Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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Recognizing the need to administer the fledgling and tenuous nation-state, Abdul-Aziz
laid the foundation of a modern state by creating the infrastructure of the administration.
This government structure was soon to proliferate into a centralized, bloated bureaucracy
that was deliberately nurtured to offset other traditional institutional forms of political
leadership and to lump decision making powers at the center. It constituted the only
decision-making organ in the country over which the King presided and had the final say in
treasury expenditures and command of the administrative and defense apparatus. Once the
unification of the new state was completed, Abdul-Aziz was faced with increasing burdens
of modernizing the state to meet its contemporary functions, a double pressure on Abdul-
Aziz since his takeover of the traditionally urban and cosmopolitan Hijaz from the
Shariefian descendants of Prophet Mohammed. Abdul-Aziz was in a race for time, for the
wounds his battles caused during his conquest of the various tribal and urban dwellers
were still fresh. A key factor in giving continuity to his dynasty was to establish the
administration and to secure a modern economy that would eventually weaken the
marauding and contumacious tribal factions within his confines. Although King Abdul-
Aziz managed to create such an administration, its structure and size was limited by his
desire to keep it tractable.
This financial impasse was aggravated when cheap Japanese pearls were introduced
in 1930, causing the prices of the pearl industry, a mainstay of eastern towns' economies,
to fall by as much as 90 percent in a matter of a few years. The direct result was acute
unemployment in the secondary effects on traders, laborers, boat builders and farmers
throughout the economy.
Moreover, during the worldwide depression of the 1930s, the number of pilgrims
declined sharply and virtually ceased during World War n, as normal transportation was
disrupted. This loss was critical because until the discovery of oil pilgrims accounted for
substantial dividends to the national treasury due to the imposition of a head tax on them.24
The number of pilgrims fell from an average of 130,000 a year between 1926-29 to 80,000
in 1930,40,000 in 1931 and less thereafter. At the highest level of the pilgrimage (hajjj)
traffic, state income leveled between $20 to $30 million. Hajj income comprised one-third
to one-fourth of the government income in 1933. To promote pilgrimage, King Abdul-
Aziz applied strict security measures to ensure the safety of pilgrims. Hitherto, pilgrims
used to pay for safe passage though tribal territories.