SAUDI ARABIA

officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Arabic Al-Mamlakah Al-'Arabiyah As-Sa'udiyah country with an area of approximately 868,000 square miles (2,248,000 square kilometres), occupying about four-fifths of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait on the north; by the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman on the east; by a portion of Oman on the southeast; by Yemen on the south and southwest; and by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba on the west. Portions of the borders with the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen are undefined. A territory of 2,200 square miles along the gulf coast was shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as a neutral zone until 1969, when a political boundary was agreed upon. Each of the two countries administers one-half of the territory, but they equally share oil production in the entire area. The capital is Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is named for the house of Sa'ud, the founding and ruling dynasty that dates from the 18th century. Saudi Arabia is a Muslim and an Arab state, and these two attributes have had a fundamental influence on the country's foreign relations. It is a founding member of the Arab League (1945) and of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (1971). The kingdom exhibits a certain aloofness to outsiders: a foreigner can secure a visa to visit it only if invited by an individual or an organization within the country. Once inside, a visitor encounters a pervading sense of independence and pride. The extraordinary economic changes that occurred starting in the 1960s altered neither the government nor the centrality of religion. Since the mid-20th century, however, the pace of life in Saudi Arabia has accelerated greatly. Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam, have always provided the country with outside contacts, and such contacts have expanded with innovations in transportation technology and organization. More recently, petroleum has wrought irreversible domestic changeseducational and social as well as economic. Modern industrial skills, technology, and methods of organization have been superimposed on a traditional society by the introduction of millions of foreign skilled workers and by the employment of hundreds of thousands of Saudis in nontraditional jobs. In addition, tens of thousands of Saudi students have studied abroad, mostly in the United States. Television and radio have become common media of communication and education. Highways and airways have replaced traditional means of transportation, notably the camel caravan. officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Arabic Al-Mamlakah Al-'Arabiyah As-Sa'udiyah country occupying four-fifths of the Arabian Peninsula. Extending for more than 1,200 miles (1,950 km) from northwest to southeast and about 770 miles (1,240 km) from southwest to northeast, Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait on the north; by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman on the east; by a portion of Oman on the southeast; and by Yemen on the south and southwest. It is separated from Egypt, The Sudan, and Ethiopia by the Red Sea on the west; from Bahrain by the Gulf of Bahrain on the east; and from Iran by the Persian Gulf, also on the east. The capital is Riyadh. Area 865,000 square miles (2,240,000 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 17,419,000. Additional reading Overviews are provided by Norman Anderson et al., The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 7th ed. rev. (1987); Middle East Research Institute, MERI Report: Saudi Arabia (1985); Richard F. Nyrop (ed.), Saudi Arabia: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1984); Trevor Mostyn (comp.), Saudi Arabia, 2nd ed. (1983); and Ismail I. Nawwab, Peter C. Speers, and Paul F. Hoye (eds.), Aramco and Its World: Arabia and the Middle East (1980). Hussein Hamza Bindagji, Atlas of Saudi Arabia (1978), includes thematic, regional, and city maps. Two major cities are the subject of Gerald De Gaury, Rulers of Mecca (1951, reissued 1980); and Angelo Pesce, Jiddah: Portrait of an Arabian City, rev. ed. (1977). Sociological studies include Soraya Altorki, Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behavior Among the Elite (1986); and William Lancaster, The Rwala Bedouin Today (1981), a case study. See also G.R.D. King, The Historical Mosques of Saudi Arabia (1986), a study of mosque architecture; and Safeya Binzagr, Saudi Arabia: An Artist's View of the Past (1979), a pictorial perspective of Saudi Arabia's culture and people. The economy is examined in Ali D. Johany, Michel Berne, and J. Wilson Mixon, Jr., The Saudi Arabian Economy (1986); Adnan M. Abdeen and Dale N. Shook, The Saudi Financial System, in the Context of Western and Islamic Finance (1984); A. Reza S. Islami and Rostam Mehraban Kayoussi, The Political Economy of Saudi Arabia (1984); John R. Presley, A Guide to the Saudi Arabian Economy (1984); Arthur N. Young, Saudi Arabia: The Making of a Financial Giant (1983), a historical survey of the impact of oil; Tim Niblock (ed.), State, Society, and Economy in Saudi Arabia (1982); Fouad Al-Farsy, Saudi Arabia: A Case Study in Development, 2nd ed. rev. (1980); and Donald M. Moliver and Paul J. Abbondante, The Economy of Saudi Arabia (1980). Policy studies are found in Ragaei El Mallakh, Saudi Arabia, Rush to Development: Profile of an Energy Economy and Investment (1982); Hassan Hamza Hajrah, Public Land Distribution in Saudi Arabia (1982), on transformation of land ownership; Robert E. Looney, Saudi Arabia's Development Potential: Application of an Islamic Growth Model (1982); William B. Quandt, Saudi Arabia in the 1980s: Foreign Policy, Security, and Oil (1981), a diplomatic study; and Robert D. Crane, Planning the Future of Saudi Arabia: A Model for Achieving National Priorities (1978), with a summary of the five-year plans. Further bibliographic information can be found in Hans-Jrgen Philipp, Saudi Arabia: Bibliography on Society, Politics, Economics (1984), in English and German; and Frank A. Clements, Saudi Arabia, rev. and expanded ed. (1988).The most important historical works include Kamal Salibi, A History of Arabia (1980); Abdelgadir Mahmoud Abdalla, Sami Al-Sakkar, and Richard T. Mortel, Sources for the History of Arabia, 2 