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Mecca?
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Mecca (Arabic: Umm ul-Qura, Umm ul-Madoin - mother of cities, etc.) is a city in western Saudi Arabia, located 70 km from the Red Sea. The administrative center of the Hijaz region. Population 1.64 mln. close to man (2020); during the hajj (at the expense of pilgrims) more than 2 million.
M. qad. The city, the year of its foundation is unknown. Initially, settlements appeared around Zamzam spring. M. was first mentioned as Makoraba in the works of Ptolemy. In the 2nd-1st millennia BC, M. was considered a sacred place for the Arab tribes. Prior to the rise of Islam, it played an important role in trade between the East and the Mediterranean. In the middle of the 5th century AD, M. passed into the hands of the Quraysh tribe. During this period, the leader of the Quraysh tribe, Zayd bin Kilab (known as Qusay), divided the lands around the Ka'bah among his tribesmen. As a result of the reforms carried out by Qusay and his descendants, M. grew rapidly, markets flourished, and new wells were dug for pilgrims. By the end of the 6th century - beginning of the 7th century, the city had become not only a commercial and religious but also a political center of the Arabian Peninsula. In this situation, the propagation of Islam based on monotheism began in M. Muhammad was born in M., a holy city and shrine of Muslims since the 7th century.
In 610, Muhammad announced the first revelation to him on Mount Hiro near him, that is, the verses of the Qur'an. In 622, the Muslim community moved to Yathrib (Madinah), where it competed with M. (see Hijra). In 630, the city fell to the Muslims, and pilgrimage to M. became one of the five pillars of Islam. During the Umayyad period (5-661), the appearance of the city changed dramatically: multi-storey towers and palaces appeared. After the collapse of the Baghdad Caliphate (750-750), it was taken over by the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks, and later to the Ottoman Empire (1258). Since 1517 M. - The capital of the Hijaz kingdom. In 1916, Ibn Sa'ud's army occupied M. It has been part of Saudi Arabia since 1924.