From Damascus to Makkah Al -Mukarramah.
The road was a crossing of the head of Islamic armies, and a historical path of the Shami pilgrims, and it was known as “Tabukiya”, relative to the town of Tabuk, one of its most important stations.
The path of the Shami Hajj
The Shami Al -Shami Road extends a distance of 1307 kilometers, passing three countries, starting from Syria through Jordan and ending with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The path of the Shami pilgrims starts from the town of Al -Kiswa, located in the Damascus countryside, and passes through Khan Dannon, then the Gabbag region, the two municipal and the poor, to the Al -Muzairib area on the Jordanian border, and the road path in Syria in the city of Daraa, which is the last station for pilgrims in the Levant, ends.
Then the Jordanian territory enters the road from the town of Al -Mafraq (Khan Al -Mafraq), then Al -Qastal, Al -Hafir and Ma’an, until it reached the round or what was historically known as “Sarg”, which is the last station on the Jordanian side, located south of Ma’an Governorate, near the Saudi border.
Inside Saudi Arabia, the road starts from the center of Ammar, and it is known as a vertical flag based on an oval base, and from it the pilgrims go to the south towards a pilgrim and then to the city of Tabuk, which is one of the most prominent stations on the road, before they passed the Great Station Valdar Al -Hamra and then Wadi Al -Akhdar.
The path continues across Al -Aqraa, the Al -Taqi Cheese (Abu Touqa), then the blessing also known as the camel or the fissure, followed by the stone or Madinah Saleh, and from there it passes through the ultimate and the ulcers (Wadi Al -Qura), until he reaches Medina.
After that, pilgrims go to Makkah Al -Mukarramah, passing through the Mabiyat and Badr and then Jeddah, which is the last destination before entering Makkah Al -Mukarramah, and the Shami Hajj road crosses the lands of seven Saudi cities: Tabuk, Al -Ula, Madinah, Badr, Rabigh, Jeddah and Makkah Al -Mukarramah.
This road has formed through the centuries one of the most important paths that pilgrims took from the Levant towards the Hijaz, and it remained a witness to a close civilized and spiritual communication between the areas it is going through, and he also had a prominent role in the prosperity of commercial and cultural activity over its extension.
From the Umayyad convoys to the Ottoman train
The Shami Al -Shami Road gained a distinguished position after Damascus became the capital of the Umayyad state, and the first official convoys of Hajj organized under the supervision of the Islamic State were launched to facilitate the arrival of pilgrims from outside the Arabian Peninsula.
The Umayyad caliphs took care of preparing, equipping and protecting the road, and providing it with beacons and marks, such as the roads ordered by the Caliph Abd al -Malik bin Marwan to determine the distances and direct the walkers.
They also renewed the mosques and road stations such as the Prophet’s Mosque in Tabuk, and dug the ponds, wells, tanks and channels between Damascus and Mecca.
Despite the decline in the political status of Damascus, the road remained its importance due to the Damascus commercial strategic location.
The archaeological evidence shows that the cities and stations of the road at that time witnessed noticeable urban and service care, especially in the Wadi Al -Qura region, such as Al -Ula, Al -Rahba, Al -Rasha and Al -Sakia.
In the 6th century AH/ 12AD, the road suffered from the threats of the Crusaders who attacked the caravans of pilgrims from their castles in Karak and Shabak.
After that, safety and stability returned after the Ayyubids took control of the Levant (570–658 AH / 1174-1260 AD), as Salah al -Din al -Ayyubi worked to protect the road, besieged and dropped the Karak Castle in 584 AH / 1188 CE.
One of the most prominent of those who served the Shami pilgrimage in the Ayyubid era was King Issa bin Al -Malik Al -Adil, one of the governors of Damascus, and he was known for his great interest in the road, and historical sources indicate that he walked himself on the road to Tabuk to see him and find out his needs.
Al -Adil ordered the construction of the famous pool of the famous, along with a number of other pools, as he directed to wipe the road between Damascus and Arafat, and sought to settle off -off areas to facilitate the passage of convoys and pilgrims.
