The history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia begins properly on September 23, 1932, when by royal decree the dual kingdom of the Hejaz and Najd with its dependencies, administered since 1927 as two separate units, was unified under the name of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, before it became Saudi Arabia, was made up of two kingdoms; Hejaj and Najd and their dependent states. These two kingdoms became unified under the name of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and would gain recognition as an independent nation in 1932.
Saudi Arabia traces its roots back to the earliest civilizations of the Arabian Peninsula. 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.
Overview. Arabia had been under Ottoman rule since the sixteenth century. The seeds of the modern Saudi state in central Arabia are sown in 1744. The local ruler, Muhammad ibn Sa'ud (1689–1765), joins forces with Islamic reformer and purist Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) to create a new political entity.
In the immediate pre-Islamic period and until the 9th century, there were Christian communities along the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Himyarite rulers of Yemen were Jewish and their Aksumite rivals were Christian, and people of both religions lived there.
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, and Zoroastrianism. Arabian polytheism, the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, was based on veneration of deities and spirits.
Independence: Following Ottoman dominance, Egypt controlled Arabia from 1818 to 1824. For the remainder of the nineteenth century, Egypt, Britain, and the Ottomans vied for control of the region. On September 23, 1932, Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar-Rahman Al Saud established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
During First World War, Ibn Saud signed the 1915 Treaty of Darin with the British government, thereby accepting the status of a British protectorate.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Saʻūdiyya) is the largest country on the Arabian Peninsula. The Kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Mecca and Medina, considered by Islam's to be the world's two holiest cities.
Al-Magar was an advanced prehistoric civilization of the Neolithic whose epicenter lay in modern-day southwestern Najd in Saudi Arabia. Al-Magar is possibly one of the first civilizations in the world where widespread domestication of animals occurred, particularly the horse, during the Neolithic period.
Overview. Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Arab polytheism, the dominant belief system, was based on the belief in deities and other supernatural beings such as djinn. Gods and goddesses were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca.
Tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Syrian Desert is the home of the first attested "Arab" groups, as well other Arab groups that spread in the land and existed for millennia.
Islamic tradition identifies Bakkah as the ancient name for the site of Mecca. An Arabic word, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure.
“We called it Green Arabia because many times in the past Arabia was green, with grasslands, wooded landscapes, rivers and lakes,” says Prof Petraglia.
Pre-oil, Saudi Arabia had little to interest the colonial powers, and taking the land would have meant a de facto state of perpetual war with all muslims. There was simply no incentive.
Western Arabia formed part of the African landmass before a rift occurred in Earth's crust, as a result of which the Red Sea was formed and Africa and the Arabian Peninsula finally became separated some five to six million years ago.
Combined with the complete turmoil in Egyptian finances, the threat to the Suez Canal, and embarrassment to British prestige if it could not handle a revolt, London found the situation intolerable and decided to end it by force.
Ultimately, of all the countries in the world, only one consistently appears on every list of countries that have never been colonized: Japan. Several other countries appear on various lists. However, they all have events in their history that arguably make them colonies according to one definition or another.
The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of mainly four distinct historical regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa) and South Arabia ('Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by King Abdulaziz (known as Ibn Saud in the West).
There may have been no colonization as in the Levant by European armies, but the Ottomans did invade the land for many years. They colonized large parts of it for decades and were either fighting directly or supplying weapons to other parties in Al-Ahsa, Hijaz, the north, and the south.
Saudi Arabia: Islam's Heartland
In the 18th century, a religious scholar of the central Najd, Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, joined forces with Muhammad bin Saud, the ruler of the town of Diriyah, to bring the Najd and the rest of Arabia back to the original and undefiled form of Islam.
As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus. Hinduism has been called the world's oldest religion still practised, though some debate remains.
During pre-Islamic times the city was ruled by a series of Yemeni tribes. Under the Quraysh it became a type of city-state, with strong commercial links to the rest of Arabia, Ethiopia, and Europe. Mecca became a place for trade, for pilgrimage, and for tribal gatherings.
An Arab can be defined as a member of a Semitic people, inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa. The ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, nationalist, geographical, political, often also relating to religion and to cultural identity.