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Khamis Mushait

city in Saudi Arabia

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ759381 ↗
Source-derived summary

Khamis Mushayt or Khamis Mushait (Arabic: خميس مشيط, Ḫamīs Mušayṭ Arabic pronunciation: [xamiːs muʃajtˤ], locally: [xamiːs‿ɪmʃeːtˤ]) is a city in south-west Saudi Arabia, located east of Abha, the provincial seat of the Asir Province 884 kilometres (549 mi) from the national capital of Riyadh. It is the capital of the Shahran tribe in the Asir region.

It is the fifth-largest city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca and Medina, with an estimated metro population of 1,353,000 as of 2017. Khamis Mushayt is noted for being the fourth largest trading centre in Saudi Arabia, and its military airbase.

History

Until the 1970s, Khamis Mushayt was a small town of less than 50,000 servicing the surrounding mild-climate agricultural region. Since then its population has grown dramatically to reach over 1,200,000. The city is surrounded by farms producing agricultural crops.

King Khalid Air Base (KMX) has a 12,400 ft (3,780 m) paved runway without customs facilities. The base was designed and built by US Army and Air Force engineers in the 1960s and 70s and has F-15 service facilities. During the Gulf War in 1991, the US Air Force had a base here from which they launched bombers on Baghdad.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Khamis Mushait” as city in Saudi Arabia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Khamis, Mushait and city.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2017, 1991—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Khamis, Mushait and city providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Khamis Mushait”, the useful work is to connect “city in Saudi Arabia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q759381. VIAF identifies the subject as 131339956. The Library of Congress control number is n79118730. Authority coordinates are 18.300, 42.733. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017 and 1991.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Khamis Mushait”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Khamis Mushait primary sources, Khamis Mushait archive and Khamis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Khamis Mushait”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Khamis Mushait” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.