al-Qura, meaning "mother of all settlements."[20] Another name of Mecca is Tihamah.[21] Another name for Mecca, or the wilderness and mountains surrounding it, accordin g to Arab and Islamic tradition, is Faran or Pharan, referring to the Desert of Paran mentioned in the Old Testament.[22] Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah and the site where Ish mael settled was Mecca.[22] Yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, writes that Faran is "an arabized Hebrew word. One of the names of Mecca mentio ned in the Torah."[23] There is a Tal Faran ("Hill of Faran") on the outskirts o f Mecca.[23] Government Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor (called an Al-Amin) appointed by the S audi Government. The current mayor of the city is Usama al-Bar.[24] Mecca is the capital of Makkah Province, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The provincial governor was Prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdul Aziz from 2000 until his d eath in 2007.[25] On 16 May 2007, Prince Khalid al Faisal was appointed as the n ew governor.[26] History Early history Makkah Al Mukarrammah seen from Jabal al-Nour 1787 Turkish map of the Masjid al-Haram and related religious sites (Jabal al-No ur) Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants. Ma ny Muslims point to the Old Testament chapter Psalm 84:3 6 and a mention of a pilg rimage at the Valley of Baca, that Muslims see as referring to the mentioning of Mecca as Bakkah in Qur'an Surah 3:96. Also the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who lived between 60 BCE and 30 BCE writes about the isolated region of Arabia in his work Bibliotheca historica describing a holy shrine that Muslims see as r eferring to the Kaaba at Mecca "And a temple has been set-up there, which is ver y holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians".[27] Ptolemy may have called the city "Macoraba", though this identification is controversial.[28] Mecca was also mentioned in the Samaritan literature, in the Book of the Secrets

of Moses (Asatir) which claimed that Mecca was built by Ishmael and his eldest so n Nebaioth [29] Some time in the 5th century CE, the Kaaba was a place of worship for the deitie s of Arabia's pagan tribes. Mecca's most important pagan deity was Hubal, which had been placed there by the ruling Quraysh tribe[30][31] and remained until the 7th century CE. In the 5th century, the Quraysh took control of Mecca, and became skilled mercha nts and traders. In the 6th century they joined the lucrative spice trade as wel l, since battles in other parts of the world were causing trade routes to divert from the dangerous sea routes to the more secure overland routes. The Byzantine Empire had previously controlled the Red Sea, but piracy had been on the increa se. Another previous route that ran through the Persian Gulf via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was also being threatened by exploitations from the Sassanid E mpire, as well as being disrupted by the Lakhmids, the Ghassanids, and the Roman P ersian Wars. Mecca's prominence as a trading center also surpassed the cities of Petra and Palmyra.[32][33] The Sassanids however did not always pose a threat t o Mecca as in 575 CE they actually protected the Arabian city from invasion of t he Kingdom of Axum, led by its Christian leader Abraha. The tribes of the southe rn Arabia, asked the Persian king Khosrau I for aid, in response to which he cam e south to Arabia with both foot-soldiers and a fleet of ships into Mecca. The P ersian intervention prevented Christianity from spreading eastward into Arabia, and Mecca and the Islamic prophet Muhammad who was at the time a six year boy in the Quraysh tribe "would not grow up under the cross."[34] By the middle of the 6th century, there were three major settlements in northern Arabia, all along the south-western coast that borders the Red Sea, in a habita ble region between the sea and the great mountains to the east. Although the are a around Mecca was completely barren, it was the wealthiest of the three settlem ents with abundant water via the renowned Zamzam Well and a position at the cros sroads of major caravan routes.