A Brief History of Saudi Arabia, Third Edition

James Wynbrandt

Description

A Brief History of Saudi Arabia, Third Edition provides a clear, lively, and comprehensive account of the history of Saudi Arabia from ancient times to the present day. It relates the central events that have shaped the country and details their significance in historical context, touching on all aspects of the history of the country, from political, international, and economic affairs to cultural and social developments. Illustrated with full-color maps and photographs, and accompanied by a chronology, bibliography, and suggested reading, this accessible overview is ideal for the general reader.

Coverage includes:

• Arabia: The Land and Its Pre-Islamic History


• The Birth of Islam


• The Islamic Empire and Arabia


• The Golden Age of Islam


• The Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the Wahhabi–Al Saud Alliance


• The First Saudi State


• Roots of Modern Arabia


• Unity and Independence


• Birth of a Kingdom


• A Path to World Power


• Oil and Arms


• The Gulf Crisis and Its Aftermath


• Challenges and Cautious Reforms


• At the Center of a Regional Realignment

 

Sujets

• Islam
• Arabie saoudite
• Culture
• History
• Global
• World
• Middle East
• Politics
• Saudi Arabia
• Lifestyle
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Infobase Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438199542
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

A Brief History of Saudi Arabia, Third Edition
Copyright © 2021 by James Wynbrandt
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information, contact:
Facts On File An imprint of Infobase 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001
ISBN 978-1-4381-9954-2
You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.infobase.com
Contents Chapters Arabia: The Land and Its Pre-Islamic History The Birth of Islam The Islamic Empire and Arabia The Golden Age of Islam The Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the Wahhabi–Al Saud Alliance The First Saudi State Roots of Modern Arabia Unity and Independence Birth of a Kingdom A Path to World Power Oil and Arms The Gulf Crisis and Its Aftermath Challenges and Cautious Reforms At the Center of a Regional Realignment Support Materials Glossary Chronology Bibliography Suggested Reading Index
Note on Arabic Transliteration and Spelling

Spoken Arabic incorporates several sounds not produced in the English language, and no standard system exists for transliterating these vocalizations into English. Some texts use diacriticals, or accent marks, to indicate where and which such sounds should be voiced in a transliterated word. But without familiarity with spoken Arabic, such markings can be more confusing than helpful. In the interests of simplicity and accessibility, even some scholarly works have dispensed with the use of diacriticals (e.g., Saud rather than Sa'ud ), an approach this book observes as well.
Likewise, no standardized English spelling exists for many Arabic proper nouns, and variations in their transliteration are common. Where such choices exist, the author has attempted to balance the demands of historical usage and evolving standards.
Within the text, Arabic words are rendered in italics; those that have been accepted into English, as determined by inclusion in Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition , are rendered without italics. In Arabic, the article al , meaning "the," is frequently appended to proper nouns by a hyphen. It is written in lowercase unless it begins a sentence. In many spellings of place-names, the al can be dropped (e.g., al-Medina, or Medina; al-Hasa, or Hasa). This al is distinct from Al , which is appended to family names (Al Saud, Al Sabah), where it means "house of" or "family of."
Names of tribes are often preceded by Bani or Banu . The word ibn or bin means "son of" or "descendant of" and is frequently appended to names; bint means "daughter of." Abu means “father of,” and Abd , found in common names (Abduallah, Abd al- . . .) means "servant of."
Entry Author: Wynbrandt, James.
Chapters
Arabia: The Land and Its Pre-Islamic History

For most of its history, what is now Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula were part of Africa. Hundreds of millions of years ago, portions of its eastern boundaries were periodically submerged by seas that eventually became the Persian Gulf. The sediments from the marine plant and animal life of these waters became the source of the region's petroleum deposits. The peninsula itself is a relatively recent creation, formed 20 million to 25 million years ago when tectonic forces split the Arabian plate, or shield, from the African plate. The massive rift valley that formed where Arabia separated from Africa is filled by the Red Sea, and the fissure continues through the African continent. Adjoining the south end of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden separates the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa and opens into the Arabian Sea to the east. At the peninsula's southeast corner, the Arabian sea narrows into the Gulf of Oman, which connects with the Persian Gulf at the Strait of Hormuz to the north. These latter two gulfs separate the peninsula from Iran.
Before meeting the peoples who first inhabited this land, let us survey the stage upon which their drama unfolded.
Geology and Geography
The upthrust activity associated with the peninsula's formation raised the western and southern ends of the crystalline bedrock underlying the peninsula, so that the land mass exhibits a general and gradual downward slope to the east. The same geologic forces that split the land from Africa are slowly rotating it counterclockwise in a motion that will, in about 10 million years, close off the Persian Gulf and transform that body of water into a lake.
The Arabian Peninsula is the world's largest, at some 865,000 square miles (2,240,000 sq km), or about the size of Europe or India. Saudi Arabia occupies about 80 percent of the peninsula and is about one-quarter of the area of the continental United States. Seven sovereign states border the kingdom. Along its northern frontier, from west to east, are Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait. To the south and east are Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The island nation of Bahrain lies off Saudi Arabia's coast north of Qatar.

