Hufūf, Al-

▪ Saudi Arabia

also spelled  Hofuf  

 town, eastern Saudi Arabia. It lies in the large Al-Hasa oasis and on the railroad from Riyadh to Al-Dammām. The headquarters of the Ottoman administration from 1871, when the Ottoman Empire seized eastern Arabia, it was recaptured in 1913 by the Wahhābīs, a Muslim fundamentalist group, under Ibn Saʿūd. The town remained under their control thereafter, becoming part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia formed in 1932.

      Now an agricultural market centre (its Thursday Market is notable), Al-Hufūf has rice- and date-processing, cement-making, and weaving industries and the royal horse-breeding stables. The agricultural, veterinary, education, and management faculties of King Fayṣal University are located near Al-Hufūf. It is the site of the early 19th-century domed mosque of Ibrāhīm Pasha. To the west is Al-Ghawār, one of the world's largest oil fields. Pop. (2004 prelim.) 287,841.

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