[35] The harsh conditions and terrain of the Arabian peninsula meant a near-constant state of conflict between the local tribes, but once a year they would declare a truce and converge upon Mecca in an annual pilgrimage. Up to the 7th century, t his journey was intended for religious reasons by the pagan Arabs to pay homage to their shrine, and to drink from the Zamzam Well. However, it was also the tim e each year that disputes would be arbitrated, debts would be resolved, and trad ing would occur at Meccan fairs. These annual events gave the tribes a sense of common identity and made Mecca an important focus for the peninsula.[36] Camel caravans, said to have first been used by Muhammad's great-grandfather, we re a major part of Mecca's bustling economy. Alliances were struck between the m erchants in Mecca and the local nomadic tribes, who would bring goods leather, l ivestock, and metals mined in the local mountains to Mecca to be loaded on the c aravans and carried to cities in Syria and Iraq.[37] Historical accounts also pr ovide some indication that goods from other continents may also have flowed thro ugh Mecca. Goods from Africa and the Far East passed through en route to Syria i ncluding spices, leather, medicine, cloth, and slaves; in return Mecca received money, weapons, cereals and wine, which in turn were distributed throughout Arab ia. The Meccans signed treaties with both the Byzantines and the Bedouins, and n egotiated safe passages for caravans, giving them water and pasture rights. Mecc a became the center of a loose confederation of client tribes, which included th ose of the Banu Tamim. Other regional powers such as the Abyssinian, Ghassan, an d Lakhm were in decline leaving Meccan trade to be the primary binding force in Arabia in the late 6th century.[36] Tradition According to Islamic tradition, the history of Mecca goes back to Abraham (Ibrah

im) who built the Kaaba with the help of his elder son Ishmael in around 2000 BC E when the inhabitants of what was then known as Bakkah had fallen away from the original monotheism of Abraham through the influence of the Amelkites.[38] Muhammad and conquest of Mecca [hide] v t e List of expeditions of Muhammad Ghazwah (expeditions where he took part) Caravan Raids Waddan Buwat Safwan Dul Ashir 1st Badr Kudr Sawiq Qaynuqa Ghatafan Bahran Uhud Al-Asad Nadir Invasion of Nejd 2nd Badr 1st Jandal Trench Qurayza 2nd Lahyan Mustaliq Hudaybiyyah Khaybar Conquest of Fidak 3rd Qura Dhat al-Riqa Baqra Mecca Hunayn Autas Ta'if Tabouk Sariyyah (expeditions which he ordered) Nakhla Nejd 1st Asad 1st Lahyan Al Raji Umayyah Bir Maona Assassination of Abu Rafi Maslamah 2nd Asad 1st Thalabah

2nd Thalabah Dhu Qarad Jumum Al-Is 3rd Thalabah Hisma 1st Qura 2nd Jandal 1st Ali 2nd Qura Uraynah Rawaha Umar Abu Bakr Murrah Uwal 3rd Fadak Yemen Sulaym Kadid Banu Layth Amir Dhat Atlah Mu'tah Amr Abu Ubaidah Abi Hadrad Edam Khadirah 1st Khalid ibn Walid Demolition of Suwa Demolition of Manat 2nd Khalid ibn Walid Demolition of Yaghuth 1st Autas 2nd Autas Banu Tamim Banu Khatham Banu Kilab Jeddah 3rd Ali Udhrah 3rd Khalid ibn Walid 4th Khalid ibn Walid Abu Sufyan Jurash 5th Khalid ibn Walid 2nd Ali 3rd Ali Dhul Khalasa Army of Usama (Final Expedition) Main articles: Muhammad, Conquest of Mecca, Muhammad in Mecca, and List of exped itions of Muhammad Jabal al-Nour is where Muhammad is believed to have received the first revelatio n of God through the Archangel Gabriel. Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570, and thus Islam has been inextricably linked w ith it ever since. He was born in a minor faction, the Hashemites, of the ruling Quraysh tribe. It was in Mecca, in the nearby mountain cave of Hira on Jabal al

