Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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Notes to Chapter VI
1 Riyadh's history goes back to the pre-Islamic period. Today's Riyadh occupies what archaeologists
believe was the site of scattered settlements, Mi'kal, A1 Owed, and the surrounding farmland
comprising Hijr. Hijr's historical survival was owed to the presence of water made possible by the
confluence of several major wadis and the fact the Hijr lay at the locus of several major trade routes.
^
The emphasis on Wahhabism conjures a wrong understanding that is Wahhabism is a new sect of
Islam. The early movement materialized on the pure religious aims of Ibn Abdul-Wahhab and, as
Safran (1988) claims, the material interests of Ibn Saud, who added to his religious intentions the
benefits derived from expanding his tax base (Safran, 1986). Both acknowledged the fact that there were
many wrong practices, such as seeking worldly benefits by slaughtering livestock at old trees and
seeking the dead for help. Such practices were considered antithetical to Islamic teachings as ordained by
the Prophet in the seventh century A.D.
3 There were estimated to have been between 50-73 thousand fighting men. See for example, Captain C.
C. Lewis, "Ibn Saud & the Future of Arabia," International Affairs (July, 1933): 518-534.
4
Geralding Rendel, "Across Saudi Arabia," The Geographic Magazine (January 1938), 170.
5 See for example, K. Brown, ed. Middle Eastern Cities in Comparative Perspective (London: Ithaca
Press, 1986).
6 The number of mosques multiplied to 445 in 1976. By 1984 the number was 1,285 mosques.
7 Ahmed M. Alwashmi, Ar Riyadh: City and Residents, How it was and How they Lived (Riyadh:
National Guard Printing Press, no date).
8 For a discussion on upper and ruling classes in Saudi society see Mordechai Abir, "The Consolidation
of the Ruling Class and the New Elites in Saudi Arabia" Middle Eastern Studies 2 (April, 1987).
9 The Higher Commission for the Development of Arriyadh, Demographic, Transportation, Land Use,
and Economic Studies for the city of Arriyadh (Riyadh: National Offset Printing Press, October,
1987),11.
10 H. St. J. B. Philby, A Pilgrim In Arabia (London: Robert Hale Limited, 1946), 120.
D. van der Meulen, quoted in A. I. Daghistani. Ar-Riyadh: Urban Development and Planning
(Riyadh: Saudi Arabian Printing Company, 1985), 74.
Peter Mansfield. The New Arabians. (Chicago: J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company, 1981), 75.
13 Until 1934, the ownership of cars was limited to the royal family. Elizabeth Monroe. Philby of
Arabia (London: Quart Books, 1980), 157.
14 Monroe, 134.
15
Doxiadis Associates, Riyadh, Existing Conditions (Athens: 1968).