The road received wide interest from the rulers of Damascus, and the number of pilgrims increased, and some travelers estimated in the year 674 AH / 1286 AD the number of the convoy with a sixty thousand behind the horse and mules.
The Mamluks’ control of Egypt, the Levant and the Hijaz contributed to facilitating the control of the road, and the establishment of service projects, and many Mamluk inscriptions appear on the road indicating wide restoration work.
The Shami Al -Shami Road reached its peak in development, activity and status, as Damascus has become a commercial center and a kiss for the convoys of pilgrims coming from the Ottoman Empire.
Damascus then officially called “Sham Sharif”, and became the center of the launch of the Great Ottoman Caravan of the Hajj.
The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent took the title of “the protector of the Two Holy Mosques”, and was interested in securing the road, so Damascus chose the gathering of pilgrims from Anatolia, the Levant, Iraq, Faris, the Caucasus and Europe.
Damascus witnessed an architectural renaissance, and it was one of its first Sulaymaniyah hospital facilities that received pilgrims in Marj Al -Sultan, and provided them with residence services.
Suleiman al -Kawal (926–974 AH / 1520-1566) was the first to take care of the road from the Ottoman sultans, so he established a fortress and sent military protectors to protect the pilgrims.
With the weakness of the central authority in Istanbul, interest in the road decreased, its conditions deteriorated, the castles were destroyed, the garrisons were lacking, and the pashas were manipulated with the funds allocated to protect it. Which caused the convoys to loot and greatly affected the security of the road and the safety of the pilgrims.
Sultan Abdul Hamid II was the last to formally interested in the road, as he sent an outstanding annual pilgrimage to start from Damascus, and convoys from India, China, Kurdistan, Caucasus, Knight, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine and others joined.
The most prominent of his achievements was Hijazi railwayWhich spanned 1320 km from Damascus to Medina, and was implemented in eight years and was launched on 22 Rajab 1326 AH / September 28, 1908 AD.
The first train from the Hijaz station in Damascus arrived at Al -Anbariya station in Medina in just seven days, compared to 50 to 55 days that the trip was previously taken, which spanned four months back and forth.
Road effects
The Shami Al -Shami Road is a living witness to the development of Islamic civilization and the continuous interest of Muslims in serving pilgrims, as it includes its extension Islamic effects, the most prominent of which are dozens of inscriptions dating back to the first century AH, and founding writings on the road facilities of castles, pools and wells.
These monuments include a fortress of Hajj, the Tabuk Castle, the effects of the Green, which includes an Islamic city, three pools and a castle, as well as the effects of the majority that contain a castle and a blessing, and the effects of the Braika known in the past in the red house.
On the road there are also the effects of the stone and Al -Ula followed by a number of facilities, in addition to the Castle of Zamed, the castle castle, the effects of a gift, the stable of Antar, the two stallions, the effects of Nassif, and the Al -Hafira Castle. These castles and ponds are located on the part of the road in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Throughout the road, the effects of the Hijaz Railway, which were implemented between 1900 and 1906 AD, were also found during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid, and it includes stone stations and parts of the railway and bridges path.
The command of the caliph Omar bin Al -Khattab, may God be pleased with him, is considered in the architecture of Ain Tabuk in the year 17 AH, one of the first charitable efforts in serving the pilgrims.
Other remaining monuments include: Ain Tabuk and the blessing of the Great between Al -Ula, Al -Madinah Al -Munawwarah, the Al -Mudawara Castle and the Qatrana Castle.
The archaeological surveys confirmed the presence of various facilities on the road, such as wells, ponds, eyes, water channels, castles, towers, bridges and beacons, as well as the effects of cities and villages that flourished in the past.
There are also memorial written inscriptions that pilgrims engraved in the past on the rocks, which made the road a living witness to the civilized, commercial and religious activity that lasted more than 13 centuries.