Karaz

City of Karaz
Flag of Karaz. Flag
Anthem: N/A
Status	Active
Capital	Ehado
Official languages	English,Rovani,Arabic
Government	Federal Constitutional Monarchy
Population
• 2021 estimate	5
Currency	Saudi Riyal (SAR)

Karaz, officially known as the City of Karaz, is the capital city of the State of Rovia. It borders Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Karaz is where the royal family resides, and it is also where the only museum in the country, unnamed but popularly known as ''the museum'', is located. The museum contains several crowns, a ruby owned by the ruling family, and several artifacts and documentation created before and during the Greater Rovian Empire age.

History

Pre-Islam

Traces of early activity in the area are testified by some Thamudic inscriptions that were excavated in Wadi Briman (وادي بريمان), east of the city, and Wadi Boweb (وادي بويب), northwest of the city. The oldest Mashrabiya found in Jeddah dates back to the pre-Islamic era. Some believe that Jeddah had been inhabited before Alexander the Great, who had a naval expedition to the Red Sea, by fishermen in the Red Sea, who considered it a center from which they sailed out into the sea as well as a place for relaxation and well-being. Excavations in the old city have been interpreted as that Jeddah was founded as a fishing hamlet by the Yemeni Quda'a tribe (Arabic: بني قضاعة‎), who left central Yemen to settle in Makkah after the collapse of Marib Dam in Yemen in 115 BC.

Middle Ages

Jeddah first achieved prominence around A.D. 647, when the third Muslim Caliph, Uthman Ibn Affan, turned it into a port making it the port of Makkah instead of Al Shoaib port southwest of Mecca. The Umayyads inherited the entire Rashidun Caliphate including Hejaz and ruled from 661 to 750. In 702, Jeddah was briefly occupied by pirates from the Kingdom of Axum. However, Jeddah remained a key civilian harbor, serving fishermen and pilgrims traveling by sea for the Hajj. It is also believed that the Sharifdom of Mecca, an honorary Viceroy to the holy land, was first appointed in this period of the Islamic Caliphate. In essence, Jeddah was established as the main city of the historic Hijaz province and a historic port for pilgrims arriving by sea to perform their Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. In 750 in the Abbasid Revolution, the Abbasids successfully took control of almost the whole Umayyad Empire, excluding Morocco (Maghrib) and Spain (Al-Andalus). From 876, Jeddah and the surrounding area became the object of wars between the Abbasids and the Tulunids of Egypt, who at one point gained control of Egypt, Syria, Jordan , and the Hejaz. The power struggle between the Tulunid Governors and the Abbasids over Hejaz lasted for nearly twenty-five years until the Tulunids finally withdrew from Arabia in 900 AD.

In 930 AD, the main Hejazi cities of Medina, Mecca, and Taif were heavily sacked by the Qarmatians. It is probable, though not historically confirmed, that Jeddah itself was attacked by Qarmatians. Soon after, in early 935, the Ikhshidids, the new rulers of Egypt, appeared to have taken control of the Hejaz region. There are no historical records that detail the Ikhshidid rule of Hejaz. At this point, Jeddah was probably still unfortified and without walls. In 969 AD, the Fatimids from the Matghreb took control in Egypt from the Ikhshidids and expanded their empire to the surrounding regions, including The Hijaz and Jeddah. The Fatimids developed an extensive trade network in both the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea. Their trade and diplomatic ties extended all the way to China and its Song Dynasty, which eventually determined the economic course of Tihamah during the High Middle Ages.

After Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in 1171, he proclaimed himself sultan of Egypt, after dissolving the Fatimid Caliphate upon the death of al-Adid, thus establishing the Ayyubid dynasty. Ayyubid conquests in Hejaz included Jeddah, which became part of the Ayyubid Sultanate in 1177 during the leadership of Sharif Ibn Abul-Hashim Al-Thalab (1094–1201). During their relatively short-lived tenure, the Ayyubids ushered in an era of economic prosperity in the lands they ruled and the facilities and patronage provided by the Ayyubids led to a resurgence in intellectual activity in the Islamic world. This period was also marked by an Ayyubid process of vigorously strengthening Sunni Muslim dominance in the region by constructing numerous madrasas (Islamic schools) in their major cities. Jeddah attracted Muslim sailors and merchants from Sindh, Southeast Asia and East Africa, and other distant regions.

