The railway the ummah helped pay for

Between 1900 and 1908 the Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II built a railway from Damascus to Medina, for pilgrims and for troops, and asked Muslims everywhere to help pay for it. They gave, but donations covered about a third of its income, mostly from Ottoman subjects. Stamps, salary deductions, taxes, sacrifice skins and loans paid the rest.

An appeal from Istanbul, 1900

The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi records that Sultan Abdulhamid II (reigned 1876-1909) ordered the railway on 2 May 1900, and that work began on 1 September. TDV stands for Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, the Turkish Diyanet Foundation.

Ahmed İzzet Efendi, head of the pious foundations in Jeddah, had already proposed a line from Damascus to defend the Hejaz and ease the pilgrimage. TDV dates his report to 1891; the Turkish historian Said Öztürk, to February 1892.

TDV records the case made to the public: the line was the shared work of all Muslims. Öztürk cites the Istanbul paper İkdam of 3 May 1900, which called it a work to gladden the Prophet ﷺ.

The first gifts

The sultan gave first, 50,000 lira, TDV records. All sums here are Ottoman pounds, or lira. Statesmen and officials followed.

Committees led by the senior local official worked with village headmen and imams, who listed who could give. Medals in nickel, silver and gold went to donors (TDV). The American historian William Ochsenwald gives the bands as 5-50, 50-100 and over 100 lira (1980, p. 62).

The dates

1. 1900 2 May: the sultan orders the railway. 1 September: work begins (TDV).
2. 1908 1 September: the official opening (TDV).
3. 1909 27 April: Abdulhamid II is deposed (TDV, “Abdülhamid II”).
4. 1914 1 August: the railway becomes a waqf, an endowment (TDV).
5. 1916 June: the Arab Revolt begins in the Hejaz (TDV).
6. 1918 26 March: the last train from the north reaches Medina (Öztürk). Ochsenwald gives April.
7. 1919 10 January: Medina’s Ottoman garrison surrenders (TDV).

Who paid, in numbers

TDV puts the estimated cost at 4 million lira, over 18 percent of state spending in the 1901 budget. The Turkish historian Murat Özyüksel gives 15 to 19 percent of the budgets of the period.

Öztürk gives the cost of the 1,464 kilometres, Haifa branch included, as 3,066,167 lira, or 3,456,926 by another reckoning. Ochsenwald’s figure to March 1912, with later branches and rolling stock, is 4,283,000 lira (1980, p. 53).

The donations

Öztürk counts 3,919,696 lira of income from 1900 to 1908, about 29 percent of it donations, or 34 percent with sacrifice skins. Özyüksel gives donations of 1,127,894 lira, 28.4 percent of the total. Ochsenwald gives the same sum against 3,975,443 lira of income by January 1909 (1980, p. 79). TDV gives a third.

The share fell over time. Öztürk puts it at 82 percent of income in 1902; Ochsenwald, at 63 percent in 1903 and about a third in 1905-1907 (1980, p. 79).

Where the rest came from

Öztürk ranks the other income:

• Stamps and papers, 22 percent. Official stationery and donation stamps were sold for the fund (TDV; Öztürk). Ochsenwald calls it a stamp tax, required on many documents (1980, p. 77).
• Bank loans, 12 percent. Ramil Valeev and colleagues, historians in Russia, cite Ufuk Gülsoy’s 1994 study for 480,000 lira from the Ottoman Agricultural Bank by 1908. Ochsenwald gives nearly 486,000 (1980, p. 78).
• Coin exchange, 10 percent. Riyals from Yemen and Tripoli were swapped for Ottoman coin at a profit (TDV).
• Salaries, taxes and fees. TDV records compulsory pay deductions and new charges. Ochsenwald records five kuruş, a twentieth of a lira, from every male Muslim head of family, about 100,000 lira a year (1980, pp. 77-78).
• Sacrifice skins, fares and mines. Skins from Eid al-Adha, fares on finished sections and mining concessions (TDV; Öztürk).

