Saudi Gazette

ONCE a virtual beehive of activity and the nerve center for foreign Haj pilgrims in the heart of city, the pilgrims accommodation known as Madinat Al Hajjaj in Jeddah has lost its past, rich glory.

Madinat Al Hajjaj was a towering example of the founder of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia King Abdulaziz Al Saud’s care towards pilgrims and welfare of the people.

The founding father of modern Kingdom established an endowment charity institution known as Ayeen Aziziah in Jeddah. It focused on two core and pressing issues of the city — one was accommodation for foreign pilgrims while on transit to two holy cities and other was water supply to Jeddah city.

He built the pilgrim accommodation in 1950 near the seaport, as the Jeddah seaport was the major gateway for the vast majority of foreign pilgrims.

Recalling a nostalgic moment, senior expatriate Rafi Fazalbai told Saudi Gazette that, “It was a charming and delightful moment in 1958 when I used to spend most my time in the pilgrim accommodation in order to help them.”

He said that though the transit period did not last more than 24 hours, the area was always hectic, mostly busy with visitors or helpers assisting the pilgrims.

“Most of the pilgrims, who arrived at this point of entry, were from Egypt, Sudan and from the newly partitioned India and Pakistan,” he added.

A separate Haj accommodation was built for pilgrims, who arrived by air, in 1958 as foreign pilgrims from faraway countries especially from Asia, Europe and Americas began using this mode of transport, with the bussing aviation industry growing, to reach Saudi Arabia.

It was then Ayeen Aziziah earmarked a site to house the pilgrims. The site, at Naseem district near Sharafiya on King Khalid Road, was chosen for pilgrims coming by air, as the then Jeddah airport was just adjacent to it.

For the first time in 1958, five buildings with each one consisting of three floors were built to accommodate 2,000 pilgrims and later another two buildings were built in which Saudi Arabian Airlines offices were operated to facilitate easier and prompt services for pilgrims.

As the number of pilgrims grew, extensions to the buildings were carried out and by 1978 the accommodation capacity was enhanced to house more than 30,000 pilgrims per schedule, until the pilgrims were picked up by the concerned Haj operators known as Moullims and moved to the holy cities.

It was the only public building that consisted of five floors, and that itself was rare in those days, and covered a good linear area at that time. It came to be known as the nerve center for foreign Haj pilgrims.

The buildings started to lose its prominence with the opening of the present day King Abdul Aziz International Airport in the northern part of the city in 1981, and the Haj operations began getting more streamlined.

The building still had its use as Indonesia pilgrims used to lodge in some parts of the buildings for some years. But even they too left and the accommodation was used for other purposes than housing pilgrims.

In an adjacent place, a large size deportation center was built to deport overstaying pilgrims, the deportation center was operated till 2014, and then it was shifted to Shumaisi near Makkah.

The Saudi Arabian Airlines sales office was also in operation here till few years ago. But what was once a busy hub is now an edifice that reveals memories of the days gone by.