The Arabian Peninsula is the world’s largest such landmass. Situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, it has long played a large role in human history, though its inhospitable geography and climate kept Arabia isolated.
Source: Infobase.
The land of Arabia, as the area now occupied by the kingdom and the peninsula as a whole has historically been called, has several distinct geographic regions. Overall, its features are characterized by various types of desert, barren and inhospitable. Along the west coast lie Hijaz and Asir. Najd, which means "plateau," occupies the north-central area of the kingdom. The Eastern Province (traditionally known as Hasa) extends from Najd to the Persian Gulf. The vast Rub al-Khali desert dominates the kingdom's south-central region.
Hijaz and Asir
The western portion of Saudi Arabia consists of Hijaz in the north and Asir in the south. These regions have traditionally been associated with Arabia's more sedentary, as opposed to nomadic, populations. Today, the cities of Mecca and Medina and the port of Jeddah (Jiddah) are found here. The Red Sea Escarpment, a range of steep mountains, parallels the length of the peninsula's west coast from the Gulf of Aqaba in the north to the Gulf of Aden in the south. These mountains are divided by a gap at about the midpoint of the peninsula, in the vicinity of Mecca. This gap marks the dividing line between Hijaz and Asir. The coastal mountains of Hijaz drop sharply to the Red Sea. Few natural harbors exist in this region, and the coastal plain (Tihamah) is much narrower in the north than it is to the south. In Hijaz, the mountains range from about 7,000 feet (2,133 m) in the north to about 1,800 feet (550 m) near Mecca. Their eastern slopes are scored by dry river beds (wadis) and areas of large lava beds (harrat) left by fairly recent volcanic activity. Scattered spring- or well-fed oases dot the region. These have historically supported settlements and agriculture.

Asir, in southwest Saudi Arabia, is a region of rugged highlands.
Source: Shutterstock. Hyserb.
To the south, in the more rugged Asir, the mountain range widens and climbs higher, rising to more than 10,000 feet (3,048 m). The upper slopes receive enough rainfall to support agriculture, and crops are grown on terraced plots. The western slopes are steep, as in the north, but not as near to the sea. The Tihamah lowlands, about 40 miles wide on average (65 km), spread from the mountains to a salty tidal plain that runs along the coast of Asir. The mountains' eastern slope descends gently to a plateau marked by numerous wadis, which support relatively large-scale oasis-based agriculture. Farther east, the plateau gradually drops to the vast desert sands of the Rub al-Khali. South of Asir are the mountainous highlands of Yemen, whose highest elevations reach about 12,000 feet (3,660 m).
Najd
East of Hijaz and Asir lies Najd, which forms the center of Arabia, a great, rocky plateau dotted with small sand deserts and mountains. Its border with the western coastal provinces is undefined. This was long the heartland of the Bedouin, nomadic tribes, with its relatively few settled inhabitants living in scattered oasis-based towns and villages. The plateau, about 200 miles (320 km) wide, slopes downward from west to east, descending from about 4,000 feet (1,360 m) to about 2,200 feet (750 m). A low limestone escarpment in the vicinity of Riyadh, the Jebel Tuwayq, one of several such formations in the region, forms the heart of Najd. Marked by many oases and large salt marshes, the escarpment swings north to south in an arc some 500 miles (800 km) long. Its western face rises steeply some 300 to 750 feet (90–225 m) above the plateau, the result of gradual erosion of softer rock and terrain around it.

The Tuwayq Escarpment curves through the central Najd region in the heartland of the Arabian Peninsula.
Source: Baptiste Marcel. Wikimedia Commons.
Parallel and just east of Jebel Tuwayq is Ad Dahna, an 800-mile-long (1,300 km), narrow desert, extending from the Great Nufud desert in the north to the Rub al-Khali in the south. The sand's high iron oxide content gives it a reddish orange tint. Ad Dahna is bordered on the east by the As Summan Plateau. The barren and rocky plateau, some 50 to 150 miles (80–240 km) wide, is marked by ancient river gorges and isolated buttes bearing the signs of eons of erosion. The plateau drops from an elevation of about 1,300 feet to about 750 feet (400–225 m).
Persian Gulf Coast
Flat lowlands and coastal plain extend east from the As Summan Plateau for some 35 miles (60 km). The desolate landscape is generally featureless and covered with gravel or sand. The northern portion is the Ad Dibdibah Plain. To the south lies the Eastern Province, or Hasa. One of the most fertile areas in Saudi Arabia, it includes the largest oasi