Gifts that were not always free

TDV records that many officials first gave a month’s pay willingly, and that compulsory deductions followed as costs grew. Özyüksel concludes that more than half of the funding came from compulsory payments.

Gifts from beyond the empire

Muslims outside Ottoman rule gave warmly, but the sums were small: Özyüksel finds 9.5 percent of donations came from outside the empire, no more than 2.8 percent of all income. Ochsenwald estimates about 8 percent of donations (1980, p. 69).

India, Egypt and further afield

In India a central committee in Hyderabad had branches across the country (Özyüksel). Muhammad Insha Allah, who ran the papers Vakil in Amritsar and Vatan in Lahore (Valeev and colleagues), had urged a line paid for by Muslims everywhere since 1897 (Öztürk).

Özyüksel credits Insha Allah with 3,243 lira, a fifth of India’s total, and puts all Indian gifts at 15,500 to 40,000 lira. Ochsenwald gives nearly 6,500 lira from him by 1910, and 17,000 to 40,000 in all (1980, pp. 71-73).

Özyüksel finds that Egypt, still nominally Ottoman and paying tribute (Ochsenwald, 1980, p. 74), gave a third more than India, a country seven times larger. Mustafa Kamil’s paper al-Liwa had gathered over 3,000 lira by April 1904 (Ochsenwald, 1980, pp. 75-76). Öztürk cites the Egyptian paper al-Ra’id al-Misri, which called the railway the Suez Canal of the Muslim world.

TDV adds gifts from Russia, Morocco, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa, Algeria and even America, and from the Shah of Iran and the Emir of Bukhara. Valeev and colleagues trace Russian gifts from Crimea to Siberia, but no source here gives a Russian total.

What it was for

The appeal spoke of pilgrims. The planners also had soldiers in mind: TDV names the aims as military, political and religious, with the religious aim put first in public. The political aim was the sultan’s own standing: TDV writes that the project would strengthen Abdulhamid’s prestige and influence across the Muslim world and bring Muslims together around a shared work.

Troops for the Hejaz and Yemen went by sea through the Suez Canal, which Britain controlled, and closing it would cut the link (Öztürk). A British handbook of 1919 called the railway religious on the surface, “but in point of fact it was also military”.

It was used that way. TDV records 77,761 soldiers carried in 1910 and 147,587 in 1914, and revolts in the Hauran, Karak and Jabal Druze put down in 1910.

Building it

Heinrich Meissner, a German engineer, took technical charge in 1901. TDV counts 43 engineers under him: 17 Turkish, 12 German, 5 Italian, 5 French, 2 Austrian, 1 Belgian and 1 Greek. Ottoman engineers rose in number as Europeans fell, and rails and locomotives came from Germany, Belgium and America (TDV).

Soldiers with shovels

TDV puts the soldiers at work on the line at up to 7,500, paid by the task and released early from service. Ochsenwald adds 1,800 men of the Medina garrison who built north from the city (1980, p. 35). Öztürk counts 2,666 masonry bridges and culverts, 9 tunnels and 37 water depots.

Muslims only, in the last stretch

TDV says Muslim engineers, technicians and workers built everything beyond Mada’in Salih. Öztürk says Muslims alone built the last 323 km, from al-Ula, where the holy land began, to Medina. Ochsenwald found no Christians working south of al-Akhdar, 760 km from Damascus (1980, p. 34).

The telegraph, and the tribes

In January 1901 Sadiq Pasha al-Muayyad, an Ottoman officer from Damascus, was sent to lay the Hejaz telegraph. TDV records that he lived six months in a tent and made peace between feuding tribes.

Bedouin tribes earned well from carrying and guarding pilgrims, and their leaders feared the Ottoman power the line would bring. In 1908 alone there were 128 attacks and acts of sabotage on the track and telegraph, and a night raid in late July killed nearly 300 Ottoman soldiers (TDV).

