by Jean Sasson
Hejira: Islamic calendar, which started on the date that the Prophet Muhammad fled Mecca and escaped to Medina (A.D. 622 )
ihram: special time during hajj when all Muslims refrain from normal life and dwell on nothing but religious matters
imam: person who leads communal prayers and/or delivers the sermon on Fridays
infanticide: practice of killing an infant. In pre-Islamic times, a common practice in Arabia, thereby ridding the family of unwanted female children
Islam: religious faith of Muslims of which Muhammad was the Prophet. Islam was the last of the three great monotheistic religions to appear.
Kaaba: Islam’s holiest shrine, a sacred sanctuary for all Muslims. The Kaaba is a small building in the Holy Mosque of Mecca, nearly cubic in shape, built to enclose the Black Stone, which is the most venerated Muslim object.
kohl: a black powder used as eye make-up by Saudi Arabian women
Koran: the Holy Book of all Muslims, it contains the words of God as they were given to the Prophet Muhammad
la: Arabic word meaning “no”
Medina: second holiest city of Islam. The burial place of the Prophet Muhammad
mahram: males to whom a woman cannot be married, such as her father, brother or uncle, who are allowed to be a woman’s escort when travelling. Must be a close relative
Mecca: holiest city of Islam. Each year, millions of Muslims travel to Mecca to perform the annual pilgrimage.
monotheism: belief that there is only one god
muezzin: the crier who calls the faithful to pray five times a day
Muslim: adherent of the religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the year A.D. 610
muta: temporary marriage allowed to those of the Islamic faith
mutawa: the religious police, also known as the morality police. Men who seek out, arrest and punish those who do not abide by Saudi religious law
Najd: the traditional name for central Arabia. The inhabitants of this area are known for their conservative behavior. The ruling family of Saudi Arabia are Najdis
polygamy: marriage to more than one spouse at the same time. Men of the Muslim faith are legally allowed four wives at one time
purdah: a practice of confining women to their homes. This total seclusion of females can occur in some Muslim countries
purification: the ritual of cleansing prior to offering prayers to God practiced by Muslims
riyal: Saudi Arabian currency
Rub al-Khali: an enormous desert wilderness that occupies the southeast portion of Arabia. It is often referred to as the Empty Quarter.
secular: not religious
Shiite: the branch of Islam that split from the Sunni majority over the issue of the Prophet Muhammad’s successor. One of two main sects
Sunna: traditions of the Islamic faith, as addressed by the Prophet Muhammad
Sunni: the majority orthodox branch of Islam. Saudi Arabia is 95 percent populated by those of the Sunni sect. The word means “traditionalists.” One of two main sects
thobe: a long shirt-like dress that is worn by Saudi men. It is usually made of white cotton but can be made of heavier, darker-colored fabric for the winter months.
Umm al-Qura: “Mother of Cities” or “the Blessed City” that is Mecca
umrah: a short pilgrimage (to Mecca) undertaken by those of the Muslim faith that can be made any time of the year
woman’s room: When Saudi women go against the wishes of the men of the family, they can be confined in a room for a certain period of time, which can be for a short period or a life sentence.
zakat: obligatory alms giving required of all Muslims that is the third pillar of Islam.
Saudi Arabia: Time Line, A.D. 570–2015
January 10, 570 The Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is born in Mecca.
June 8, 632 The Prophet Muhammad dies in Medina. After his death, his companions compile his words and deeds in a work called the sunna, which contains the rules for Islam. The most basic are the Five Pillars of Islam, which are 1) profession of faith 2) daily prayer 3) giving alms 4) ritual fast during Ramadan 5) hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
1400s The Saud dynasty is founded near Riyadh.
1703 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), Islamic theologian and founder of Wahhabism, is born in Arabia.
1710 Muhammad ibn Saud is born.
1742–1765 Muhammad ibn Saud al-Saud joins the Wahhabists.
1744 Muhammad ibn Saud forges a political and family alliance with Muslim scholar and reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The son of Muhammad ibn Saud marries the daughter of Imam Muhammad.
