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Building the MENA Region's First Developer API Platform

Why we built KhaleejiAPI, the challenges of serving GCC developers, and our vision for the future of MENA developer infrastructure.

KhaleejiAPI TeamFebruary 22, 20268 min read

The Problem

Developers building applications for the Middle East face a fragmented landscape. Need Emirates ID validation? Build it yourself. Need Hijri calendar conversion? Find an unmaintained npm package. Need Saudi business day calculations? Write custom logic accounting for Friday-Saturday weekends and Islamic holidays.

Every MENA developer has reinvented these wheels. We decided to build them once, properly, and make them available as simple API calls.

Why KhaleejiAPI Exists

KhaleejiAPI is the first API platform purpose-built for the GCC and MENA region. We offer 26 production-ready APIs covering:

  • Validation — Emirates ID, Saudi ID (Iqama), IBAN, VAT/TRN, email, phone
  • Finance — Real-time exchange rates, VAT calculation, GCC public holidays, business day calculations
  • Islamic — Hijri calendar conversion, prayer times with Qibla direction, Arabic text processing (NLP)
  • Geolocation — IP lookup, timezone (DST-aware), geocoding for 100+ MENA locations
  • Media — Image processing (sharp), PDF generation (pdf-lib)
  • Communication — AI-powered translation via Google Gemini (22+ languages)

Every API uses real data sources — not mock data, not hardcoded responses.

Technical Decisions

Why Next.js?

We chose Next.js 16 as a monolith — API routes and frontend in one codebase. This lets us:

  • Ship faster — one deploy updates everything
  • Share types — TypeScript types flow from API to SDK to docs
  • Edge-ready — API routes can run on the edge when needed

Why AWS me-central-1?

Our compute runs in the UAE region (me-central-1). This gives our GCC users <50ms latency compared to 200ms+ from us-east-1. Data residency matters for compliance with UAE's PDPL and Saudi's PDPL.

Real Data, Not Mock Data

Every API returns real data:

  • Exchange rates from open.er-api.com (1-hour cache)
  • Weather from Open-Meteo (30-minute cache)
  • Translation via Google Gemini 2.5 Flash AI (24-hour cache)
  • Image processing with sharp (real binary output)
  • PDF generation with pdf-lib (real binary output)

Caching Strategy

We use Valkey (Redis-compatible) with in-memory fallback:

Exchange Rates → Valkey (1h TTL) → In-memory Map fallback
Translation    → Valkey (24h TTL) → In-memory Map fallback
Weather        → Valkey (30m TTL) → In-memory Map fallback

If Valkey is unavailable, the API still works — just without cross-instance cache sharing.

What's Next

We're shipping fast. Here's what's coming:

  • MCP Server — AI agents (Claude, Copilot, Cursor) can call our APIs directly
  • Mobile SDKs — Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android)
  • Blog — You're reading the first post!
  • Open Finance APIs — Aligned with UAE CBUAE Open Finance Regulation
  • Islamic Fintech — Zakat calculator, Sukuk tracking

Get Started

Sign up for a free API key at khaleejiapi.dev/signup — 1,000 requests/month, no credit card required.

curl https://khaleejiapi.dev/api/v1/hijri/convert?today=true \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY"

We're building the infrastructure that MENA developers deserve. Join us.