Part of the Hejaz region, the province has seen several exchanges of power between many Islamic realms within a short period of time.

The town was located about midway between Maʾrib in the south and Petra in the north, and it gradually developed by Roman and Byzantine times into an important trade and religious centre.

Ptolemy's inclusion of Macoraba (Μακοράβα),[8] a city of the Arabian interior, in his Guide to Geography was long held to show that Mecca was known to the Hellenistic world.

The central point of pilgrimage in Mecca before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the cube-shaped stone building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times.

As the ancient caravan route fell into decline, Mecca lost its commercial significance and has since lived mainly on the proceeds from the annual pilgrimages and the gifts of Muslim rulers.

The city suffered great indignity at the hands of the Shīʿite Qarmatians in 930 when that sect's leader Ṭāhir Sulaymān pillaged Mecca and carried off the Black Stone from the Kaʿbah.

Beginning in the mid-10th century, the rulers of the city were chosen from the sharifs, or descendants of Muhammad, who retained a stronghold on the surrounding region while often paying homage to stronger political entities.

The ability of the sharifs, originally moderate Shīʿites, to adapt to the changing political and religious climate ensured their preeminence in local affairs for the next 1,000 years.

With the Ottoman collapse after World War I, control of Mecca was contested between the sharifs and the House of Saʿūd of central Arabia, adherents to an austere, puritanical form of Islam known as Wahhābism.

[4] The region underwent extensive economic development as Saudi Arabia's petroleum resources were exploited after World War II, and the number of yearly pilgrims to Mecca has increased significantly.

Agriculture takes place in the region's many wadis and oases, with the most commonly-grown crops being dates and barley, alongside other vegetables and fruits.

Other minor sanctuaries in the province include the Saiysad Natural Reserve in the city of Ta'if and the Eastern Forest near Jeddah.

Muslims are estimated to live within the province, with even smaller numbers of Hindus, Christians and other religious groups, most of whom are expatriates from India and the Philippines, who mostly reside in Jeddah.