The Cohesion of Saudi Arabia (RLE Saudi Arabia)

Evolution of Political Identity

Christine Helms

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000155990
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Government & Business
• Index: Business

Saudi Arabia is no longer regarded as quite the invincible pillar of Islam it so recently seemed. Its authority within the Islamic world has been challenged by the Ayatollahs in Iran and its dominant position within Opec has been seriously eroded. Most importantly, the dramatic assault on the Mosque at Mecca has raised serious doubts about the internal security of the Saudi regime. This study provides essential background to the contemporary problems of Saudi Arabia in its focus on the early years of the Saudi state and the way in which King Abd al-Aziz first created a nation state and asserted his family's authority. It agues that the geography of Central Arabia was a crucial factor in determining how he fused together the Bedouin tribes and the settled communities into a political entity.

First published in 1981 and based on extensive new research data, this is the first study to examine more than simply a political or diplomatic history of Saudi Arabia, and concerns itself with the attitudes and perceptions of the Arabs themselves towards political initiatives of that period.

PART I

Internal Factors Influencing the Evolution of Political Identity in Central Arabia

1
Shifting Balances: Interaction of Social and Environmental Factors

Many readers will have chosen this book solely with the intention of understanding the origin, history, and nature of the Saudi ruling family. One cannot understand the nature of any political authority in Central Arabia, Saudi or otherwise, unless first viewing it in its geographical and ecological context. Indeed, to omit this type of analysis would be to neglect one of the major determining factors of political behaviour in Central Arabia and one which has been neglected in studies of this region to date. For this reason it is essential that the reader develops from this chapter some understanding of the significance of water and grazing resources, land utilisation, and patterns of settlement—to whatever degree of detail he may wish—before proceeding to the succeeding discussions.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, al-mamlaka al-arabiya al-saudiya, occupies over 90 per cent of the Arabian Peninsula. In the early twentieth century Saudi territory was divided into four regions—al-Hijaz, Asir, al-Ahsa and Najd—which reflect natural geopolitical segments that remain useful for the purpose of this study. It was in Najd that the Al Saud and Al Wahhab families, representing hitherto separate political and religious domains, made a concerted effort to obtain effective influence over a number of amirates¹ striving to maintain their separate political autonomy. Occupying the vast exterior of Arabia, Najd had no access to the coastal areas except through al-Hijaz or al-Ahsa. Enclosed by the virtually impenetrable al-Nafud, al-Dahna and al-Ramla sand deserts in the north, east and south, and extreme in its climate and geography, Najd evolved a cultural area distinct from the more urbanised regions of Palestine and Syria and Mesopotamia.

The success of the Al Saud was principally a consequence of their understanding of badu ² culture, a life-style which was so encompassing in its economic, political and social significance in Najd that its usage here eclipses the terms ‘nomadic pastoralists’ or ‘transhumance’ which more narrowly describe human adaptation to ecological factors. Although nomadic tribes were also present in Palestine and Syria and Mesopotamia, they were always dominated by powerful urban structures, in contrast to Najd. Here urban areas and badu were enmeshed in a mutually beneficial relationship, although the badu had always maintained their status as powerful independent military tribes. It is notable that, even though the Al Saud were urbanised and identified in many respects with the interests of townspeople, their perspective remained badu and that for many years Abd al-Aziz maintained a roving majlis rather than centralise either the functions or location of his ‘court’. Moreover, it was a custom that members of ruling amirates in Najd, even if settled in an urban area, were none the less sent at an early age to be raised in the desert by those badu tribes renowned for virtues of pride, fierce independence, nobility and military prowess. In this way, Abd al-Aziz spent part of his youth with the Al Murra tribe near the Arabian Gulf.

The focus of the present chapter is directed to those factors of decisive influence in Najd life: the geographic isolation; the ecological conditions and the dependence of the population on water and grazing resources; the solidarity (asabiya) of tribal structure; the lines of division inherent in a region characterised by numerous militarily independent tribes and competing urban areas; and the interdependence of urban and nomadic communities. All of these factors contributed to prevent foreign interference and to deter the formation of a central state apparatus even by internal Arab forces. Just as the Ottomans had realised that their control, limited to settled areas, would always be tenuous, so Great Britian realised that blockades and bombardment of coastal towns would be ineffectual threats to a Central Arabian power. Diplomacy became the best strategy for foreign powers seeking to pursue their own ends in Najd. Even Al Saud authority, which had been well established in the southern districts of Najd since the 1700s, encountered staunch opposition from both nomadic and settled elements. In order to establish the authority of his family throughout Najd, Abd al-Aziz was forced to eliminate traditional elements which emphasised the authority of the desert tribal shaikhs and the independent and competing power of the settled amirates while simultaneously substituting others which enhanced his own claim to legitimate rule. The following sections concentrate upon those elements in the sociopolitical climate of twentieth-century Najd which were the foundations upon which the Wahhabi movement ³ and the Al Saud were equally dependent and by which they were also threatened in their bid for political control.

