Ancient city of Ta’if

The name Ta’if means “encompassing” in Arabic and has served as a summer capital for centuries. During pre-Islam, Ta’if was home to the Souk Okaz, a famous annual trade and cultural fair, the largest in the Arabian Peninsula.

Souk Okaz was a seasonal market that functioned from 542-726 during the Dhul Qa’adah month. The Souk has left a significant impact on the Arabic language as this is where the highly regarded poetry competitions were held.

Historians believe the valley was settled over 5,000 years ago. Taif is the home of the pre-Islamic Arab idol Allat and was mostly worshiped there. It is represented with a white squared stone with many engraves. The ancient Arab erected a temple around it and it is mentioned in the Muslim’s holy book Quran as one of the major goddesses of the ancient Arab.

The ancient stone road known as the “caravan route” linking Ta’if and Makkah was constructed more than 1,000 years ago and used regularly by pedestrians up to the 1960s.

At the time the road was built, movement between Taif and Makkah was restricted by Al-Qarah Mountain.

In 631, the residents of Ta’if accepted Islam and became part of the emerging Islamic state. A mere 55 miles from Makkah, Taif was strongly influenced by Islam early on, losing many of its residents who migrated in order to propagate the faith throughout the Peninsula. Ta’if was incorporated to the Ottoman Empire in 1517 along with the Hejaz after the troops of Selim I conquered the Mamluk Sultanate.

The city remained Ottoman until 1802 year when it was conquered by troops allied to the House of Saud that would afterwards seized Makkah and Madinah. The loss of the Holy Cities was a blow to the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II who called upon his nominal viceroy in Egypt Muhammad Ali who launched an attack on the Hejaz and reconquered Ta'if in 1813.

Beginning in the 1950s, Ta’if began to grow both in physical size and population, with agriculture as a major component of the local economy.
Ancient city of Ta’if

History of Ta’if of Saudi Arabia

Ta’if had its beginning as a city as far back as 670 BC and enjoyed the prestige of a commercially strategic center for more than 1000 years.

Ta’if was an important city during the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime and a center of worship for one of several pagan goddesses.

The prophet had preached his message of monotheism and moral accountability at Ta’if in 620. But the people there sent out their slaves and children to stone the prophet in the streets.

The name Ta’if comes from the Arabic word, meaning ‘to surround’. Ta’if acquired its name after the Thaqif tribe defeated and expelled the Hawazin bani amir from the oasis and the built a wall to prevent their being force out.

This walled area was called Madinah Jahiliyah and controlled the oasis in the pre-Islamic period. The Thaqif remade the oasis to support a substantial agricultural community. They developed irrigation canals, improved cropping, regulated the right and liabilities of farmers and landowners and exported their agricultural products.

In the days of the trade routes, Ta’if served as a welcome refuge from the hardships of a long, arduous journey. In more recent times it has become a retreat from the oppressive summer heat of Jeddah and other lowland areas.
History of Ta’if of Saudi Arabia