Saudi Arabia

Arabia was probably the original home of the Semites. Beginning in the 4th millennium BC, these ancient peoples moved into Mesopotamia and Palestine, where they came to be identified as Assyro-Babylonians, Canaanites, and Amorites. Ancient Times In the 1st millennium BC the Minaean kingdom was well established in 'Asìr; and southern Al �ijaz along the Red Sea coast; its capital was at Karna, also spelled Qarnah (present-day Ša'dah, Yemen). The Minaeans were nomads and herders, who eventually became the chief traders of incense throughout northern Al Hijaz. After the Minaeans withdrew from their trading post at Dedan (now Al 'Ulá) in the 1st century BC, the Nabataeans founded a commercial center at Mada'in Šali‰, just to the north. In the eastern part of the country was Dilmun, which seems to have been a politicocultural federation centered on the Persian Gulf shore. Dilmun has sometimes been identified with the island of Bahrain, although it certainly included parts of the mainland and traded with the inland sections of what is now Saudi Arabia. Alexander the Great of Macedonia had plans to conquer Arabia before his untimely death in 323 BC; the Ptolemies of Egypt later gained a toehold at Yanbu' al Ba‰r but were thwarted by the Nabataeans. The country was further subject to Ethiopian and Persian struggles for control. By the 5th century AD Mecca had superseded the Nabataean city of Petra in importance. Coming of Islam Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca in 570. His teachings angered local residents and Muhammad left for Medina. In 630 he returned with his followers and conquered Mecca, setting into motion the rapid expansion of Islam across the Middle East. The founding of Islam in the 7th century altered profoundly the course of Saudi history. Muhammad's successors, known as caliphs, went on to conquer and convert the entire Middle East. As the caliphate was established, first in Damascus (Dimashq) in 660, and then in Baghdad, Muhammad's homeland itself became less important within the Islamic empire. After 1269 most of Al Hijaz was under the nominal suzerainty of the Egyptian Mamelukes. The Ottoman Turks gained control of the region when they conquered Egypt in 1517, but they were unable to extend their authority into the interior. During the 15th century the Saud dynasty was founded near modern-day Riyadh by Muhammad ibn Saud. Wahhabi Ascendancy In the mid-18th century the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab formed his fundamentalist sect, and supported by Saudi armies the movement soon established a nationalist Arab state in the Najd. In 1802 the Wahhabis captured Mecca, and although they were expelled from the city in 1812, they were not defeated. The Wahhabis and Saudis retreated to Riyadh, where they founded their capital in 1824. From there the Saudis reconquered most of the land they had lost. After 1865 the dynasty fell into civil war and the kingdom was divided among various clans and the Ottomans. Defeated, the Saudi family fled into exile in Kuwait. In 1902, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud retook Riyadh and by 1906 his forces controlled the Nadj region. He captured the region of Al A‰sa' in 1913, the Jebel Shammar in 1921, Mecca in 1924, Medina in 1925, and 'Asìr; in 1926. He then proclaimed himself king of Al Hijaz. In 1932, after unifying the conquered territories, he renamed his vast realm Saudi Arabia. Ibn Saud's Reign Before 1938, when the first petroleum deposit was discovered in Saudi Arabia, socioeconomic conditions in the country differed little from those prevailing in antiquity. As royalties from the oil industry increased, King Ibn Saud developed an extensive modernization program, particularly in such areas as water supply, agriculture, manufacturing, and public health. Concurrently he strengthened relations with other states of the Middle East and adopted a friendly policy toward the United States and Great Britain. A supporter of the Allied cause in World War II (1939-1945), he permitted construction of a U.S. air base in Dhahran but remained officially neutral until March 1945, when he declared war on Germany and Japan. In 1945 Saudi Arabia joined the United Nations (UN) and the Arab League. Saudi Arabia opposed the creation of Israel but took only a minor part in the league's war against the Jewish state in 1948 and 1949. In June 1951, Saudi Arabia agreed to grant the United States use of the Dhahran air base for another five years in return for U.S. technical aid and permission to purchase arms under the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. In December a new agreement with the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco) provided that 50 percent of the company's net earnings should be paid to Saudi Arabia. Cold War Period King Ibn Saud died on November 9, 1953. