Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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plateau, 25 kilometers wide, overlooking the Hanifah wadi (valley), one of the major
arterial wadis (Batha, Ghuberah, Wubayr and Namar) transversing the region. Wadi
Hanifah is the most important wadi in the whole region of Najd. The spine-like dry water
bed of wadi Hanifah threads together scattered agrarian settlements constituting the fertile
region of Al-A'arid. Riyadh thus lies at the confluence of these major wadis, whose
seasonal, intermittent rainfall supplied the oases with rainwater, barely sufficient to sustain
subsistence agriculture, the mainstay of the Najd's agrarian society. These arterial wadis
and their tributaries endowed the town with a water source making possible the
development of crops and palm date farms hence giving the mud town its name Riyadh,
which literally means 'gardens'.
In an account of her historical crossing of the Arabian peninsula from sea to sea in
1937, Geraldine Rendel, wrote:
To land in Saudi Arabia is to enter both an older and a newer world. An older
world, because its social philosophy still holds so much of the best of the
Middle Ages; a newer one, because it is one of the newest of the larger postwar
states...Ar Riyadh is surrounded by mud-brick walls with towers at
intervals. We entered the city by the Thumairy Gate, which leads up a wide
street with high houses of mud and limestone built straight onto the road, to
the Palace Square. 4
According to Rendel's account, Riyadh's form corresponded to the familiar layout of
traditional (preindustrial) Islamic cities. 5 It consisted of a central mosque, a palace, the
commercial complex, suq, and residential uses. King Abdul-Aziz's palace dominated the
focal point of the walled, walking city. The palace, which was higher than the rest of the
town's buildings, was a fortified structure with two 'massive' towers and was surrounded
by a network of smaller mansions, occupied by the royalty, accounted for a considerable
part of the city area (Figures 6.1, 6.2).
The Bazaar abutted the Palace square from the east. The northend was closed by a
double colonnade, misbah. Next to the square was the Great Mosque, which in addition to
the other eleven neighborhood mosques served the religious needs of the population. 6 Due
to the increasing number of transients who paid tribute to the King, the market grew
disproportionately to the town's remaining areas giving the town a population of 60,000 at
the end of the fifth decade. The suq comprised a series of clustered tiny shops with
dimensions, each about five feet wide by six feet in length containing goods, coffee pots