Tomorrow has been decreed a National Holiday by King Abdullah, the reigning monarch of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Holy Mosques. In his honor and to celebrate the anniversary of Saudi, I researched a bit about Saudi Arabia history and am giving you my take on the Modern History of the Kingdom.
Remember the breathtaking vistas from Lawrence of Arabia, vast expanses of desert, uninterrupted by anything beside the occasional camel? From that movie, you know that Saudi Arabia is a huge country occupying most of the Arabian peninsula. It currently has a population of about 22,000,000, including about five million foreigners. Earlier this year, we even became a part of the statistics when we filled in the Saudi Arabian Census form. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, has Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam, and sees millions of Muslim pilgrims flock to Mecca and Medina yearly for the Haj.
From an economic perspective, Saudi has the world's largest reserve of oil, right below its surface, making it cheap to be retrieved and processed. Worth actually just filled up our GMC Envoy for the whopping amount of $9.00 for 74 liters, or 19.5 gallons!
Saudi Arabia has maintained good relationships with the USA, as all the photographs of the various US presidents meeting the Kings of Saudi Arabia hanging within the US Embassy here in Riyadh bear witness. There is a long history of political and economical bonds between the two countries that was put to a test when it turned out that many of the hijackers of September 11th attacks had Saudi passports and that their leader, Osama Bin Laden, came from a very wealthy Saudi family involved in the construction business. He has been stripped from his citizenship and is persona non grata in the Kingdom, although it’s quite daunting to see the Construction sites at the Kind Saud university protected by huge fences all bearing the Bin Laden Enterprises Name.
Saudi Arabia is a monarchy governed under strict Islamic laws of the Wahhabi sect, which regulate public behavior, especially for women and foreigners. Women cannot drive cars and have numerous other restrictions imposed on them.
From a historical perspective, various cultures have lived in the peninsula for over 5,000 years. But, except for a few major cities and oases, the harsh climate prevented much settlement of the Peninsula. Nomadic tribes always lived in the north and center, while the southern tribes were mostly sedentary. Oases made a sedentary way of life possible and provided stops on caravan routes.
The nomadic way of life and tribal organization of the interior of north and central Arabia made it difficult to form large stable political organizations. Already around 1500, one tribe seemed to take over the land; The Saud family was established in Ad Diriyah, in the center of Najd, near the modern capital of Riyadh. The family’s rise to power was also linked to an acceptance of the Wahhabi, one group within Islam and extended their power over most the center of the Peninsula. They advanced all the way to Mecca and Medina but lost the area to other tribes. In 1824 Riyadh and the vast territory around became the Saud capital. However, rivalry within the family weakened the Sauds and, overpowered by another tribal ruler, the Saud family fled to Kuwait.
In 1902, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud fought back for his family’s hold of Riyadh. Over the next 20 years, his tribe advanced all over the peninsula, including Mecca in 1924 and Medina in 1925. In 1932 he renamed his Kingdom Saudi Arabia, the Arabia of the Sauds! He did fight opposition from the religious group of Wahhabists who had no tolerance for necessary twentieth century innovations, including all machines and telegraph as well as the presence of non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia, forbidden by tradition and ended up defeating them in 1929. However, ever since, the Kingdom has seen internal battles between the most extreme forces in Wahhabism and the more pragmatic strain with suspicion cast on all new inventions. For example, the radio was first opposed but was later accepted when the King showed how it could be used to broadcast the Qu’ran. Wahhabi rule does remain strict in Saudi Arabia. No foreigners can become citizens. Women cannot get drivers licenses and cannot perform legal and financial procedures on their own. Alcohol is forbidden in the kingdom. The internet was outlawed for a while and is still government censured.
Shortly after becoming a kingdom, oil was discovered and transformed the face of the desert nation. Oil revenues have contributed to the wealth and fortunes of the Saud family, but unlike some other Gulf countries, this wealth has not brought on social changes and economic development like in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, UAE.
When King Abdul Aziz died in 1953, his son Saud accessed the throne. Every since, all the kings have been sons of Kind Abdul Aziz, all half-brothers, born from his wives. In 1964, King Saud was forced to abdicate because of criticism of his outrageous spending! His half-brother Prince Faisal became King, naming his half-brother Khalid his successor.