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Saud. Advocating Arab neutrality in the Cold War, Saudi Arabia opposed the Middle Eastern Treaty Organization (METO), formed in 1955 by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Great Britain. Representatives from Saudi Arabia attended the Asian-African Conference held April 18 to 24, 1955, in Bandung, Indonesia. In October 1955 it signed a mutual-defense pact with Egypt. In the same month British-led forces from the sultanate of Masqat and Oman (now Oman) recaptured an oasis in a disputed area that had been occupied in 1952 by Saudi Arabian police. Saudi Arabia appealed vainly to the United Nations for support against the British. In November King Saud agreed to lend Syria $10 million for economic and military purposes. A loan of $10 million was made to Egypt in August 1956, after Egypt's funds in foreign banks were frozen following the nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26. After the joint Israeli, British, and French attack on Egypt in October and November, Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Great Britain and France, and cut off oil supplies to their tankers. King Saud visited the United States in January 1957; shortly afterward it was announced that the United States would sell arms and supply other aid to Saudi Arabia in exchange for permission to use the Dhahran air base. In April of that year Saudi Arabia declared the Gulf of Aqaba to be territorial waters and announced that Israeli ships would be denied passage through the gulf. Despite the declaration, no attempts were made to interfere with the passage of Israeli ships. In February 1958 Saudi Arabian territorial waters were extended to 19 km (12 mi). In March 1958 King Saud transferred legislative and executive powers, formerly included among his own absolute powers, to the prime minister, his brother Crown Prince Faisal; Saud reserved for himself the right of veto. In May a royal decree established a cabinet system. Relations with Other Middle Eastern States At a conference held in Baghdad from September 10 to 14, 1960, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, and Kuwait founded the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to coordinate their policies and help sustain oil prices. On December 21, Saud reclaimed control of the government from Faisal and made himself prime minister. In October 1962 King Saud again relinquished the premiership to Faisal. Meanwhile, Saudi relations with Egypt had deteriorated considerably. Serious tension developed after the September 1962 revolution in Yemen; Egypt supported the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia gave refuge to the overthrown Yemeni imam and pledged to support his efforts to regain his throne. After Saudi royalist attacks against Yemen, Egyptian planes bombed Saudi towns in November, and Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Egypt and mobilized its armed forces on January 3, 1963. Prince Faisal, who had been consolidating his power and introducing major social and economic reforms, replaced Saud as king on November 2, 1964. He designated his half brother, Prince Khalid ibn Abdul, as the new prime minister. Arab-Israeli Conflicts In 1967, as the Arab-Israeli conflict intensified prior to the Six-Day War, King Faisal expressed full support for Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and dispatched 20,000 troops to Jordan to face Israeli forces. On June 6 all Saudi oil exports to Britain and the United States were suspended, but diplomatic ties were not broken; the oil trade was resumed after the Arab defeat. An Arab summit conference later in the year resulted in Egyptian withdrawal from Yemen, and the Saudis extended large-scale aid to Egypt to compensate for the loss of revenue caused by the closing of the Suez Canal during the war. King Faisal continued to call for pan-Islamic action against Israel and, under internal pressures, criticized alleged United States complicity with Israel. He remained unwilling, however, to articulate a militant anti-Western position, and in 1971 Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf states concluded a five-year pact with 23 Western oil companies, including 17 U.S. firms. In July 1970, Saudi Arabia formally recognized the republican government of Yemen after seven years of intermittent border fighting. Saudi Arabia sent a small number of troops and weapons (notably aircraft) to aid the Arab states in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War with Israel. In the aftermath of that conflict the government played a leading role in organizing a short-term oil boycott against countries that had supported Israel and quadrupling the international price of petroleum. The latter development, and Saudi Arabia's 1974 takeover of controlling interest in the huge Aramco, greatly increased government revenue, thus providing funds for a massive economic development plan. Financial Strength and Military Preparedness In March 1975 King Faisal was assassinated by a nephew and was succeeded by Prince Khalid. Khalid, however, was in poor health and his half brother, Crown Prince Fahd, became the power behind the throne. The country remained conservative, and its influence kept OPEC from raising its prices to the extent most member countries wanted. In 1980 it was announced that the Saudi government had taken full control of Aramco's assets retroactively from January 1976. Much of the petroleum money that poured into the country was reinvested in the West or spent on arms, but domestic inflation and a barely manageable pace of development were continuing problems. Saudi Arabia, still considered a moderating force in the Arab-Israeli conflict, took a dim view of the conciliatory overtures by Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat to Israel in 