Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

CHAPTER VIH
STATE-LED URBANIZATION TRANSFORMS AGRARIAN FORMS:
HURAIMLA, FROM AGRARIAN SETTLEMENT TO REGIONAL
ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER
Huraimla is an old agricultural settlement, one of the many agrarian constellations
dotting the Saudi Najdi region. Its morphology and socioeconomic system closely
resembled and shared, though at a smaller scale, the overall attributes of Najd's preindustrial
settlements. Although it experienced considerable influence in the relatively
precarious war environment engulfing Najdi towns and villages, unlike Riyadh, Huraimla
did not benefit from locational characteristics, such as the proximity to the larger wadis and
was not located on an established trade route. Instead, this, the little settlement acquired
agricultural means to sustain its subsistence.
Like most Saudi towns and villages, Huraimla was soon to enjoy the sponsorship of
the central government. Though at a less considerable fashion than major cities,
Huraimla's quaint village-like form was gradual witness to unprecedented development
conforming to the major political and economic trends sweeping the Saudi society and its
urban system. For instance, Huraimla's population, which was estimated at 500
inhabitants in the late 1910s gradually increased to 3,870 by 1974 and reached 5,500 in
1986. 1 Between 1975 and 1987, Huraimla's population increased from 3,900 to 5,500
(or 3% per annum) while the total developed area of the traditional, old town increased
from 47 hectares to 407.62 hectares. Density decreased from 126 inhabitants per hectare in
the compact, old town to 14 inhabitants per hectare in the post-1968 "city." 2 With the
increased central government's role in the settlement's local affairs and financial support,
Huraimla was given its own bureaucracy: an imarah (house of ameer, principality or
governorship) headed by the ameer who presided over the various nascent government
departments' branches, namely schools, a health clinic and a police station. 3 Not only did
these "modern" functions add new land uses to the traditional settlement's built form, but
also the new functions generated migration disrupting the historical population stasis, for
due to better living conditions, the population demanded more and better urban facilities.
Huraimla began to witness the pulse economic growth that was caused, first, by
increased oil revenues, which created new jobs in the modern economy and led to the
emergence of a new division of labor outside the traditional subsistence economy