Wadi Lajab

The Jazan Province, also known as the Jazan Region (Arabic: مِنْطَقَةُ جَازَان‎, romanized: Minṭaqatu Jāzān), is the second-smallest province of Saudi Arabia after al-Bāḥa. It stretches approximately 300 km (190 mi) along the southern coast of the Red Sea, just north of the border with Yemen. Covering an area of 13,457 km2, it had a population of 1,404,997 according to the 2022 census. The province has the highest population density in the Kingdom.

The province includes over 200 islands in the Red Sea. One of the major developments in the province is the Jazan City for Primary and Downstream Industries, a large-scale project intended to contribute to the province’s economic development. The Farasān Islands, Saudi Arabia’s first conservation-protection area, are home to migratory birds from Europe during the winter.

Human activity in Jazan (or Jizan) dates back to the Stone Age, as confirmed by archaeological studies and research carried out in the region, which showed that the first human settlement was during the Lower Paleolithic period. Tools belonging to the age of the Acheulean civilization have been found, and surveys have shown that the Red Sea coast region is one of the best sources of information on the Acheulean stage. Due to the proliferation of hunting tools found in excavations, researchers infer that the inhabitants of the Acheulean settlements relied for their survival on seafood, such as fish and shellfish, given their availability and nutritional value.

In light of its important strategic position, situated on ancient trade routes between Yemen and the Ḥijāz, on the one hand, and between the Levant and beyond, on the other, Jazan Province maintained cultural links with the ancient kingdoms that thrived in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. Human settlement in Jazan was contemporaneous with kingdoms such as the Minaean (Maʿīn) Kingdom, Kingdom of Sheba (Sabaʾ), Kingdom of Qatabān, Kingdom of Ḥaḍramawt, and the Ḥimyar Kingdom. However, Jazan was not politically subordinate to any of them; in fact, archaeological evidence suggests that the inhabitants of the region were not in agreement with those neighbouring kingdoms and governed according to their own interests.

Jazan Province has been an Islamic Arab territory since the early Islamic age. A delegation from the region journeyed to the prophet Muḥammad in Madīna in the tenth year of his migration, headed up by the chieftain of the al-Hakam tribe, Abduljad Bin Rabia al-Hakami, and declared their embrace of Islam. After the spread of Islam in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, Mohammed appointed provincial governors in these multiple territories, including the province of Tihamah, with which Jazan was affiliated.

After the founding, King Abdulaziz reclaimed the rule of Riyadh and established the Kingdom, whereupon the King led unification campaigns throughout the Arabian peninsula.