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that the criterion of beauty is for women to have round
plump cheeks. Hence the fashion of the ribbon under the
jaw. However, none of my Saudi young friends knew all
this and were surprised to hear my explanation.
It was very late at night, but the end of the wedding
was still far away and there were no signs that it was
drawing near. Some, including myself, had to leave
this elaborated celebration. All the streets leading to the
place of the wedding were crowded with cars. The police
officer pronounced the name of my country over a loud
speaker, and I stood waiting for our car to arrive. The
cars approached slowly one after another to pick up their
owners. In my case, I had to wait half an hour after the
summoning of our car before it arrived and drove me
through the empty streets of Riyadh at that time of the
night. The driver praised the food served to all drivers (it
is customary on occasions, involving thousands of guests,
for drivers to be invited to a specially prepared tent for
them to rest and partake of the delicious food of the party
that is served to them).
Five years have elapsed since this wedding, but I can
still remember it with all its details.
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The First Saudi State
To the north-west of Riyadh, along the winding wadi
Halifah, which borders on the Diplomatic District in the
west, there is a vast area called Dar’iah. Within only a few
decades it became the capital of the first Saudi State, the
large and flourishing state which, though having attained
unprecedented prosperous conditions, was yet soon to
collapse under the pressure of enemies. It consisted of a
collection of settlements that had been formed more than
five hundred years ago, although separate oases had existed
in this part of the Plateau of the Arabian Peninsula three
thousand years B.C. This is attributed to the existence of
water and fertile land. Dar’iyah became a capital when,
in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, there arose an
alliance between Muhammad Saud, the then ruler, and
Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, who advocated
the fundamental type of Islam and whose movement
“Wahhabism” was associated with his name in the West.
The present Saudis do not use this term because they
do not see in the type of Islam advocated by Muhammad
bin Abdul Wahhab an independent current of Islam, since
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it called for the purification of the teachings of Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him, from the perverted
accumulations and errant interpretations of Islam that had
been previously formed and called for a return to Islam
in its original form that was based on the Holy Quran
and the noble Sunnah (traditions of the Noble Prophet).
This call, in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, was
the only doctrine that could be focused on and that made
the Arabs appreciate their national originality which had
been perverted by enmities and continuous tribal wars
as well as by the various religious currents and cults,
including pseudo-pagan ones. Western analysts accuse
Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab and his disciples
of non-acceptance and fierce rejection of the followers
of other currents of Islam, but this is a somewhat one-
sided view, as the analysts have neglected the calls of
Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab for total Islamic
brotherhood, for adherence to moral principles such as
justice, sincerity, goodness, honor and mutual assistance,
which have attracted and won the hearts of many people.
Two centuries after the appearance of the theory of
Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, King Abdulaziz
replied to the above mentioned accusation, which is
directed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, of having chosen
a new type of Islam, saying: “They say we are Wahhabists.
In fact we are in fact merely Muslims. We follow the
teachings of the Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Noble
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as understood
and interpreted by our noble and great ancestors”.
Whether this is the case or otherwise, the religious –
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political alliance between the ruler of a small emirate of
Dar’iyyah, Muhammad bin Saud, and Sheikh Muhammad
bin Abdul Wahhab, has played a major role in shaping the
first Saudi state, when it became a turning point in the
history of the Arabian Peninsula and led eventually to the
establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
After this interim unification that took place in 1745,
there followed a rapid development of the Dar’iyyah
Emirate. The population inflow (13 thousand at the peak
of development) has triggered a building activity (28
mosques and 30 religious schools). There appeared various
sectors of craftsmen in the field of textiles, dyers, tailors,
saddle makers and weapon makers (swords and daggers at
first and then fire-arms). The Dar’iyyah people excelled in
the making of gunpowder, just like the Iranians.
Keeping abreast with the growth of the Emirate, its
capital has also expanded and trade flourished in clothes,
silk, copper, arms, coffee, camels, horses, dates and the
products of craftsmen. Trade caravans headed for Syria,
Egypt, Yemen, Iran and Turkey. The population became
more and more prosperous, and schools were opened,
wherein the clerics taught reading and writing and the
recitation of the Holy Quran. These clerics were behind
the establishment of large public libraries wherein many
historical studies were preserved. Judges passed their
judgments guided by the Holy Quran; houses were
provided with furniture and used to be covered with
woolen covers as cotton textiles were rather rare. The
floors were covered with carpets, even in poor houses.
Copper plates and wooden cups were used. People used
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