Mecca the Desert of Paran mentioned in the Old Testament at Genesis 21:21. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah and the site where Ishmael settled was Mecca. Yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was "an arabized Hebrew word, one of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah." Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor (called "Al-Amin") appointed by the Saudi government. , the mayor of the city was Dr. Osama bin Fadhel Al-Bar. Mecca
Battle of Mecca (1916) 1916 most of the Ottoman army had gone to Taif, a hill station in Arabia accompanying Ghalib Pasha, the governor of Hijaz. Only 1,000 men were left to defend Mecca. Many of them were asleep in barracks in the valley on June 10 when the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali fired a shot into the air from the window of the Hashemite palace signaling the beginning of the Arab Revolt. Hearing this his 5000 supporters started firing on Turkish troops in three fortresses overlooking the holy city, and at the Jirwall barracks on Jeddah road. The attack upon the