Medina, 1908

TDV dates the advance: Amman in 1903, Ma’an in 1904, Mada’in Salih in 1906, al-Ula in 1907. Arab News gives 23 August 1908 for the first train into Medina, and the official opening came on 1 September (TDV).

The track was narrow gauge, 1.05 metres, cheaper and quicker to lay (TDV). Osman Şahin and Murat Hanilçe give about 1,300 km from Damascus to Medina, and Britannica about 1,320. With the Haifa branch the system reached 1,464 km (TDV).

Why it never reached Mecca

Lines from Medina and Jeddah to Mecca were planned but never built, though donors in other Muslim lands wanted them most, Öztürk writes. TDV puts this down to Sharif Husayn of Mecca and the Bedouin sheikhs he stirred up; in 1914 the government told Husayn the lines were dropped. Öztürk adds earlier opponents: Sharif Ali Pasha of Mecca and the governor Ahmed Ratib Pasha.

The pilgrims’ road, before and after

Before the railway, a caravan from Syria took about 40 days to Medina and 50 to Mecca (TDV; Öztürk). Hajj is due to Allah from whoever is able to find a way there (Qur’an 3:97), and the way was long.

By train, TDV and Öztürk give 72 hours from Damascus to Medina, and TDV a fare of 2 lira, a tenth of the old cost. Ochsenwald gives a timetable of 56 hours (1980, p. 100).

On board

Departures took prayer times into account, and one carriage served as a mosque (TDV). In 1909 a muezzin on board gave the call five times a day (Öztürk).

TDV records 13,102 pilgrims reaching Medina by train in 1911, and about 16,000 a year on average. Without a link to Mecca, and with war soon after, it never carried as many as hoped.

A waqf on rails

On 1 August 1914 the railway was placed under the Ministry of Pious Foundations as a waqf. TDV calls it the only transport project a state ever built as a waqf. When the First World War broke out, it was moved to the War Ministry (TDV).

War on the line, 1916-1918

In June 1916 Sharif Husayn rose against Ottoman rule, in secret agreement with Britain. TDV’s entry on him notes that he struck after Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman commander in Syria, had executed Arabs he accused of treason in Beirut and Damascus in August 1915 and May 1916, and that Husayn’s proclamation of 27 June accused the Unionist government in Istanbul of irreligion. Bedouin fighters, their raids directed by British officers, attacked the line, though Ottoman forces held most of it (TDV).

T. E. Lawrence, one of those officers, later wrote that they did not want to take Medina. The aim was to keep the railway “just working, but only just”, tying the garrison down (Seven Pillars of Wisdom). That is his own account, written after the war.

How the line was worn down

Engines burned wood for want of coal (TDV). Öztürk says the line closed to civilians in 1915. Ochsenwald dates the end of passenger service to 2 January 1917 (1980, pp. 145-146).

In March 1917, Öztürk records, food shortages sent 40,000 civilians and the city’s sacred relics to Damascus by train; TDV says thousands. Medina held out until 10 January 1919 (TDV), though the armistice of 30 October 1918 had ordered Ottoman garrisons in the Hejaz to surrender (Öztürk).

Read next: another popular story checked against its sources, “Teach your children swimming, archery and horse riding”.

