Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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In the oases and towns, property owners were shown how to improve their
estates....Teams of well drillers were soon busy in and around Ar-Riyadh.
Water was provided for men and camels at public drinking places inside and
outside the towns. The surrounding tribes soon learnt that Ar-Riyadh could
in [the] future be depended upon for water. The first necessity of life being
thus assured, the King in his widely-famed generosity would take care of the
second necessity: food. So they set up their tents near the walls of the town
and of the palace with the ever-flowing water and the food-distribution centers
near-by. The town spread far out into the desert....people now started to
build houses on the desert plateau. They were now no longer tied to the
vicinity of the old wells, for the new pumps would provide water. On
patches of desert gravel people built their new houses and put mud walls
around them as soon as the drillers had made sure that water could be raised
with pumps. Then within their walls the desert would disappear, for water
makes the desert of Arabia blossom everywhere.... 11
Serving as a major driving force behind suburbanization, water drilling technology
helped in the provision for water in abundant quantities, a factor which in turn encouraged
the germination of new development in the vicinity of the walled town.
In the past the population's obsession with security nurtured a xenophobic attitude.
This was expressed in the maintenance of the town's wall. Once political and economic
conditions prevailed, those who could afford it sought houses outside the wall. In such a
relatively distant area (i.e. distant from the old walled city), owners established the custom
of building a wall around their houses, an urban element which came to dominate the
modern landscape. Traditionally, houses were built attached, sharing the outside walls
with their neighbors. As already noted, such practice was opted for reasons of space
limitation, and security as well as climatic, houses shielded others from the scorching
desert heat. A wall was often built around the town whereas in some cases, house walls
comprised some portions of the settlement's outside wall and a free-standing wall was built
to fill in the gap in cases of an open space. Farms also were surrounded by walls, though
more to demarcate property lines and to provide privacy- for women shared the
responsibilities of tending crops and livestock- as well as to protect against scavenging
livestock, rather than for protection from looters.
Another cultural factor that was behind the increasing popularity of Riyadh and thus
the flurry of immigration is the custom of distributing largesses and food by the King. The
practice, which was rooted in Arab culture, is an expression of chiefdom. As more
revenues poured into the royal capital, the King skillfully used them to win the fealty of