The Taif massacre was an incident that followed the short 1924 Battle of Taif; the entire episode is also known as the al-Taif incident. The battle and resultant massacre comprised the first major standoff of the Second Hashemite-Saudi War. Following a short siege,

Taif Taif (, ) is a city and governorate in Mecca Province in Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarat Mountains, the city has a population of 563,282 people in 2022, mak ...

was abandoned by Hashemite forces and then capitulated to the battle-ready

Ikhwan The Ikhwān (, ), commonly known as Ikhwān man Aṭāʿa Allah (, 'Brethren of those who obey God'), was a Wahhabism, Wahhabi religious militia made up of traditionally nomadic tribesmen which formed a significant military force of the ruler Ibn ...

force under the command of Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. The Ikhwan troops took out their rage on the residents of the city. In the resulting bloodbath, some 300-400 Ta'if residents were massacred. Following the fall of Taif, Saud's forces moved on Mecca.

Background

Taif was taken by the Sharifian Army in September 1916, during the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

, and later incorporated into the

Hashemite The Hashemites (), also House of Hashim, are the Dynasty, royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Hejaz, Hejaz (1916–1925), Arab Kingdom of Syria, Syria (1920), and Kingd ...

Kingdom of Hejaz The Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz (, ''Al-Mamlakah al-Ḥijāziyyah Al-Hāshimiyyah'') was a state in the Hejaz region of Western Asia that included the western portion of the Arabian Peninsula that was ruled by the Hashemite dynasty. It was self ...

. Tensions arose between Ibn Saud—then Emir of Nejd and Hasa—and Hejazi King Hussein bin Ali, with the situation escalating into violence in 1918. The hostilities were temporarily halted in 1919 following a truce signed in the aftermath of the First Hashemite-Saudi War.

Conquest and massacre

In late August 1924, the Saudi-allied

, under the leadership of

Sultan bin Bajad Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

and Khaled bin Luwai were ready to attack Taif. The city was supposed to have been defended by the king's son, Ali bin Hussein, but he fled in panic with his troops. The city was quickly breached by the Ikhwan on 3 September 1924 or it surrendered on 29 August, after which the Ikhwan went on a rampage through the city. In the resulting massacre, some 300David Holden in ''The House of Saud'' to 400 residents of Taif were killed.

Aftermath

Following the fall of Taif, the

moved to conquer

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

, and eventually

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

, which fell in December 1925, completing the conquest of Hejaz. Ibn Saud was officially crowned as the new King of Hejaz in 1926, and subsequently declared its

unification Unification or unification theory may refer to: Computer science * Unification (computer science), the act of identifying two terms with a suitable substitution * Unification (graph theory), the computation of the most general graph that subs ...

with Nejd as the

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

in 1932. He died in Taif on 9 November 1953.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ta'if massacre 1924 murders in Asia 20th century in the Arabian Peninsula August 1924 September 1924 Battles involving the House of Saud Massacres in 1924 Massacres in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabian war crimes 20th-century mass murder in Asia

Background

Conquest and massacre

Aftermath

See also

References