Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Shahab Ahmed, The Problem of the 

Satanic Verses and the Formation of Islamic Orthodoxy

(forthcoming); Lisa Appignanesi and Sara Maitland, 

eds.,  The Rushdie File (London: Fourth Estate, 1989); 

Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (London: Viking 

Penguin, 1988); W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at 

Mecca (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953).

Saudi Arabia

 

(Official name: Kingdom of 

Saudi Arabia)

Named after the dynasty that rules it, Saudi Ara-

bia is one of the most powerful nations in the 

Middle East. It is has an area of 756,785 square 

miles (about one-fifth the size of the United 

States), a population of 28.1 million people (2008 

estimate), and the world’s largest 

oil

 reserves. 

The birthplace of Islam, the home of m

ecca

 and 

m

edina

, the two holiest cities in Islam, and host 

to millions of pilgrims every year, Saudi Arabia 

has great religious importance within the Muslim 

world. It also occupies a position of geographic 

importance, bordering both the Persian Gulf and 

the Red Sea, as well as i

raq

, J

ordan

, and Kuwait 

to the north, Oman and y

emen

 to the south, and 

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east. 

Saudi Arabia occupies most of the Arabian Pen-

insula. Along the Red Sea coast lie the regions of 

Hijaz and Asir. Much of the center of Saudi Ara-

bia is an arid rocky plateau known as the Najd. 

Along the Persian Gulf coast lies the Hasa Plain. 

Other important regions include the deserts of 

Al-Nafud, Al-Dahna, and the Rub al-Khali. Saudi 

Arabia’s major cities are Mecca and Medina in the 

Hijaz, Riyadh in the Najd, and the tri-city region 

of Dammam, al-Khubar, and Dharan along the 

Gulf coast in the east. Its indigenous population 

is overwhelmingly Arab, but it has a significant 

number of foreign workers from all over the 

world, including the United States. The state reli-

gion is based on a puritanical form of Sunni Islam 

known as W

ahhabism

, but there is a sizeable Shii 

minority population of about 11 percent (2005 

estimate) in the eastern region of the country, 

along the Gulf coast.

Because much of the Arabian Peninsula con-

sists of desert, the first permanent settlements in 

the region were along the coasts of the Red Sea 

and the Persian Gulf. These towns soon became 

active in trading between the rich civilizations of 

Egypt to the west and the Tigris-Euphrates region 

to the east, which brought prosperity to some 

areas, particularly along the southwestern coast. 

As the development of camel caravans increased 

trade across the peninsula, urban centers also 

appeared in the interior regions. Outside the cit-

ies, most inhabitants of the region were nomadic 

tribes. The northern area, where the archaeologi-

cal site of Madam Salih is located, was once home 

to the Nabateans, an ancient Arab trading culture 

that extended northward into Jordan.

About 613 

c

.

e

.,  Muhammad  ibn Abd Allah 

first began preaching the message of Islam in 

K  606