vol. (1979), symposium proceedings; and H.St.J.B. Philby, Sa'udi Arabia (1955, reprinted 1972). For a more interpretive discussion, see Joseph Kostiner, Tracing the Curves of Modern Saudi History, Asian and African Studies, 19(2):219244 (July 1985). R. Bayly Winder, Saudi Arabia in the Nineteenth Century (1965, reprinted 1980), remains the definitive work on that period. The life of Ibn Sa'ud, the founder of the modern Saudi state, is discussed in a sympathetic fashion in Mohammed Almana, Arabia Unified: A Portrait of Ibn Saud (1982); David Holden and Richard Johns, The House of Saud (1981), a detailed history of the years 190280; Hafiz Wahba, Arabian Days (1964); and Ameen Rihani, Ibn Sa'oud of Arabia: His People and His Land (1928, reprinted 1983). The work of Christine Moss Helms, The Cohesion of Saudi Arabia: Evolution of Political Identity (1981), combines political geography, history, and diplomacy for the early 20th century. Works covering the same time include John S. Habib, Ibn Sa'ud's Warriors of Islam: The Ikhwan of Najd and Their Role in the Creation of the Sa'udi Kingdom, 19101930 (1978); Madawi Al Rasheed, Politics in an Arabian Oasis: The Rashidi Tribal Dynasty (1991); and Clive Leatherdale, Britain and Saudi Arabia, 19251939: The Imperial Oasis (1983). Histories of Aramco and U.S.-Saudi foreign policy include Irvine H. Anderson, Aramco, the United States, and Saudi Arabia: A Study of the Dynamics of Foreign Oil Policy, 19331950 (1981); and Aaron David Miller, Search for Security: Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy, 19391949 (1980). Two important internal issues in the post-World War II period are analyzed in Ayman Al-Yassini, Religion and State in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1985); and Alexander Bligh, From Prince to King: Royal Succession in the House of Saud in the Twentieth Century (1984). See also Mordechai Abir, Saudi Arabia in the Oil Era: Regime and Elites: Conflict and Collaboration (1988). William L. Ochsenwald Barrie K. Macdonald Administration and social conditions Government Saudi Arabia's government is based on the law of Islam, the Shari'ah, derived from Muhammad's pronouncements and practices and from the traditions of Islam's first adherents. Muslim law prescribes civil as well as religious rights, duties, obligations, and responsibilities for both ruler and ruled. Law is revealed and not created, and it is interpreted by the 'ulama', or learned religious men. The person of the king combines legislative, executive, and judicial functions. As prime minister he presides over the Council of Ministers. This council is a legislative body, although it is also responsible for such executive and administrative matters as foreign and domestic policy, defense, finance, health, and education, which it administers through numerous separate agencies. Appointment to and dismissal from the council are prerogatives of the king. Major policy decisions are made by consensus, and opinion is sought primarily within the royal family (comprising the numerous descendants of the kingdom's founder, Ibn Sa'ud). Many members of the royal family hold sensitive government posts. Succession to the throne is not hereditary; the crown prince, who also serves as deputy prime minister, is designated by the royal family with the support of the 'ulama' and the Council of Ministers. The same consultative process also designates the second deputy prime minister, who is the second heir apparent after the deputy prime minister. The kingdom is divided into administrative regions, which in turn are divided into districts. Provincial governors are appointed and are responsible for such functions as finance, health, education, agriculture, and municipalities. The consultative principle operates at all levels of government, including the government of villages and tribes. Justice The Shari'ah law is the basis of justice. Judgment usually is according to the Hanbali tradition of Islam; the law tends to be conservative and punishment severe. In 1970 the Ministry of Justice was established; its work is assisted by a Supreme Judicial Council consisting of leading members of the 'ulama'. There are more than 300 Shari'ah courts across the country. Rapid changes since the mid-20th century have produced circumstancessuch as traffic violations and industrial accidentsnot encompassed by traditional law, and these have been handled by the issuance of royal decrees. These decrees have evolved into a body of administrative law. Avenues of appeal are available, and the monarch is both the final court of appeal and the dispenser of pardon. Cultural life The cultural setting is Arab and Muslim. To preserve the country's purist religious position, many proscriptions of behaviour and dress are enforced. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited, for example, and the theatre and public cinema do not exist. Educated Saudis are well informed on issues of the Arab world, the Muslim world, and the world at large, but public expression of opinion about domestic matters is not encouraged. There are no public forums such as political parties or labour unions. For a thousand years artistic expression usually perpetuated ancient forms. From the 18th century onward the strict Wahhabi religious outlook discouraged intellectual deviation from accepted purist positions. With the advent of the petroleum industry came exposure to outside influences, such as housing styles, furnishings, and clothes, and at the same time local craftsmen found themselves in competition with imported goods. Music and dance have always been part of Saudi life. Visual arts are dominated by geometric, floral, and abstract designs and by calligraphy, the latter a sophisticated and learned enterprise. Not much diversity is seen in traditional architecture; typical features are decorative designs on doors and windows and wide use of crenellated walls. The wave of change starting in the 1960s influenced architectural styles, and stark linear motifs became common in office and residential buildings. The spectacular airport terminals at Jiddah and Riyadh, however, are testimony to the persistence and worth of traditional styles. Several daily and weekly newspapers are published in Arabic and in English. Radio and television broadcasting is operated by the Ministry of Information, and there is a modern system of telecommunications. Basheer K. Nijim