Fayd

1 · POSITION

Fayd, about 120 kilometres east of Hail in northern Saudi Arabia, was the great station of the Darb Zubaydah — the pilgrim road from Iraq to Mecca. It stood midway between Baghdad and Mecca, and historians called it the capital of the route. The register holds it as the place on that road where rest, trade and pilgrimage were one economy. [1, 2]

2 · THE CAPITAL OF THE ROUTE

Fayd is counted the third city of the road after Kufa and Basra, and the largest station on it. It flourished above all under the Abbasids. Pilgrims stopped there to replenish their supplies, and the town worked as an open market where they gathered — the station was where the road was provisioned. [1, 2]

3 · WHAT THE GROUND HOLDS

The old town lies about a kilometre and a half north of the modern one and covers an area of roughly a kilometre and a half each way. Its monuments include the Kharash palace, parts of a fortress with inner and outer walls, and the ponds, wells and underground water channels that made the station possible. Saudi archaeologists have found early Islamic underground aqueducts and an early Islamic mosque, and in 2018 a service area with bread ovens and wash basins. [1, 2]

4 · ON THE ROAD

The register files Fayd under the road it served, the Darb Zubaydah, and beside the pilgrim stations of other roads: the wells, ovens and wash basins of Fayd are the same provision as the posthouse at Xuanquan or the sarai on the Grand Trunk Road. [1]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. That pilgrims and merchants stored supplies here for the return was not found; the sources read speak of replenishing, and call Fayd the midpoint and a major station of the trail. The note is corrected. The number of aqueducts found is not given. [1–3]