-Nour, that, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad began receiving divine rev elations from God through the Archangel Gabriel in 610 AD, and advocated his for m of Abrahamic monotheism against Meccan paganism. After enduring persecution fr om the pagan tribes for 13 years, Muhammad emigrated (see Hijra) in 622 with his companions, the Muhajirun, to Yathrib (later called Medina). The conflict betwe en the Quraysh and the Muslims, however, continued: The two fought in the Battle of Badr, where the Muslims defeated the Quraysh outside Medina; while the Battl e of Uhud ended indecisively. Overall, Meccan efforts to annihilate Islam failed and proved to be costly and unsuccessful. During the Battle of the Trench in 62 7, the combined armies of Arabia were unable to defeat Muhammad's forces .[39] In 628, Muhammad and his followers wanted to enter Mecca for pilgrimage, but wer e blocked by the Quraysh. Subsequently, Muslims and Meccans entered into the Tre aty of Hudaybiyyah, whereby the Quraysh promised to cease fighting Muslims and p romised that Muslims would be allowed into the city to perform the pilgrimage th e following year. It was meant to be a ceasefire for 10 years. However, just two years later, the Quraysh violated the truce by slaughtering a group of Muslims and their allies. Muhammad and his companions, now 10,000 strong, marched into M ecca. However, instead of continuing their fight, the city of Mecca surrendered to Muhammad, who declared peace and amnesty for its inhabitants. The pagan image ry was destroyed by Muhammad's followers and the location Islamized and rededica ted to the worship of God. Mecca was declared as the holiest site in Islam ordai ning it as the center of Muslim pilgrimage, one of the faith's Five Pillars. The n, Muhammad returned to Medina, after assigning Akib ibn Usaid as governor of th e city. His other activities in Arabia led to the unification of the peninsula.[ 32][39] Muhammad died in 632, but with the sense of unity that he had passed on to his U mmah (Islamic nation), Islam began a rapid expansion, and within the next few hu ndred years stretched from North Africa into Asia and parts of Europe. As the Is lamic Empire grew, Mecca continued to attract pilgrims from all across the Musli m world and beyond, as Muslims came to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Mecca also attracted a year-round population of scholars, pious Muslims who wish ed to live close to the Kaaba, and local inhabitants who served the pilgrims. Du e to the difficulty and expense of the Hajj, pilgrims arrived by boat at Jeddah, and came overland, or joined the annual caravans from Syria or Iraq. Medieval and pre-modern times The First Saudi State Mecca was never the capital of any of the Islamic states but Muslim rulers did c ontribute to its upkeep. During the reigns of Umar (634 44 CE) and Uthman ibn Affa n (644 56) concerns of flooding caused the caliphs to bring in Christian engineers to build barrages in the low-lying quarters and construct dykes and embankments to protect the area round the Kaaba.[32] Muhammad's migration to Medina shifted the focus away from Mecca, this focus mov ed still more when Ali, the fourth caliph took power choosing Kufa as his capita l. The Umayyad Caliphate moved the capital to Damascus in Syria and the Abbasid Caliphate to Baghdad, in modern-day Iraq, which remained the center of the Islam ic Empire for nearly 500 years. Mecca re-entered Islamic political history durin g the Second Islamic Civil War, when it was held by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, an early Muslim who opposed the Umayyad caliphs. The city was twice besieged by the Umayyads, in 683 and 692. For some time thereafter the city figured little in p olitics, remaining a city of devotion and scholarship governed by the Hashemite Sharifs. In 930, Mecca was attacked and sacked by Qarmatians, a millenarian Ismaili Musli m sect led by Abu-Tahir Al-Jannabi and centered in eastern Arabia.[40] The Black Death pandemic hit Mecca in 1349.[41]

In 1517, the Sharif, Barakat bin Muhammed, acknowledged the supremacy of the Ott oman Caliph but retained a great degree of local autonomy.[42] In 1803 the city was captured by the First Saudi State,[43] which held Mecca unt il 1813. This was a massive blow to the prestige of the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire , which had exercised sovereignty over the holy city since 1517. The Ottomans as signed the task of bringing Mecca back under Ottoman control to their powerful K hedive (viceroy) of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha. Muhammad Ali Pasha successfully r eturned Mecca to Ottoman control in 1813. In 1818, followers of the Salafi juristic school were again defeated, but some o f the Al Saud clan survived and founded the Second Saudi State that lasted until 1891 and lead on to the present country of Saudi Arabia. Mecca in 1850 Mecca in 1910 Another view of Mecca in 1910 Mecca was regularly afflicted with cholera epidemics.