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Photo album of the Hejaz Railway
(ألبوم صور لسكة الحديد الحجازية)

Title	Photo album of the Hejaz Railway
Title Original	ألبوم صور لسكة الحديد الحجازية
Publication Date:	About 1908 AD
Publication Place	- Al-Khalili Family Trust - Nasser D. Collection. Al-Khalili Islamic Art
Type	Other
Language	Undetermined
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	No
Physical Dimensions	الألبوم المغلق : 24 × 31 سم ، الألبوم المفتوح : 24 × 67.5 سم
Library:	Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID	ARC.al 6
Record ID	object;EPM;uk;Mus22;10;ar
Library Location	Al-Khalili Family Trust - Nasser D. Collection. Al-Khalili Islamic Art
Date	About 1908 AD
Notes	In 1900, Sultan Abdul Hamid II (ruled 1876-1909) began constructing a railway linking Damascus with the holy cities in the Hijaz, such as Medina and Mecca. This line was established with the participation of public authorities and an invitation to the Islamic world for financial support. The railway reached Medina in 1908, but did not reach Mecca. It was built with the help of German engineers who worked under the supervision of Turkish officials. This album of the Hejazi Railway belongs to a Turkish engineer who worked on establishing the line. This album contains 50 pictures, most of which are of stations and sections of the line, but there are also pictures of natural scenes through which the line passes in the region between Tabuk and Mada’in Saleh. The photos were mostly taken by Armenian photographer J.H. Haldjian, who owns a studio in Haifa, Palestine, and who was active in the 1890s and the beginning of the twentieth century. According to records at the Imperial War Museum and the Royal Geographical Society, Haldjian was the one who took the photographs of the Hejaz Railway and the places along its route. The album contains some important pictures, such as a picture of Tabuk Hospital, which was founded in 1907 and which became the quarantine station for the railway (ARC.al 6.16), and also pictures that show the difficulty of cutting rocks in order to pass the line through mountainous terrain (ARC.al 6.24). Also documented here are large pieces of stone in the north of Mada'in Salih (ARC.al 6.389) in Mubarak al-Najat, where, before the railway, the Ottoman government linked the Hejaz to Istanbul via a telegraph line that reached Mada'in Salih in 1900. The construction of the land telegraph line between Damascus and the city, which is very similar to the project to construct the Hejaz railway, was faced with difficulties that included the nature of the land and the danger of resistance from the Bedouins.
Sample Text	“Photo album of the Hejaz Railway” within Discover Islamic Art Collections. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;uk;Mus22;10;ar

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Photo album of the Hejaz Railway

(ألبوم صور لسكة الحديد الحجازية)

Publication Date About 1908 AD

Publication Place - Al-Khalili Family Trust - Nasser D. Collection. Al-Khalili Islamic Art

Type Other

Language Undetermined

Digital Yes

Manuscript No

Physical Dimensions الألبوم المغلق : 24 × 31 سم ، الألبوم المفتوح : 24 × 67.5 سم

Library Museum With No Frontiers

Library Asset ID ARC.al 6

Record ID object;EPM;uk;Mus22;10;ar

Library Location Al-Khalili Family Trust - Nasser D. Collection. Al-Khalili Islamic Art

Date About 1908 AD

Notes In 1900, Sultan Abdul Hamid II (ruled 1876-1909) began constructing a railway linking Damascus with the holy cities in the Hijaz, such as Medina and Mecca. This line was established with the participation of public authorities and an invitation to the Islamic world for financial support. The railway reached Medina in 1908, but did not reach Mecca. It was built with the help of German engineers who worked under the supervision of Turkish officials. This album of the Hejazi Railway belongs to a Turkish engineer who worked on establishing the line. This album contains 50 pictures, most of which are of stations and sections of the line, but there are also pictures of natural scenes through which the line passes in the region between Tabuk and Mada’in Saleh. The photos were mostly taken by Armenian photographer J.H. Haldjian, who owns a studio in Haifa, Palestine, and who was active in the 1890s and the beginning of the twentieth century. According to records at the Imperial War Museum and the Royal Geographical Society, Haldjian was the one who took the photographs of the Hejaz Railway and the places along its route. The album contains some important pictures, such as a picture of Tabuk Hospital, which was founded in 1907 and which became the quarantine station for the railway (ARC.al 6.16), and also pictures that show the difficulty of cutting rocks in order to pass the line through mountainous terrain (ARC.al 6.24). Also documented here are large pieces of stone in the north of Mada'in Salih (ARC.al 6.389) in Mubarak al-Najat, where, before the railway, the Ottoman government linked the Hejaz to Istanbul via a telegraph line that reached Mada'in Salih in 1900. The construction of the land telegraph line between Damascus and the city, which is very similar to the project to construct the Hejaz railway, was faced with difficulties that included the nature of the land and the danger of resistance from the Bedouins.

Sample Text “Photo album of the Hejaz Railway” within Discover Islamic Art Collections. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;uk;Mus22;10;ar