Page 443 - Neglected Arabia (1916-1920)

Missionary News and Letters

Published Quarterly
for private circulation among the friends of
THE ARABIAN MISSION

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Three Visits to Jiddah
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Rev. S. M. Zwemer, DD., LL.D., F.R.G.S.

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REV. S. M. ZWEMBR, D.D., LL.D.

For thirteen centuries Jiddah has been the most important har­
bour in the Moslem world from a religious standpoint. Its founda­
tions were laid in the year 26 a.h. by the Caliph Othman, who chose it
as the harbour of Mecca. But the town never reached commercial
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importance because of its natural disadvantages on the one hand, and
the intermittent character of its only traffic, namely, that in pilgrims,
on the other. Ibn Jubair gives a picture of the town as it appeared in
1183 with its rude huts and stone buildings, its walls and its mosques.
The town has shared in the fortunes and misfortunes of the Caliphate;
it has often been besieged by the Bedouins, and was attacked by the
Portuguese in 1541 and besieged by the Wahabis in 1803. In 1840

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