Arab, Saudi - Hijazi

Hijazi Arabs are the Arabic-speaking people of the Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia that holds Mecca, Medina and the port of Jeddah. 'Hejaz' means 'the barrier', after the Sarawat mountains between the Red Sea plain and the Najd plateau. The region was an Ottoman province, then the Kingdom of Hejaz under Sharif Hussein (1916-1925), before Ibn Saud conquered it in 1925. Two strands make up Hijazi society: the townspeople of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah and Taif, descended from Arab families and from pilgrims of every Muslim land who stayed (Hadramis, Bukharis, Indians, Jawa from Southeast Asia, Turks, Africans), and the tribes around them (Harb, Juhaynah, Bani Atiyah, Huwaytat, Thaqif, Bani Salim). Urban Hijazi Arabic, with its present-tense 'b-' and future 'ha-', is one of the most widely understood Arabic dialects because of the pilgrimage. Many Hijazis feel culturally distinct from the Najdi ruling elite; the Ethnic Power Relations dataset codes the Shafi'i/Sufi Hijazis as a junior partner in power. Joshua Project and IMB also count the southern highlanders of Asir and al-Bahah (Ghamid, Zahran, Shahran and the Asir tribes) in this group; they call themselves southerners, and linguists treat their dialects as a neighbouring dialect area.

Hijazi culture is the most cosmopolitan in Saudi Arabia. Food blends Arabian, Ottoman, South and Central Asian and African dishes: saleeg (rice cooked in milk), mabshoor, mutabbaq, ma'soob, and Eid sweets such as ma'moul and Hijazi ka'k. Jeddah's Al-Balad keeps coral-stone tower houses with rawashin, carved wooden window screens built since the Abbasid era. The mizmar stick dance to drums and reed pipe (UNESCO intangible heritage, 2016), Mecca's ta'shir and the sung mawwal are Hijazi arts; the southern highlands have the al-mid'qal 'arda and the women's wall painting al-qatt al-asiri (UNESCO, 2017). Women's traditional dress in Mecca and Jeddah was colourful and embroidered before the black abaya spread; men wear the thobe and ghutra, with the older wound turban at heritage events. Marriages are arranged within family circles, and the wedding procession (zaffa) is led by drummers and singers.

Before 1925 the holy cities kept all four Sunni legal schools, the Shafi'i the most common, with flourishing Sufi orders and visits to the tombs of the Prophet's family and companions. After the Saudi conquest Hanbali-Wahhabi teaching became state doctrine and most shrines, among them the domed tombs of Jannat al-Baqi in Medina, were levelled. Hijazis still keep Shafi'i practice in prayer, celebrate the Mawlid discreetly, and some Meccan and Medinan families hold Sufi gatherings. Belief in the evil eye and jinn and healing by Quranic recitation (ruqya) are common. The Hajj and Umrah shape the year of Meccan and Medinan families, many of whom serve pilgrims. Vision 2030 has eased social controls, most visibly in Jeddah.

JP rates Hijazi Arabic at Bible level 3 (portions). The Hijazi New Arabic Version (2024) is on YouVersion, the JESUS Film exists in Hijazi Arabic, and Global Recordings Network has audio; the Modern Standard Arabic Bible is understood by all. Hijazis abroad (students, business people, visitors in the Gulf and Egypt) meet fewer constraints than at home, and Arabic Christian media are widely available online.