![Manfuha, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Manfuha%2C_Riyadh%2C_Saudi_Arabia_2.JPG)
Manfuha ( ar, منفوحة) is an ancient village and a historical neighborhood in southern
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
. Established on the edge of the narrow, fertile valley known as
Wadi Hanifa
Wadi Hanifa ( ar, وَادِي حَنِيْفَة, Wādī Ḥanīfah), historically known as Wadi al-Arad, is a ''wadi'' (valley) in the Najd region, Riyadh Province, in central Saudi Arabia. The valley runs for a length of from northwest to s ...
, Manfuha was until the mid-20th century considered a twin village to the current Saudi capital of
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
.
According to
Yaqut's 13th-century geographical encyclopedia ''
Mu'jam Al-Buldan
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known fo ...
'', Manfuha was built a few centuries before
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
at the same time as Hajr (now Riyadh) by members of the
Banu Hanifa
Banu Hanifa ( ar, بنو حنيفة) is an ancient Arab tribe inhabiting the area of al-Yamama in the central region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The tribe belongs to the great Rabi'ah branch of North Arabian tribes, which also included Abdu ...
tribe and their cousins from the tribe of
Bakr. Manfuha was home to the famous Arab poet
Al-A'sha
Al-A'sha ( ar, ٱلْأَعْشَىٰ) or Maymun Ibn Qays Al-A'sha (d.c. 570– 625) was an Arabic Jahiliyyah poet from Najd, Arabia.
He traveled through Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia and Ethiopia. He was nicknamed Al-A'sha which means "weak-sig ...
, who died at around the same time as the
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, but little is heard of Manfuha after that time. At the turn of the 20th century, its population was made up largely of members of
Banu Hanifa
Banu Hanifa ( ar, بنو حنيفة) is an ancient Arab tribe inhabiting the area of al-Yamama in the central region of modern-day Saudi Arabia. The tribe belongs to the great Rabi'ah branch of North Arabian tribes, which also included Abdu ...
and
Bakr (who by now had come to identify themselves with the related tribe of
'Anizzah
Anizah or Anazah ( ar, عنزة, ʻanizah, Najdi pronunciation: ) is an Arabian tribe in the Arabian Peninsula, Upper Mesopotamia, and the Levant.
Genealogy and origins
Anizah's existence as an autonomous tribal group, like many prominent m ...
), as well as members of
Tamim and
Subay'
Subaie' ( ar, سبيع, also spelled Alsubaie', Sbei', and Subei) is an Arabian tribe living in the center of southern Najd. Hamad Al-Jassir, Dictionary of the tribes of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, p.123
History
The family is of North Arab ...
. Like all
Nejdi towns, its population also included a large percentage of non-tribally-affiliated tradesmen (''sonnaa), as well as many slaves and freedmen working as agricultural labourers. Like Riyadh, the town was surrounded by gardens and palm groves.
In the late 18th century, Manfuha fell under the rule of the energetic ruler of Riyadh,
Deham ibn Dawwas
''Deham'' (The Body) is a 2001 film directed by Govind Nihalani based on playwright Manjula Padmanabhan's play ''Harvest''. It has Kitu Gidwani, Joy Sengupta, Alyy Khan, Surekha Sikri and Julie Ames in lead roles. It is a futuristic story depict ...
, who at the time was vigorously resisting the expansion of the new
Wahhabist
Wahhabism ( ar, ٱلْوَهَّابِيَةُ, translit=al-Wahhābiyyah) is a Sunni Islamic revivalist and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the 18th-century Arabian Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, and ...
state established by the
Al Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...
clan of neighbouring
Diriyah
Diriyah ( ar, الدِرْعِيّة), formerly romanized as Dereyeh and Dariyya), is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the north-western outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Diriyah was the original home of the Saudi royal family, and served ...
(see
First Saudi State
The Emirate of Diriyah (), also known as the First Saudi State, was established in February 1727 (1139 AH). In 1744, the emir of Najdi town called Diriyah Muhammad bin Saud and the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab formed an alliance ...
). Both towns eventually succumbed to the
Saudis
Saudis ( ar, سعوديون, Suʿūdiyyūn) are people identified with the country of Saudi Arabia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. The Saudis are composed mainly of Arabs and primarily speak a regional dialect ...
, however, who ruled over Manfuha until their state was destroyed by an
Ottoman-
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian invasion in 1818. From then on, the town's fortunes largely followed those of its neighbour, Riyadh, returning to Saudi rule under
Turki ibn Abdallah
Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
in 1824, then falling under the rule of the
Al Rashid clan of
Ha'il in the 1890s, before reverting to Saudi rule less than ten years later under the founder of
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
,
Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted ...
.
As the neighbouring Saudi capital expanded exponentially in the 20th century, fueled by the country's oil wealth, the walls of both Manfuha and Riyadh were torn down, and Manfuha was quickly swallowed in whole by the growing metropolis. Today, Manfuha is among the poorer districts of Riyadh as most of its original inhabitants have left to newer districts of the capital. Some of the town's old mud-brick buildings remain, as well as an ancient observation tower. A wide avenue cuts through the centre of Manfuha, named Al-A'sha Street, after its most famous son.
Manfuha is now a neighbourhood in southern Riyadh.
References
History of Nejd
History of Riyadh
Neighbourhoods in Riyadh
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