Environmental Factors, Resource Utilisation and Patterns of Land Settlement

The most notable feature of Najd, the vast region in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula, is its geographic isolation. Unlike the more mountainous regions of igneous and metamorphic rocks along the western edge of the Peninsula, Najd in its wider sense is an uplifted plateau-shield area with an outlying scarpland, composed predominantly of a suite of alternating sedimentary structures. This is in strong contrast to the great mountainous region of al-Hijaz, literally meaning ‘the barrier’, which adjoins Najd to the west and runs 950 kilometres from north to south. This latter region was and still is characterised by a strong urban orientation. Water supplied in the piedmont zone, notably on the eastern side, enabled wells to tap groundwater supplies and settlements to be formed. These settlements were centres for caravan trade and nomadic supply bases over several thousand years. Their inhabitants functioned as traders and provided services during pilgrimage for the Holy Cities of Mecca and al-Madina, neither of which could provide sufficient basic necessities for its population.⁴ Even the nomads in al-Hijaz profited from its urban orientation. They raided caravan traffic so frequently that the leaders of urban settlements were obliged to sanction the tribes and, if possible, force from them tribute or other contractual relationships as in the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Al-Hijaz, unlike Najd, was characterised by political continuity, having been ruled traditionally for many centuries by families claiming descent from the Prophet. Although they were later forced to acknowledge Ottoman suzerainty, these descendants remained the nominal authority until their final defeat in 1925 by the Al Saud.

Najd is surrounded on its three remaining sides by virtually uninhabited desert. In the south lies al-Ramla, one of the largest uninterrupted stretches of sand and one of the least inhabited areas of the world. For this reason al-Ramla (or al-Rimal), literally meaning ‘the sand(s)’, is better known to the West as al-Rub al-Khali or The Empty Quarter.⁵ The fact that no European entered al-Ramla until Bertram Thomas did so in 1930, and that little other information was gathered about it until recent oil exploration, may give some indication of its harsh environment. Rainfall is rare and periods of up to ten years can be remembered when no rain fell at all. The only people to frequent the area were badu from Oman and southern Arabia who skirted the fringes of the desert.⁶

Extending north from al-Ramla is a long thin arc of reddish sand called al-Dahna, varying from 15 kilometres to 80 kilometres in width. This otherwise arid corridor of sand is underlain with impermeable formations which prevented further infiltration of water so that seasonal wells could be established. This region fell largely into the dira of the Mutair tribe, who utilised its temporary grasses in the spring. There were no permanent wells or settlements in al-Dahna. Anyone who wished to reach Najd from the Gulf coast had to cross this desert, a hazardous caravan journey of no less than two days.

Al-Dahna continues in a north-western direction until it merges into the great basin of sand known as al-Nafud, which stretches 325 kilometres north to south and 490 kilometres east to west. Rainfall and other water sources are so unreliable that only in a few isolated areas and on the desert fringes where water is retained in impermeable substrata does one find that permanent habitation was possible. There is, however, abundant desert vegetation which was utilised by the nomads after winter rains and in the spring. In their annual migrations the northern Shammar, Zafir and Muntafiq tribes skirted eastern al-Nafud, the Shararat and Anaza (al-Ruwala branch) in the north, and the Anaza (Bishr branch) and southern Shammar in the south. The only inhabitants of this formidable region during summer were the Suluba and Awazim, the former specifically renowned for their exceptional desert skills.

Central Arabia, unlike al-Hijaz, was not dominated by the interests of an urban structure reliant upon trading; neither was it, like the surrounding arid deserts, inhabited predominantly by nomadic tribes who alone were able to utilise its scarce water resources. Oasis settlements which could support large settled populations and which had strong links with the powerful nomadic tribes had long been a feature of Najd. Estimates at the beginning of the twentieth century indicate that the settled population of major cities such as al-Riyad numbered 8,000, Buraida 7,500, Hail 3,000, and Unaiza 10,000-15,000.⁷ These major oases functioned in varying degrees as agricultural, mercantile and manufacturing centres as well as the crossroads of trans-peninsular caravan routes. Associated with the oasis settlements and urban centres were a number of subsidiary villages and nomadic tribes, giving rise to the creation of a hierarchy of central place functions and an actual if indistinct formation of districts. The central places provided a variety of functions, market and service, which they offered in exchange for other goods or services. Moreover, nomads in Central Arabia frequently owned agriculture in the urban areas, thus further reinforcing this integration. It is evident that the so-called ‘desert’ and ‘sown’ communities freely interacted to such an extent that complicated networks of social relations—tribal, governmental, religious, military, economic—evolved in consequence.

Estimates for the population of Saudi Arabia as a whole support the above statement and are open to further interpretation. In the early 1920s the population was thought to be approximately 1,500,000, of which one-quarter were nomads, one-half were agriculturalists, and the remaining one-quarter were involved in occupations associated with urban life, such as crafts or shopkeeping. If one excluded the areas of al-Hijaz, Asir and al-Ahsa, where the highest population densities were concentrated in a few urban centres, then the nomadic population of Najd could be considered to be as high as one-half. This amazing figure is substantiated by Lorimer whose estimates were frequently as high as that for individual regions such as, for example, Jabal Shammar, al-Washm and al-Arid as well as by a 1962/63 census taken by the Saudi government.⁸ Uncertainty arises from these statistics, however, because of the fact that nomads are stationary only during summer when they must stay near wells and, even during this period, estimates must remain conjectural.⁹

Despite the high ratio of nomadic to fixed populations, there is no evidence in the literature which indicates that badu tribes tyrannised the settled areas of Najd, even though the most powerful nomadic tribes numbered over 30,000 members each. It was more frequently the case that the settled popula...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Conventions
• Introduction
• Part I: Internal Factors Influencing the Evolution of Political Identity in Central Arabia
• Part II: External Factors Influencing Attitudes to Politics, Political Structures and Authority during the Post-World War I Mandate Period
• Epilogue
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index