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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
The Saudi population is characterized by a high degree of
cultural homogeneity and by an equally high degree of social
stratification. The territory that in 1992 constituted the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consisted of four distinct regions and
diverse populations. Each region has sustained some measure of
nomadic and seminomadic population: as recently as 1950, at least
one-half the total population of the kingdom was estimated to be
nomadic. Tribal identities were paramount among the nomadic
population and among those in towns and villages who recognized a
tribal affiliation. The Eastern Province had a substantial
Shia (see Glossary)
population with cultural links to Iran, Bahrain,
and other places in the gulf region, as well as an Indian,
Yemeni, and black African component
(see Shia
, this ch.). Asir
was more closely linked to Yemen than to Saudi Arabia both by
population and geography. Najd was geographically divided into
three regions, with town centers that functioned almost as
independent city-states until the early twentieth century. Until
the era of development began in the 1960s, Najd remained
relatively isolated, located as it was in the center of the
peninsula in the midst of three deserts and a mountain chain, but
its towns, too, had populations linked to the gulf, the Hijaz,
and Africa.
By contrast, the Hijaz, being home to the holy sites of Islam
and host to pilgrimage traffic, was directly tied historically
into the Ottoman bureaucratic system. The populations of Mecca,
Medina, and Jiddah have been infused for centuries by descendants
of foreign Muslims who had come for the pilgrimage and stayed.
Mecca had substantial Indian and Indonesian communities, and
Jiddah had descendants of Persians and Hadramis (from Hadramaut,
or Aden), as well as Africans and people from other parts of the
Arabic-speaking world. The cities of the Hijaz benefited by
donations from pious Muslims throughout the world and became
major centers of Islamic scholarship and learning. Jiddah was
virtually without peer as the commercial center in the kingdom
until the 1960s, and in all the Hijaz towns, mercantile families
comprised a powerful elite.
Social stratification was linked to this population
diversity. Tribal affiliation constituted a major status category
based on bloodline. At the top of the tribal status category were
the qabila, families that could claim purity of descent
from one of two eponymous Arab ancestors, Adnan or Qahtan, and
could therefore claim to possess asl, the honor that
stemmed from nobility of origin. To some extent, tribal status
could be correlated to occupation, yet manual labor in general,
but particularly tanning hides and metal work, was considered
demeaning for individuals of qabila status. Qabila
families considered themselves distinct from and distinctly
superior to khadira, nontribal families, who could not
claim qabila descent. Khadira include most
tradesmen, artisans, merchants, and scholars, and constituted the
bulk of the urban productive population of pre-oil Arabia.
Marriage between individuals of qabila and khadira
status was not normally considered. The claim to qabila
status was maintained by patrilineal descent; therefore,
qabila families were concerned to observe strict rules of
endogamy (marriage back into the paternal line) so that status
might be maintained and children, who were considered to belong
to the family of the father, not the mother, would not suffer the
taint of mixed blood. Within the qabila status group,
however, there were status differentials, some groups being
considered inferior precisely because they had once intermarried
with khadira or an abd (slave) and were unable to
claim purity of descent. The abd was at the bottom of the
tribal-linked status hierarchy in the past. Black Africans were
imported into the peninsula in large numbers to be sold as slaves
until the late nineteenth century. Although slavery was not
formally abolished until 1962, intermarriage between
khadira and the black population has been extensive and
has blurred social distinctions between the two. In contemporary
Saudi Arabia, new status categories based on education and
economic advantage began to undermine the importance of tribal
affiliation to status and were having an homogenizing effect on
this barrier to social integration.
An additional status category based on bloodline was that of
ashraf, those who claimed descent from the Prophet
Muhammad. The ashraf (sing.,
sharif--see Glossary) were
significant in the Hijaz but far less so in Najd.
These status categories based on blood have at times in the
past and were in the 1990s being transcended by status groups
based on religion, commerce, professions, and political power.
Religious authority, for example, constituted an additional
category of status. The ulama historically have represented a
powerful intellectual elite of judges, scholars, imams, notaries,
and preachers. Prestige still strongly adhered to religious
scholarship and especially to the groups of scholars whose
religious authority was recognized by the rulers and who were
employed in the government bureaucracy
(see Islamism in Saudi Arabia
, this ch.;
The Ulama
, ch. 4). To some extent, as secular
education became more valued and greater economic rewards accrued
to those with technical and administrative skills, the status of
the ulama declined.
Merchants constituted an additional elite status category
based on wealth. Many of the traditional merchant class,
especially merchants from the Hijaz and the Eastern Province,
lost influence as Saudi rulers ceased borrowing from them and
began to compete with them, using oil resources to create a new
merchant class favoring Najdis. The rulers also used preferential
recruitment for administrative personnel from Najdi tribes, who
in turn used their position to favor other Najdis and Najdi
businesses. The result has been the creation of powerful
administrative and commercial classes supplanting older elite
groups based outside Najd.
The interest and status of these groups may overlap others.
In the Hijaz, members of an elite group known as the
awaali (first families) claimed group solidarity based on
past family connections; their association was actually
distinguished by wealth and life-style, and the circle of
families was constantly in flux. Families who belonged to the
group came from diverse backgrounds and included descendants of
religious scholars, merchants, and pilgrimage guides.
The Shia of the Eastern Province were near the low end of the
social ladder in relation to the fruits of development and access
to sources of power. According to literature produced outside
Saudi Arabia, Shia opposition groups were active inside the
kingdom and constituted the majority of the political prisoners
in Saudi jails. Shia were generally disparaged in society by the
Wahhabi (see Glossary)
antipathy in which their rituals were
held. The status of Shia, however, was in flux: they began to be
drawn into positions of responsibility in government service and
since the 1980s have received an increased share of government
funding for development.
Data as of December 1992
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