Saudi Arabia

121 Pages·2003·4.7 MB·English

by  Robert A. Harper

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Saudi Arabia
Second Edition
Robert A. Harper
University of Maryland
with additional text by Aswin Subanthore
Series Editor
Charles F. Gritzner
South Dakota State University
Frontispiece: Flag of Saudi Arabia
Cover: Muslim pilgrims pray inside Masjid al-Haran, the sacred mosque, in Mecca.
Saudi Arabia, Second Edition
Copyright © 2007 by Infobase Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harper, Robert Alexander.
Saudi Arabia / Robert A. Harper with additional text by Aswin Subanthore. — 2nd ed.
p. centimeters — (Modern world nations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-9516-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-7910-9516-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Saudi Arabia—Juvenile
literature. I. Subanthore, Aswin. II. Title. III. Series.
DS204.25.H37 2007
953.8—dc22 2007014922
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Cover design by Joo Young An
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Table of Contents
1 Introducing Saudi Arabia 8
2 Physical Landscapes 20
3 Life in the Desert 35
4 People and Culture 46
5 Government and Politics 59
6 Saudi Arabia’s Economy 68
7 Regions of Saudi Arabia 89
8 Saudi Arabia Looks Ahead 99
Facts at a Glance 105
History at a Glance 108
Glossary 110
Bibliography 112
Further Reading 113
Index 115

Saudi Arabia
Second Edition
1
Introducing
Saudi Arabia
S
uppose you are a camel herder in the desert. You and your rela-
tives live in a tent camp. You have no electricity, no plumbing,
and you cook over an open fire. You have never seen a train or
an automobile. You live mostly on camel’s milk and dates. You can-
not read or write. Because you are deeply religious, your children are
taught how to live strictly according to God’s law—a law that does
not accept change easily.
Your life centers on finding water and food for your camels. In
your search you move camp every few weeks. You have no radio,
no television, and no telephone. Your only contact with the outside
world comes when you visit town to sell your camels and buy some
supplies, or when you meet other tribes at a well.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR TRIBE STRIKES IT RICH
Suddenly, outsiders who have different customs and clothes and
speak a different language arrive at your camp. They offer you more

Introducing Saudi Arabia 
money than you have ever seen to let them drill for oil in your
part of the desert. The deal includes a payment for every barrel
of oil they produce.
You agree. The strangers arrive with machines you have
never heard of: trucks and drilling equipment, even an air-
plane. They do not want to live in your tent communities, and
you do not want them to, either. They build their own commu-
nities with their own types of houses and buildings, streets and
cars, and their own food and lifestyle.
Not only do the outsiders find oil, but they discover that
the largest supply of oil in the world lies under your land. At the
same time, the demand for oil in the world explodes. Oil pow-
ers planes, ships, and cars; it helps pave roads; it is made into
chemicals, plastics, and fertilizers; and it powers electric plants.
More people throughout the world begin to use oil products.
Oil production from your land increases each year. More for-
eign workers, with their different ways, arrive. Some of their
ways you like, but some you do not.
Huge amounts of money roll in, not just to your country,
but to you and your tribe. What are you, who never even had a
bank account, going to do with this fortune?
You have money to buy anything your family wants; your
nation can build cities, electric plants, water and sewage sys-
tems, roads, and airports. You can send all the children of your
country to school for free; you can provide health care to every-
one. What is not clear is how it should be done. How can it be
done if you still wish to keep the religious, tribal, and family
values you treasure?
OIL MONEY: THE DILEMMA OF THE HOUSE OF SAUD
This story is not the plot of a Hollywood movie. It is a prob-
lem that has faced the family that rules the country of Saudi
Arabia since World War II (1939–1945). The money has
brought not only great benefits, but also terrible problems and
responsibilities. Massive changes have been made. There have
been mistakes and there has been waste. The family was totally