Saudi Arabia (säū'dē ərā'bēə, sou'–, sô–) , officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, kingdom (2005 est. pop. 26,419,000), 829,995 sq mi (2,149,690 sq km), comprising most of the Arabian peninsula. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea; on the east by the Persian Gulf, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates; on the south by Yemen and Oman; and on the north by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait. Saudi Arabia formerly shared a neutral zone with Iraq and another with Kuwait; both are now divided between the countries. Riyadh is the capital and largest city. For administrative purposes, the country is divided into 13 provinces. See also Arabia, Hejaz, and Nejd.

Land

The south and southeast of the country are occupied entirely by the great Rub al-Khali desert. Through the desert run largely undefined boundaries with Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition to the Rub al-Khali, Saudi Arabia has four major regions. The largest is the Nejd, a central plateau, which rises from c.2,000 ft (610 m) in the east to c.5,000 ft (1,520 m) in the west. Riyadh is located in the Nejd. The Hejaz stretches along the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aqaba south to Asir and is the site of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Asir, extending south to the Yemen border, has a fertile coastal plain. Inland mountains in the Asir region rise to more than 9,000 ft (2,743 m). The Eastern Province extends along the Persian Gulf and is the oil region of the country. The oasis of Al-Hasa, located there, is probably the country's largest. Saudi Arabia's climate is generally hot and dry, although nights are cool, and frosts occur in winter. The humidity along the coasts is high.

People

The population of Saudi Arabia is 90% Muslim Arab of the Wahhabi sect (a branch of Sunni Islam), although there is a small percentage of Shiites, mainly in the northeast. Islam is the only officially recognized religion, and other faiths are not publicly tolerated. A large proportion of the population are farmers in the Hejaz. Nomads and seminomads raise camels, sheep, goats, and horses. The large number of foreigners living in Saudi Arabia work in the oil industry, as computer technicians and consultants, and as construction and domestic workers. Arabic is spoken by almost everyone. In 1957 a university was opened at Riyadh; other universities are at Dhahran, Dammam, Jedda, and Makka.

Economy

Because of the scarcity of water, agriculture had been restricted to Asir and to oases strung along the wadis, but irrigation projects have reclaimed many acres of desert, particularly at Al Kharj, southeast of Riyadh, and Hofuf, in the eastern part of the country. Riyadh's desalinized water supply comes from a pipeline on the Persian Gulf. Products grown in Saudi Arabia include wheat, barley, dates, citrus fruit, vegetables, and livestock products. Agriculture is a growing economic sector, and the country is approaching food self-sufficiency. Manufacturing, which has also increased, produces metals, chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, cement, and fertilizers. Minerals include phosphate, iron ore, copper, gold, bauxite, and uranium. Saudi Arabia has a growing banking and financial-services sector, and the country is beginning to encourage tourism, especially along the Red Sea coast. Mecca, Medina, and the port of Jidda have derived much income from religious pilgrims; the annual hajj brings about 2 million pilgrims to Mecca.
The oil industry, located in the northeast along the Persian Gulf, dominates the economy, comprising 90% of all Saudi exports. Major trading partners are the United States, Japan, Great Britain and other European Union countries, South Korea, and Singapore. Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1936, and the country is now the world's leading exporter. It contains about one quarter of the world's known reserves; 14 major oil fields exist. A huge petroleum industrial complex has been developed in the town of Al Jubayl, as well as at Yanbu on the Red Sea. There are refinery complexes at Ras Tanura and Ras Hafji on the Persian Gulf; oil also is shipped to Bahrain for refining. The oil boom after World War II led to the construction of the Al Dammam–Riyadh RR, the development of Al Dammam as a deepwater port, and the electrification of the towns. Schools, hospitals, and homes, particularly for the oil workers, have been built. Saudi Arabia, like other oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, depends heavily upon foreign labor for its oil industry; workers are drawn from Arab countries as well as S and SE Asia. The country began running annual deficits in the mid-1980s as oil prices declined and the government continued to spend heavily on armaments and social programs. Saudi Arabia entered a recession in the late 1990s and was forced to initiate spending cuts.

History

Origins of Saudi Arabia
As a political unit, Saudi Arabia is of relatively recent creation. Its origins lay with the puritanical Wahhabi movement (18th cent.), which gained the allegiance of the powerful Saud family of the Nejd, in central Arabia. Supported by a large Bedouin following, the Sauds brought most of the peninsula under their control, except for Yemen and the Hadhramaut in the extreme south. The Wahhabi movement was crushed (1811–18) by an Egyptian expedition under the sons of Muhammad Ali. After reviving in the mid-19th cent., the Wahhabis were defeated in 1891 by the Rashid dynasty, which gained effective control of central Arabia.
It was Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, known as Ibn Saud, a descendant of the first Wahhabi rulers, who laid the basis of the present Saudi Arabian state. Beginning the Wahhabi reconquest at the turn of the century, Ibn Saud took Riyadh in 1902 and was master of the Nejd by 1906. On the eve of World War I he conquered the Al-Hasa region from the Ottoman Turks and soon extended his control over other areas. He was then ready for the conquest of the Hejaz, ruled since 1916 by Husayn ibn Ali of Mecca. The Hejaz fell to Saud in 1924–25 and in 1932 was combined with the Nejd to form the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, ruled under Islamic law. In much of the country, King Ibn Saud compelled the Bedouins to abandon traditional ways and encouraged their settlement as farmers.