Description

The most important legacy of the Ottoman Empire in the Arabian Peninsula, where it ruled for more than 400 years is undoubtedly the Hejaz railway built during the last years of its rule. It was built between 1901 and 1908, and was intended to ease travel of the Pilgrims to the Holy Cities. It was a great engineering achievement, due to the fact that it was built in the desert, was 1200 km long and was built in a very short time. With this project, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II had the aim to use technology to modernize the Ottoman Empire without interference or reliance on the Western Powers. It was part of an ambitious project aimed to demonstrate that a Muslim country could accomplish such a great technical work such as the building of this railroad in a desert in a short time. Once accomplished, it was celebrated all over the Islamic world. The Western Powers however suspected that it was intended for military purposes. The railway, which was inaugurated in 1908, lasted only 9 years from 1908 until 1917. Indeed, during the First World War, the British army targeted the railway and the tribes revolt lead by Sherif Hussein. Despite its short life, the railway has left many imprints on both the human and geographic landscape of Arabia. It was a landmark of the Ottoman Empires achievements in that period: an engineering miracle of the first order. In this paper, we will travel from Haifa to Medina via Damascus. I would like to give an impression of how the railway was constructed and how the Ottoman Empire managed the construction with financial support coming only from donations. We will then focus on the stations and the architecture that was innovative both because of the construction methods and the technology used. Also I will try to elucidate how the railway was operated and what is left of this heritage in today’s Arabian mind and landscape. Another subject that will be dealt with is the innovative memorial monuments along the Hejaz railway, in Istanbul, Damascus and Haifa.