With the birth of Islam in the seventh century, the pilgrimage, or hajj, took on an entirely new meaning, and the flow of pilgrims to Makkah expanded. Some pilgrims decided to settle permanently in the Holy City, building their houses in the valley surrounding the Kaba. The residential area of Makkah continued to grow, fueled by newcomers every year. Later immigrants built their houses on slopes and hilltops, due to a shortage of land in the valley and the problem of seasonal flooding, in those days, the height of buildings did not exceed two stories.

During the Ottoman period (1517-1924), housing and other construction in Makkah came under the influence of Turkish architecture. Palaces, forts and large houses were built on the hills and in the valleys of the Makkah area. Buildings gradually grew taller, due to advances in construction technology and the land storage around the Kaba, and in time reached seven stories. After 1924, the traditional Makkan house was somewhat influenced by Western architecture, but remained relatively unchanged until the appearance of reinforced concrete as a construction material.

Generally speaking, Muslim architectural style in the Middle East – North Africa, Syria central Arabia and central Turkey - was characterized by one or two story houses built around a central courtyard house in Jeddah, Yanbu, Madinah, Taif or Makkah.

In the 10th century, Shams al-Din Abu 'Abd Allah al-Muqaddisi described Makkan houses as "built of black, smooth stones and also of white stones, but the upper parts are of teakwood and are several stories high, whitewashed and clean."

In the 12th century, Andalusian geographer Ibn Jubayr commented on the flat roofs of Makkah's houses: "We passed the nights on the roof of the place where we stayed and sometimes the cold of the night air would fall on us and [we] would need a blanket to protect us from it."

Spanish traveler 'Ali Bey al-'Abbasi, who visited Makkah in 1807, wrote that "the houses are solidly built with stone, they are three and four stories high, and sometimes even more. The fronts are ornamented with bases, moldings and paintings which give them a very graceful appearance.... The blinds of the balconies are not very close, and holes are cut besides in different parts of them. The roofs form terraces, surrounded with a wall about two meters [seven feet] high, open at certain spaces, which are occupied by a railing of red and white bricks placed symmetrically, leaving holes for the circulation of the air. All the staircases are narrow, dark and steep. The rooms are well-proportioned, long, broad and lofty and have beside the large windows and balconies, a second row of smaller windows."

Many other visitors described similar structures. Actually, not a single house survives from al-Muqaddisi's or Ibn Jubayr's time but the descriptions still apply to the existing traditional houses in Makkah. Clearly, the internal configuration of the traditional Makkan house has suited the long-term requirements of the city and its inhabitants.

From the street, one enters the house through an elaborate doorway and steps into an entrance hall known as a dihliz. The ground or entrance floor is reserved for men, and one never risks meeting an unveiled woman there. The upper floors belong to the women, and a visitor cannot go upstairs without an escort. The entrance hall floor is covered with sand or a kind of mortar called tubtab. On one or both sides of the entrance hall are raised benches where the master of the house sits and receives casual visitors, drinks tea with them and smokes his water pipe, or shishah.

On either side of the entrance hall - sometimes on both sides - and raised above floor level, is an important sifting room called the maq'ad, which serves as a business office, or reception room for intimate friends. It may also function as a sleeping room during hot summer afternoons, or as a storeroom for merchandise or luggage during the pilgrimage season. Even in the most modest of houses, social activities play an important role; therefore the maq’ad is usually spacious, well-decorated and with high-ceiling.

In older, wealthier houses, the maq’ad is replaced by an even more luxurious room known as the diwan, with carpets on the floor and cushions for sitting or reclining along the walls, where the men meet for receptions, take their dinner and talk business. In addition to these rooms, a water closet, called bayt al-ma' or taharah, is also found on the entrance floor.

The main sitting room, or majlis, overlooks the street. Its floors are covered with carpets; along the walls are low, firm cushions to sit on and recline against, like couches without legs or frames. Cupboards with ornamented wooden doors adorn the walls. Windows with decorated wooden shutters - mashrabiyyahs or rawashin - project out over the street. To enter the main sitting room, one must pass through a smaller room called the suffah. Another room, a storage chamber known as the khizanah, adjoins the majlis as well.

The majlis is a multi-purpose room, according to the changing needs of the family: a sitting room during the daytime, a place where women gather when men guests are downstairs in the maq'ad or diwan, a bedroom at night or a rented room for pilgrims during the pilgrimage season. The adjoining khizanah is used either as a storeroom for extra mattresses, pillows and blankets, or as a kitchen when rented out to pilgrims. Large houses have another small sitting room known as the mu'akhkhar, which overlooks the back street or opens onto a minwar, an air shaft that admits sunlight. Finally, there is a toilet on every floor, either on the staircase landing or opening off the living quarters.

WOODWORK