1977, and after the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries in 1979, Saudi Arabia cut off financial aid to Egypt and severed diplomatic relations. The Islamic revolution in Iran that year and the subsequent seizure by fundamentalist Muslim guerrillas of the Grand Mosque in Mecca jolted the Saudi government, which afterward placed an increased emphasis on military preparedness and security. To ensure Saudi security, the United States in 1981 agreed to sell several Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes to the Saudis, an arrangement that provoked heavy opposition from Israel and its friends in the United States, who feared an upset of the military balance in the Middle East. King Khalid died in June 1982 and was succeeded by his half brother, Crown Prince Fahd. As king, Fahd sought to maintain Saudi Arabia's traditional Islamic values, while continuing the process of rapid modernization made possible by the nation's abundant oil resources. In 1986 he assumed the religious title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" in an effort to safeguard the Western-friendly Saudi regime from opposition by Islamic militants. Nevertheless, King Fahd faced difficulties within and beyond his country. In July 1987 at least 400 people were killed in Mecca when Iranian Shiite pilgrims clashed with Saudi police. More than 1400 pilgrims died in July 1990 after a bridge and tunnel accident caused a panic. Iraq's takeover of Kuwait in August 1990 had significant military, political, and economic consequences for Saudi Arabia. To counter the Iraqi military threat, the Saudi government provided for temporary deployment on its own territory of hundreds of thousands of U.S. and allied troops, and contributed forces to the multinational coalition that fought Iraq in the Persian Gulf War in early 1991. Meanwhile, to compensate for the loss of petroleum supplies from Iraq and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia greatly increased its own oil output. Economic problems became evident, however, in 1993. The United States had insisted that Saudi Arabia pay for the Persian Gulf War, costing the country $51 billion. Meanwhile, the Saudi economy was feeling the effects of a budget operating under deficit since 1983. War payments and declining oil prices forced the Saudi government to cut social and defense spending and to take out loans from international banks. Despite these problems, in 1994 Saudi Arabia helped defeat a campaign by Iran and other OPEC member countries to lower OPEC's overall production ceiling so that limited supply would prompt a rise in prices. Political reforms decreed by King Fahd in 1992 established a consultative council to serve in an advisory capacity, provided for a bill of rights, and changed the rules of succession. The consultative council, called the Shura Council, was convened for the first time in December 1993. Social reforms were less evident, however. In 1993 Saudi authorities disbanded a committee for the protection of human rights, which relocated to London the following year. As of 1994, Saudi men and women were not permitted to attend public events together, and workplaces remained segregated. Government officials in the United States voiced continuing concern about human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, particularly the abuse of prisoners by guards and police. King Fahd remained an active sponsor of Islamic causes worldwide in his second decade as Saudi leader. In 1992 Fahd conducted an extensive campaign to end the bloodshed in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia; his efforts included a national fund-raiser to provide aid to Bosnian Muslims, to which he made large personal contributions. The same year, Fahd's government established diplomatic links with the Muslim republics formerly included in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In January 1994, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasir Arafat visited Riyadh to discuss with King Fahd the prospects for Middle East peace. The meeting represented a significant rapprochement between the two leaders, whose relations had been strained since the Persian Gulf War. In March 1991, Fahd chose not to receive Jordan's King Hussein, who was visiting Mecca for the annual hajj (pilgrimage). Relations between the Arab leaders had been unfriendly due to Jordan's support for Iraq during its invasion of Kuwait. In May 1994 a human stampede among Muslims taking part in the annual hajj resulted in 270 deaths. The stampede occurred in a town near Mecca, during a ritual involving a symbolic stoning of the devil. In February 1995 the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to negotiate a settlement to their long-standing dispute over their shared border; the agreement followed several months of small-scale fighting in the border region. As of May 1996 the two countries had not decided on a formal border. After suffering a stroke in November 1995, Fahd gave control of the country to his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, in January 1996. In February, however, Fahd reclaimed his authority. In June terrorists exploded a bomb at a housing center for U.S. military personnel near Dhahran; at least 19 people were killed, more than 300 people were wounded, and several buildings were heavily damaged.