King Faisal was a frugal and observant monarch, raised in the Wahhabi. He introduced innovations such as television, inciting the opposition of conservative elements in the kingdom. Faisal is credited with abolishing slavery in Saudi Arabia in 1962. He was also active in foreign affairs. In 1973, he initiated an oil embargo following the Yom Kippur war, causing a sharp increase (tripled and quadrupled) the price of oil… Those growing up in the 70s remember how poor we were!!! But Saudi Arabia, as the world's largest exporter of oil, benefited from newfound prosperity. However, Faisal was assassinated in 1975 by his nephew, and Khalid became king.
King Khalid continued the process of modernization and under his rule Saudi Arabia initiated several foreign policy initiatives through Crown Prince Fahd. This moving forward was not appreciated by all and in 1979 fundamentalist Sunni riots in the Grand Mosque in Mecca were initiated by those who felt the kingdom had become too liberal and that the royal family had become steeped in corruption, ostentation, and imitation of the West. The rioters shot and killed a guard in the Grand Mosque, a holy place, where bloodshed is punishable by crucifixion. Only a fatwa, religious decree, allowed bloodshed to dislodge them by force.
King Khalid died in 1982 and was succeeded by Fahd, who designated Abdullah as crown prince. Saudi Arabia cooperated with the United States in keeping oil prices low in the 80s in order to hurt Soviet energy trade and bring down the Soviet economy. During Desert Storm in 1991, the kingdom accepted large numbers of US troops, and was a base for US operations against Iraq that remained after the conflict was over, angering traditionalists.
The Saudi Regime was rocked in 2003 by al-Qaeda attacks in Riyadh in May and November. Riots demanding reform by both traditionalists and democratic reformers also took place. Some of these attacks were directed on expat compounds (ours was hit) and aimed at hurting the Saudi Government. The unrest was met with arrests and force, but also with promises of reform.
King Fahd died in July 2005. His half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah became king. He had been acting as regent after King Fahad had a incapacitating stroke in January 1996 and took care of all day-to-day affairs. Abdullah is the fifth son (out of 37 sons) of King Abdulasis bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, , the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, to ascend to the throne.
As you see, Saudi Arabia, in its 78 years of existence, has been torn by opposition, seen riches, family conflicts, attacks on its visiting workers, the end of slavery, a rise to modernity and has many years ahead to look forward.
Those gravels did turn into a trap when the car started sliding, the wheels slipping out of control and eventually we got stuck in the gravel! Now, we are alone, just the two families, in the middle of the desert! None of our cellphones have reception, the "can you hear me now" guy should start working in the Kingdom. On the way there, not too far actually, we did see a bedouin camp, with a couple of tents and camels. So, in real case of emergency, we could always go ask them for help!
We do a quick water check: the camel pack is full, we also have 4 little bottles and another thermos full, so enough for a while. So, the guys dig around the wheel and decide to manouver to get the car out of its current predicament. The moms and the kids decide to explore around, climbing the nearby hills and looking around. Eventually, the car is freed from the gravel and decision is made to go back toward Riyadh, enough adventures for the day. 
Guys get in the car and drive back to the Fantastic car which had been left not even a mile away while the kids and moms walk back. We spotted some of the desert gourds that pop up once in a while in the desert. Those are always popular with the kids who pick up the yellow ones and love to crush them! We believe they are not edible, as the animals do not seem to care for them, not even the camels.
Despite the turn of the events, we also were lucky to spot several herds: two of goats and one of camels, that one with their sheppard (I'm not sure how to call the guy working with camels, so sheppard he is today). The man seemed genuinely happy to see people. We greeted him in Arabic, asked him how he was doing. He offered us to taste some camel milk. Obviously, that meant to milk some of his camels as he was not carrying any with him....and my spirit of adventures had had enough for the day. We did thank him very nicely in Arabic and he waved and smilled very nicely. This bedouin would have given us milk if we had accepted, I am convinced of that! 
We also found a discarded camel harness that I picked up and brought home. It did not smell too god, but it's really cool to have one. If you look at the camel picture you can see that some of them are wearing one. 
A little further we saw a victim of the desert! A poor little goat seemingly had gotten stuck in wires and fell into a crevace. Surprisingly it was not covered with maggots and flies, which made us think that it had happened quite recently. I guess all that watching of CSI has educated me on the process of maggots growing on cadavers! It did not even smell bad, yet!
