Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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tribal chiefs and influential town rulers (henceforth, umara: singular amir) According to
Mansfield, "Oil revenues were part of the Kings' Privy Purse, and he continued to
dispense them with the same openhanded generosity to his family and to loyal shaykhs as
when there were no more than a few hundred gold sovereigns in his coffers." 12 During the
1940s, the royal palace of al Murabba' radiated opulence in an impoverished society that
experienced the nadir of depravity. Riyadh was soon to endure thousands of well-wishers
at a time, mostly bedouins who camped in the towns vicinity waiting for the royal palace to
approve their annual subsidies.
The well-to-do citizens of Riyadh found relief outside the wall from the cramped
quarters within the city. The royalty, who were among the first to reap the benefits of
affluence, used their wealth to create insulated enclaves beyond the city proper, hence
escaping the constraints of traditional commonplace urban life. Members of the court
sought the surrounding farms to construct recreational outing pleasure compounds. New
"urban villagers" brought increasing alienation to the previously quaint settlement's
residents who virtually all knew each other. The surrounding green belt, to which the
city's name, Riyadh (the gardens) referred, was the first casualty of that expansion.
Hamlets sprouted in close proximity to the town, and soon grew into suburbs.
During the 1940s and 1950s, the city witnessed waves of rural migrants and
foreigners, mainly from nearby Arab and Muslim countries, who flocked to the growing
Saudi capital. They were lured by employment opportunities in the growing government
sector, improved educational institutions and job openings in the lucrative commercial
sector and ancillary industries. While the nationals preferred the newly-built traditional
"mud communities" sprouting outside the city walls, foreigners opted for the (newlyintroduced)
multi-unit apartment buildings. The new apartment buildings were soon to dot
the major thoroughfares, creating a formidable barrier that encircled the mud communities
and filled in the interstices between the radiating tarmac roads. Urban in-migrants squeezed
into the already tiny homes and encroached into what ever open space was left as housing
production failed to cope with the large demand.
Nevertheless, Riyadh maintained its preindustrial compactness during the 1930s and
1940s due to technological limitations and a financial squeeze. The majority of Riyadh's
denizens walked to work. Since walking was the only mode available for most of the city
dwellers, it determined the shape and size of the city prior to the demolition of the wall in