Sources

1. Ufuk Gülsoy and William Ochsenwald, “Hicaz Demiryolu”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 17 (Istanbul, 1998), 441-445: the order and start, Ahmed İzzet’s report, aims, estimated cost and the 1901 budget, gifts and other revenue, medals, engineers, labour, progress by year, opening, the Mecca lines, troops and pilgrims carried, the waqf of 1914, the war and after (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hicaz-demiryolu
2. Cevdet Küçük, “Abdülhamid II”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 1 (Istanbul, 1988): the deposition, voted the day after the assembly returned on 26 April 1909 (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/abdulhamid-ii
3. Azmi Özcan, “Şerîf Hüseyin”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (2010): Jamal Pasha’s executions of August 1915 and May 1916, and Husayn’s proclamation of 27 June 1916 (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/serif-huseyin
4. İdris Bostan, “Sâdık el-Müeyyed Paşa”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi 35 (Istanbul, 2008), 399-400: the Hejaz telegraph, 1901 (Turkish). https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/sadik-el-mueyyed-pasa
5. Said Öztürk, “Hicaz Demiryolu”, Osmanlı Araştırmaları Vakfı (Ottoman Research Foundation): Ahmed İzzet’s report, Insha Allah, İkdam and al-Ra’id al-Misri, income 1900-1908 and its shares, cost, bridges and tunnels, al-Ula, the Mecca lines, travel and prayer on board, the Suez Canal, 1915-1918 (Turkish). https://osmanli.org.tr/hicaz-demiryolu/
6. Murat Özyüksel, Hicaz Demiryolu (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2000), English edition The Hejaz Railway and the Ottoman Empire (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014). Figures as summarised in Namık Sinan Turan, “Raylar Üzerinden İmparatorluğun Son Dönem Tarihine Bir Bakış”, Yakın Dönem Türkiye Araştırmaları 10 (2006), 215-228: budget share, donations, foreign share, India, Egypt, compulsory payments (Turkish). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/9873
7. Ramil M. Valeev, Alim M. Abidulin and Nailya I. Ayupova, “The Project of Hejaz Railway Construction: A Historical and Historiographic Review”, European Research Studies Journal 20, special issue (2017), 234-241: bank loans (citing Ufuk Gülsoy, Hicaz Demiryolu, Istanbul: Eren, 1994), Insha Allah’s papers, gifts from Russia. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/34592/1/The_Project_of_Hejaz_Railway_Construction_2017.pdf
8. Osman Şahin and Murat Hanilçe, “Hicaz Demiryolu”, Online Türkiye Turizm Ansiklopedisi (2021): length of the main line (Turkish). https://turkiyeturizmansiklopedisi.com/hicaz-demiryolu
9. William Ochsenwald, The Hijaz Railroad (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980): al-Akhdar (p. 34), Medina garrison labour (p. 35), cost to 1912 (p. 53), medals (p. 62), foreign and Indian gifts (pp. 69-73), al-Liwa (pp. 75-76), taxes, loans and revenue (pp. 77-79), timetable (p. 100), the war (pp. 145-146). https://archive.org/details/hijazrailroad0000ochs
10. Foreign Office Historical Section, Arabia, handbook no. 90 (London, April 1919), p. 53, British Library IOR/L/PS/20/E85, via Qatar Digital Library: the railway’s purpose. https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100023512781.0x000045
11. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Hejaz Railway”: length of the main line, later operation in Jordan. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hejaz-Railway
12. T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), Project Gutenberg Australia edition. https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100111h.html
13. Yousif Muhammad, “Hejaz Railway Museum Opened”, Arab News, 21 January 2006 (archived copy). https://web.archive.org/web/20090609155417/http://www.arabnews.com/?page=21&section=0&article=76563&d=23&m=1&y=2006
14. Saudipedia, “The Railway Museum”, al-Madinah: 1984 and the opening of 9 December 2013. https://saudipedia.com/en/article/2861/culture/museums/the-railway-museum
15. Arab Architecture database, “Hijaz Railway Station”, Damascus: dates and architect. https://arab-architecture.org/db/building/hijaz-railway-station
16. Wikipedia, “Hejaz railway station, Damascus”: location and architect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejaz_railway_station,_Damascus
17. Jordan News, “Minister of Transport Inaugurates Steam Locomotive After 40-Year Hiatus”, 15 October 2025. https://www.jordannews.jo/Section-109/News/Minister-of-Transport-Inaugurates-Steam-Locomotive-After-40-Year-Hiatus-45695

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