[44] 27 epidemics were reco rded during pilgrimages from the 1831 to 1930. More than 20,000 pilgrims died of cholera during the 1907 08 hajj.[45] Revolt of Sharif of Mecca In World War I, the Ottoman Empire was at war with Britain and its allies, havin g sided with Germany. It had successfully repulsed an attack on Istanbul in the Gallipoli Campaign and on Baghdad in the Siege of Kut. The British agent T E Law rence conspired with the Ottoman governor Syed Hussain bin Ali, the Sharif of Me cca. Hussein bin Ali revolted against the Ottoman Empire from Mecca, and it was the first city captured by his forces in the Battle of Mecca (1916). Sharif's re volt proved a turning point of the war on the eastern front. Sharif Hussein decl ared a new state, the Kingdom of Hejaz, and declared Mecca as the capital of the new kingdom. Saudi Arabia Following the Battle of Mecca (1924), the Sharif of Mecca was overthrown by the Saud family, and Mecca was incorporated into Saudi Arabia.[46] Under Saudi rule, much of the historic city has been demolished as a result of c onstruction programs see below. On November 20, 1979 two hundred armed Islamist dissidents led by Saudi preacher Juhayman al-Otaibi seized the Grand Mosque. They claimed that the Saudi royal f amily no longer represented pure Islam and that the Masjid al-Haram (The Sacred Mosque) and the Kaaba, must be held by those of true faith. The rebels seized te ns of thousands of pilgrims as hostages and barricaded themselves in the mosque. The siege lasted two weeks, and resulted in several hundred deaths and signific ant damage to the shrine, especially the Safa-Marwa gallery. Pakistani forces ca rried out the final assault; they were assisted with weapons, logistics and plan ning by an elite team of French commandos from The French GIGN commando unit.[47 ] Destruction of historic buildings See also: Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites The Abraj Al Bait Towers being constructed on the site of the demolished Ottoman -era Ajyad Fortress, and towering over the Masjid al-Haram The officially approved form of Islam in Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, is hostile to any reverence given to historical or religious places of significance for fear t hat it may give rise to idolatry. As a consequence, under Saudi rule, it has bee n estimated that since 1985 about 95% of Mecca's historic buildings, most over a thousand years old, have been demolished.[7][48]

Historic sites of religious importance which have been destroyed by the Saudis i nclude five of the renowned "Seven Mosques" initially built by Muhammad's daught er and four of his "greatest Companions": Masjid Abu Bakr, Masjid Salman al-Fars i, Masjid Umar ibn al-Khattab, Masjid Sayyida Fatima bint Rasulullah and Masjid Ali ibn Abu Talib.[49] It has been reported that there now are fewer than 20 structures remaining in Me cca that date back to the time of Muhammad. Other buildings that have been destr oyed include the house of Khadijah, the wife of Muhammad, demolished to make way for public lavatories; the house of Abu Bakr, Muhammad's companion, now the sit e of the local Hilton hotel; the house of Ali-Oraid, the grandson of Muhammad, a nd the Mosque of abu-Qubais, now the location of the King's palace in Mecca; Muh ammad's birthplace, demolished to make way for a library; and the Abraj Al Bait Towers, built after demolishing the Ottoman-era Ajyad Fortress.[50] The ostensible reason for much of the destruction of historic buildings has been for the construction of hotels, apartments, parking lots and other infrastructu re facilities for Hajj pilgrims. However, many have been destroyed without any s uch reason. For example, when the house of Ali-Oraid, the grandson of Muhammed w as discovered and excavated, King Fahd himself ordered that it be bulldozed in c ase it should become a pilgrimage site.[48]