Unlike the barren, desert interior province of Najd, from which the new rulers of the kingdom hailed, Mecca was in the richer, more vibrant, and cosmopolitan Hejaz province along the Red Sea. The Hejaz, home to both Mecca and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam, and the nearby port city of Jeddah, had been part of every great Islamic empire, its people open to the world, its architecture delicate and intricate, its practice of Islam rich and diverse. Najd wasn’t poor, but it was sterile and xenophobic, and remained on the periphery of a culturally diverse and rich world religion.
