When Muhammad Ali visited a small Al-Balad cafe

JEDDAH: More than five decades after the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, visited Al-Balad in Jeddah, the memory lives on through a small family business. It was 1972 and Mohammed Ba Zaraah was sitting in his cafe, The Bird Shop, when in walked the legendary American fighter and sampled the traditional Hijazi drink, sobia. It was during Ali’s first visit to the Kingdom to perform Hajj. Ba Zaraah’s son, Khalid Najee, told Arab News that he was only 12 in 1972 and not in th