Usfan
Usfan
An ancient Hajj stop between al-Juhfa and Mecca, about thirty-three kilometers from the holy city. The Prophet passed through on the Farewell Pilgrimage and during the Conquest of Mecca, and an Ottoman qishlah still stands on the site.
Plan your visit
Practical information verified separately from the historical record.
Before you go: Check with the operator or a local guide before departure; field access details have not yet been verified.
Why visit?
Visit a Prophetic Hajj station on the Hijaz coastal plain where Sira sources and a surviving Ottoman military post overlap.
Usfan is one of the oldest stations on the Hajj road between al-Juhfa and Mecca, set on a coastal plain linked to the Hijaz mountains. Sira and hadith sources mention it repeatedly. In 6 AH the Prophet sent an expedition to the Usfan region. During the Farewell Pilgrimage he passed through and stopped to perform the prayer of fear, known in some accounts as Salat Dhat al-Riqa'. The Muslim army also marched through Usfan on the way to the Conquest of Mecca in 8 AH.
The site is marked by an Ottoman qishlah, or military post, dating to the twelfth century AH whose ruins still stand. Field surveys by the Desert Team documented this structure as a later historical layer above older Hajj infrastructure. Usfan thus preserves both the earliest Prophetic journeys and centuries of Ottoman administration of the Hijaz routes.
Usfan combines religious, military, and geographical importance. Its place in the Sira and the survival of the qishlah make it a layered witness to how the pilgrimage was guarded and supplied across the ages.