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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
Al Munis village, near Az Zahran al Janub, showing the
hills of southwestern Saudi Arabia in the background
Courtesy Aramco World.
Until about 900, the centers of Islamic power remained in the
Fertile Crescent, a semicircle of fertile land stretching from
the southeastern Mediterranean coast around the Syrian Desert
north of the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf and linked
with the Arabian heartland. After the ninth century, however, the
most significant political centers moved farther and farther
away--to Egypt and India, as well as to what is now Turkey and
the Central Asian republics. Intellectual vitality eventually
followed political power, and as a result, Islamic civilization
was no longer centered in Mecca and Medina in the Hijaz.
Mecca remained the spiritual focus of Islam because it was
the destination for the pilgrimage that all Muslims were
required, if feasible, to make once in their lives. The city,
however, lacked political or administrative importance even in
the early Islamic period. This devolved on Medina instead, which
had been the main base for the Prophet's efforts to gain control
of the shrines in Mecca and to bring together the tribes of the
peninsula. After the Prophet's death, Medina continued to be an
administrative center and developed into something of an
intellectual and literary one as well. In the seventh and eighth
centuries, for instance, Medina became an important center for
the legal discussions that would lead to the codification of
Islamic law. Orthodox
(Sunni--see Glossary)
Islam recognizes four
systems--or schools--of law, and one of these, the school of
Malik ibn Anas (died in 796), which is observed today in much of
Africa and Indonesia, originated with the scholars of Medina. The
three other Sunni law schools (Hanafi, Shafii, and Hanbali)
developed at about the same time, but largely in Iraq.
Arabia was also the site for some of the conflicts on which
the sectarian divisions of Islam are based. The major Islamic
sect, the
Shia
(from Shiat Ali or "party of Ali"--see Glossary),
is still represented in Saudi Arabia but forms a larger
percentage of the populations in Iraq and Iran.
One Shia denomination, known as the Kharijite movement, began
in events surrounding the assassination of Uthman, the third
caliph, and the transfer of authority to Ali, the fourth caliph.
Those who believed Ali should have been the legitimate successor
to the Prophet refused to accept the authority of Uthman.
Muawiyah in Syria challenged Ali's election as caliph, leading to
a war between the two and their supporters. Muawiyah and Ali
eventually agreed to an arbitrator, and the fighting stopped.
Part of Ali's army, however, objected to the compromise, claiming
Muawiyah's family were insincere Muslims. So strong was their
protest against compromise that they left Ali's camp (the term
khariji literally means "the ones who leave") and fought a
battle with their former colleagues the next year.
The most prominent quality of the Kharijite movement was
opposition to the caliph's representatives and particularly to
Muawiyah, who became caliph after Ali. Although the Kharijites
were known to some Muslims as bandits and assassins, they
developed certain ideal notions of justice and piety. The Prophet
Muhammad had been sent to bring righteousness to the world and to
teach the Arabs to pray and to distribute their wealth and power
fairly. According to the Kharijites, whoever was lax in following
the Prophet's directives should be opposed, ostracized, or
killed.
The Kharijite movement continued to be significant on the
Persian Gulf coast in the ninth through the eleventh century and
survived in the twentieth century in the more moderate form of
Ibadi Islam. The uncompromising fanaticism of the original
Kharijites was, however, indicative of the fervor with which the
tribal Arabs had accepted the missionary ideology of Islam. It
was this fervor that made it possible for Arab armies to conquer
so much territory in the seventh century. This same spirit helped
the Al Saud succeed at the end of the eighteenth century and
again at the beginning of the twentieth.
The more orthodox Shia sect originated in circumstances
similar to those of the Kharijite movement. Shia believed that
Ali should have led the Muslim community immediately after the
Prophet. They were frustrated three times, however, when the
larger Muslim community selected first Abu Bakr, next Umar (died
in 644), and then Uthman as caliph. When Ali finally became
caliph in 656, the Shia refused to accept claims to the caliphate
from other Muslim leaders such as Muawiyah.
The dispute between Ali and Muawiyah was never resolved.