In 1254, following events in Cairo and the dissolution of the Ayyubid Empire, Hejaz became a part of the Mamluk Sultanate.

The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, having found his way around the Cape and obtained pilots from the coast of Zanzibar in AD 1497, pushed his way across the Indian Ocean to the shores of Malabar and Calicut, attacked fleets that carried freight and Muslim pilgrims from India to the Red Sea, and struck terror into the surrounding potentates. The Sultanates of Gujarat and Yemen turned for help to Egypt. Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri accordingly fitted out a fleet of 50 vessels under the Governor of Jeddah, Emir Hussein the Kurd (also known as Mirocem). Jeddah was soon fortified with a wall, using forced labor, as a harbor of refuge from the Portuguese, allowing Arabia and the Red Sea to be protected.

Geography

Karaz is located in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastal plain (called Tihamah)(تهامة الحجاز), which is in the lower Hijaz mountains. Karaz features an arid climate, with a tropical temperature range. Unlike other Rovian cities, Karaz retains its warm temperature in winter, which can range from 15 °C (59 °F) at dawn to 28 °C (82 °F) in the afternoon. Summer temperatures are extremely hot, often breaking the 40 °C (104 °F) mark in the afternoon. Summers are also quite steamy, with dew points often exceeding 27 °C (80 °F), particularly in September. Rainfall in Jeddah is generally sparse, and usually occurs in small amounts in November and December, however, Heavy thunderstorms are common in the winter.

Climate

Climate data for Karaz, State of Rovia (1985-2010)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	35.0 (95)	36.0 (96.8)	40.2 (104.4)	44.5 (112.1)	48.2 (118.8)	52.0 (125.6)	47.0 (116.6)	46.0 (114.8)	48.0 (118.4)	46.4 (115.5)	40.0 (104)	37.0 (98.6)	52.0 (125.6)
Average high °C (°F)	29.0 (84.2)	29.5 (85.1)	31.8 (89.2)	34.9 (94.8)	37.2 (99)	38.3 (100.9)	39.4 (102.9)	38.8 (101.8)	37.6 (99.7)	36.7 (98.1)	33.5 (92.3)	30.7 (87.3)	34.78 (94.61)
Daily mean °C (°F)	24.5 (76.1)	24.8 (76.6)	26.1 (79)	28.5 (83.3)	30.2 (86.4)	31.2 (88.2)	32.7 (90.9)	32.7 (90.9)	31.5 (88.7)	29.8 (85.6)	27.4 (81.3)	25.9 (78.6)	28.78 (83.8)
Average low °C (°F)	20.3 (68.5)	20.1 (68.2)	21.4 (70.5)	22.1 (71.8)	24.0 (75.2)	24.8 (76.6)	26.6 (79.9)	27.6 (81.7)	26.4 (79.5)	24.1 (75.4)	22.3 (72.1)	21.0 (69.8)	23.39 (74.11)
Record low °C (°F)	11.0 (51.8)	9.8 (49.6)	10.0 (50)	12.0 (53.6)	16.4 (61.5)	20.0 (68)	20.5 (68.9)	22.0 (71.6)	17.0 (62.6)	15.6 (60.1)	15.0 (59)	11.4 (52.5)	9.8 (49.6)
Average Rainfall mm (inches)	9.9 (0.39)	3.7 (0.146)	2.9 (0.114)	2.8 (0.11)	0.2 (0.008)	0.0 (0)	0.3 (0.012)	0.5 (0.02)	0.1 (0.004)	1.1 (0.043)	26.4 (1.039)	13.1 (0.516)	61 (2.402)
Average relative humidity (%)	60	60	60	57	56	58	53	59	67	66	65	63	60
[citation needed]