The History Of Saudi Arabia

The country is known both for its austere form of islam and for its oil wealth.

The history of saudi arabia. Over the centuries the peninsula has played an important role in history as an ancient trade center and as the birthplace of islam one of the world s major monotheistic religions. Other articles where history of saudi arabia is discussed. The study is related to understand our species first steps out of africa. Vassiliev provides a comprehensive account of the saudi royal family and their alliance with wahhabi islam telling the story of how saudi arabia came to be established as a state in 1932.

The history of saudi arabia in its current form as a state began with its foundation in 1744 although the history of the region extends as far as 20 000 years ago. This discussion focuses on saudi arabia since the 18th century. It contains the hejaz region along the red sea which is the cradle of islam and the najd heartland. The kingdom of saudi arabia is an absolute monarchy under the al saud family which has ruled saudi arabia since 1932.

Saudi arabia traces its roots back to the earliest civilizations of the arabian peninsula. From the mid 20th century the discovery of vast oil deposits propelled it into a key economic and geo political role. The region has had a global impact twice in world history. Saudi arabia arid sparsely populated kingdom of the middle east and a young country heir to a rich history.

At other times the region existed in relative obscurity a. For a treatment of earlier periods and of the country in its regional context see arabia. Saudi arabia officially the kingdom of saudi arabia is a country in western asia constituting the bulk of the arabian peninsula with a land area of approximately 2 150 000 km 2 830 000 sq mi saudi arabia is geographically the largest sovereign state in western asia the second largest in the arab world after algeria the fifth largest in asia and the 12th largest in the world. He replaced king abdullah salman s half brother when abdullah died in january 2015.

The current leader is king salman the seventh ruler of the country since its independence from the ottoman empire. Serious scholars should love it. The research in saudi arabia is part of a more than decade long effort led by michael petraglia a human evolution researcher at the max planck institute who led the team to unearth hominin history in the arabian peninsula.