[2] Sūq ʿUkāẓ was a seasonal market which operated for twenty-one days each year during the month of Dhu al-Qa'dah prior to the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

[1] Strategically located at a central point on the Spice Route through Western Arabia, its growth in the sixth century was partly caused by the Byzantine-Persian wars, which made it harder for Mediterranean markets to access Mesopotamian trade-routes.

[1] The site and its sacrality was significant in the Fijār War of the late sixth century CE (between the Qays-ʿAylān, including the Hawāzin, on the one hand and the Quraysh and Kināna tribes on the other).

[4] The site is prominent in later legends of pre-Islamic Arabian heroes: it allegedly saw preaching visits from the Islamic prophet, Muḥammad and the semi-legendary Christian Quss ibn Sāʿida, and is the scene of some stories about Hind bint al-Khuss.

[3][5] Yet the importance of ʿUkāẓ declined after the rise of Islam, because the increasingly sprawling caliphate facilitated new trade-routes, and altered the social roles of Arabian tribes.