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 (883) Ibn Tulun again endeavored to assert his authority in Mecca, and he dispatched the officers Muhammad ibn al-Sarraj and al-Ghanawi to the city with a force of four hundred and seventy cavalry and two thousand infantry. The Tulunid army reached Mecca on June 8 (two days before the beginning of the pilgrimage month of Dhu al-Hijjah) and found the governor Harun ibn Muhammad absent from the city, being at that time at Bustan ibn 'Amir. Upon their arrival they began distributing money among the populace in order to garner support, giving two dinars each to the Jazzarin and Hannatin and