HUFUF, AL-

also spelled Hofuf, town, eastern Saudi Arabia. It lies in the large Al-Hasa oasis and on the railroad from Riyadh to Ad-Dammam. The headquarters of the Ottoman administration from 1871, when the Ottoman Empire seized eastern Arabia, it was recaptured in 1913 by the Wahhabis, a Muslim fundamentalist group, under Ibn Sa'ud. 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-Hufuf 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 Faysal University are located near Al-Hufuf. It is the site of the early 19th-century domed mosque of Ibrahim Pasha. To the west is Al-Ghawar, one of the world's largest oil fields. Pop. (1974) 101,271.