Riyadh summary

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The Kingdom Tower (centre background) in central Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh , City (pop., 2004: 4,087,152), capital of Saudi Arabia. Located in the east-central part of the country, it was chosen as the capital of the Saʿūd dynasty in 1824. It remained the centre of Saʿūdī rule until 1881, when the Rashīd family took control of the region. In 1902 Ibn Saʿūd regained control, and it became the centre for his conquest of the Arabian Peninsula. When the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed in 1932, Riyadh became the capital. Discovery of immense petroleum deposits in the kingdom in the 1930s transformed the old provincial town into a showplace of sophisticated technology, modern architecture, and highways. In addition to its administrative role, Riyadh is the kingdom’s commercial, education, and transportation centre.

history of Arabia Summary

History of Arabia, history of the region from prehistoric times to the present. Sometime after the rise of Islam in the first quarter of the 7th century ce and the emergence of the Arabian Muslims as the founders of one of the great empires of history, the name ʿArab came to be used by these

Arabia Summary

Arabia, peninsular region, together with offshore islands, located in the extreme southwestern corner of Asia. The Arabian Peninsula is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and southwest, the Gulf of Aden on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south and southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian

Saudi Arabia Summary

Saudi Arabia, arid, sparsely populated kingdom of the Middle East that in the 20th century became one of the world’s largest oil-producing countries in terms of output. It is ruled by the Saud family, which in the 18th century entered an alliance with the austere and conservative Wahhābī Islamic