Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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Muslim center, when compared to the Hindu city, has induced in the former somewhat
greater vertical and horizontal mobility." For example, there were no impediments for a
khadhiri dweller to excel in business. He could join the religious stratum, by seeking
education, and gain scholarly status earning him a status unmatched by a gabili denizen. 8
The fourth social group was the bedouins whose contact with towns' inhabitants was
precarious, ebbing between hostility during drought times or amicability during times of
abundance. Traditionally, bedouins perceived the settled town life as a rut and its incomeearning
occupations and life styles as demeaning. This cultural perception had hitherto
limited bedouins' interaction with towns' people to the form of simple trading activity
exchanging goods following the Friday congregational prayer. With modernization, the
lines between such social groups have increasingly been blurred. Moreover, the impact of
modernization on the Saudi family structure is profound. Currently 67 percent of Riyadh's
households are nuclear families. 9
C. Early Suburbanization, Uncontrolled Development: A1 Murabba'
The preindustrial walled town's social diversity was limited by the latent potentialities
offered by its desert ecology, coupled by the utter lack of advanced technology conducive
to a well established division of labor. The emergence of a developed, complex power
structure under King Abdul-Aziz, coupled by the flow of oil revenues, paved the way for
far-flung changes in the society's cultural aspects, including that of urban development.
These changes were reflected in the physical expansion of communities in the town. The
importation of modern technology constituted a major factor in the creation of large,
permanent urban communities outside the wall. The improvements in water-drilling
technology allowed for agricultural surplus, freeing peasants and bedouins to engage in the
increasing work opportunities in the modern economy. Transportation technology and
road building enabled farmers and bedouins to deliver crops, livestock and other foodstuffs
to the growing town.
During the 1940s and 1950s, better security, economic growth and more imports of
automobiles inexorable loosened the ties that once bound the urban functions of society to
tightly defined cores: decentralization began to operate. Modern transportation technology
and communication then set in motion the process of suburbanization. In addition, modern
telecommunication has been substituted for the face-to-face contact and physical movement