Muawiyah returned to Syria while Ali remained in Iraq, where he
was assassinated by a Kharijite follower in 660. Muawiyah assumed
the caliphate, and Ali's supporters transferred their loyalty to
his two sons, Hasan and Husayn. Whereas Hasan more or less
declined to challenge Muawiyah, Husayn was less definitive. When
Muawiyah's son, Yazid, succeeded his father, Husayn refused to
recognize his authority and set out for Iraq to raise support. He
was intercepted by a force loyal to Yazid. When Husayn refused to
surrender, his entire party, including women and children, was
killed at Karbala in southeastern Iraq.
The killing of Husayn provided the central ethos for the
emergence of the Shia as a distinct sect. Eventually, the Shia
would split into several separate denominations based on disputes
over who of Ali's direct male descendants should be the true
spiritual leader. The majority came to recognize a line of twelve
leaders, or
Imams (see Glossary),
beginning with Ali and ending
with Muhammad al Muntazar (Muhammad, the awaited one). These
Shia, who are often referred to as "Twelvers," claimed that the
Twelfth Imam did not die but disappeared in 874. They believe
that he will return as the "rightly guided leader," or Mahdi, and
usher in a new, more perfect order.
Twelver Shia reverence for the Imams has encouraged
distinctive rituals. The most important is Ashura, the
commemoration of the death of Husayn. Other practices include
pilgrimages to shrines of Ali and his relatives. According to
strict Wahhabi Sunni interpretations of Islam, these practices
resemble the pagan rituals that the Prophet attacked. Therefore,
observance of Ashura and pilgrimages to shrines have constituted
flash points for sectarian problems between the Saudi Wahhabis
and the Shia minority in the Eastern Province.
The Shia minority in Saudi Arabia, like the Shia in southern
Iraq, traces its origin to the days of Ali. A second Shia group,
the Ismailis, or the Seveners, follow a line of Imams that
originally challenged the Seventh Iman and supported a younger
brother, Ismail. The Ismaili line of leaders has been continuous
down to the present day. The current Imam, Sadr ad Din Agha Khan,
who is active in international humanitarian efforts, is a direct
descendant of Ali.
Although present-day Saudi Arabia has no indigenous Ismaili
communities, an important Ismaili center existed between the
ninth and eleventh centuries in Al Hufuf, in eastern Arabia. The
Ismailis of Al Hufuf were strong enough in 930 to sack the major
cities of Iraq, and they were fanatical enough to attack Mecca
and remove the sacred stone of the Kaaba, the central shrine of
the Islamic pilgrimage. The pilgrimage was suspended for several
years and resumed only after the stone was replaced, following
the caliph's agreement to pay the Ismailis a ransom.
Under normal circumstances, Muslims visited Mecca every year
to perform the pilgrimage, and they expected the caliph to keep
the pilgrimage routes safe and to maintain control over Mecca and
Medina as well as the Red Sea ports providing access to them.
When the caliph was strong, he controlled the Hijaz, but after
the ninth century the caliph's power weakened and the Hijaz
became a target for any ruler who sought to establish his
authority in the Islamic world. In 1000, for instance, an Ismaili
dynasty controlled the Hijaz from Cairo.
External control of the Hijaz gave the region extensive
contact with other parts of the Muslim world. In this regard, the
Hijaz differed greatly from the region immediately to the east,
Najd.
Najd was relatively isolated. It was more arid and barren
than the Hijaz and was surrounded on three sides by deserts and
separated from the Hijaz by mountains. All overland routes to the
Hijaz passed through Najd, but it was easier to go around Najd.
As the caliphs in Baghdad became less powerful, the road between
Baghdad and Mecca that led across Najd, declined in importance.
After the thirteenth century, pilgrimage traffic was more likely
to move up the Red Sea toward Egypt and so bypass Najd.
So there were two faces of Arabia. To the west was the Hijaz,
which derived a cosmopolitan quality from the foreign traffic
that moved continually through it. In the east was Najd, which
remained relatively isolated. During the eighteenth century,
Wahhabi ideas, vital to the rise of the Al Saud, would originate
in Najd.
Data as of December 1992
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