1804 The Wahhabis capture Medina.
1811 Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali overthrows the Wahhabis and reinstates Ottoman sovereignty in Arabia.
1813 The Wahhabis are driven from Mecca.
1824 The al-Saud family establishes a new capital at Riyadh.
1876 Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Sultana’s grandfather and founder of the kingdom, is born.
May 20, 1883 Faisal ibn Hussein is born in Mecca. He later becomes the first king of Syria (1920) and Iraq (1921).
1890 Muhammad bin Rasheed captures Riyadh, forcing the al-Saud family out of the area.
1890–1902 The al-Saud family leave the area to live in exile (from Qatar to Bahrain and finally to Kuwait) until 1902 when they regain control Riyadh
1901 Abdul Aziz leaves Kuwait to return to Arabia with family and friends with plans to attack Riyadh.
January 1902 Abdul Aziz attacks Mismaak fort and recaptures Riyadh. Saud ibn Abdul Aziz, son of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, is born. At his father’s death, he will rule Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1964.
1904 Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz al-Saud, who one day will be a king of Saudi Arabia, is born.
1906 Abdul Aziz ibn Saud regains total control of the Nejd region.
1906–1926 Abdul Aziz ibn Saud and his forces capture vast areas and unify much of Arabia.
June 10, 1916 Mecca, under control of the Turks, falls to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.
October 1916 British officer T. E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, meets Prince Faisal ibn Hussein, forging a friendship. Subsequently, he is assigned as the British liaison officer to the prince.
July 6, 1917 Arab forces led by T. E. Lawrence and Auda abu Tayi capture the port of Aqaba from the Turks.
1918 Lawrence of Arabia blows up the Hejaz railway line in Saudi Arabia.
October 1, 1918 Prince Faisal takes control of Syria when the main Arab force enters Damascus.
1921 At the Cairo Conference, Britain and France carve up Arabia and create Jordan and Iraq, making brothers Faisal and Abdullah kings. France is given influence over what is now Syria and Lebanon.
1923 Abdul Aziz’s son Fahd is born in Riyadh. He will one day reign as king of Saudi Arabia.
1924 Abdul Aziz, commonly known as Ibn Saud, king of the Nejd, conquers Hussein’s kingdom of Hejaz. He rules over Saudi Arabia, later taking Mecca and Medina.
January 1926 Abdul Aziz is declared the king of Hejaz and the sultan of Nejd.
1927 Saudi Arabia signs the Treaty of Jidda and becomes independent of Great Britain.
1927–1928 King Abdul Aziz crushes the fanatical Islamist tribes of central Arabia.
1931 Mohammad bin Laden (who one day will be the father of Osama bin Laden) emigrates to Saudi Arabia from Yemen. He works hard to establish his business, later building a close relationship with King Abdul Aziz and King Faisal.
1932 The kingdoms of Nejd and Hejaz are unified to create the kingdom of Saudi Arabia under King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Saudi Arabia was named after King Ibn Saud, founder of the Saudi dynasty, a man who fathered forty-four sons who continue to rule the oil-rich kingdom.
1933 Saudi Arabia gives Standard Oil of California exclusive rights to explore for oil.
March 4, 1938 Standard Oil of California strikes oil at Dammam Well No 7.
February 14, 1945 Saudi King Abdul Aziz and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt mee
t on a ship in the Suez Canal, where they reach an understanding whereby the United States will protect the Saudi royal family in return for access to Saudi oil.
March 22, 1945 The Arab League is formed in Cairo, Egypt. Saudi Arabia becomes a founding member of the United Nations and the Arab League.
November 9, 1953 King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Sultana’s grandfather, dies, age seventy-seven. He is succeeded by his son Saud.
1953–1964 King Saud rules.
February 15, 1957 Osama bin Laden is born in the early hours in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His parents are Yemen-born Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden and Syrian Hamida al- Attas, aka Alia Ghanem.
1962 Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery.
November 2, 1964. Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz al-Saud succeeds his older brother, Saud bin Abdul Aziz, as king of Saudi Arabia.
1964–1975 King Faisal rules.
1965 King Faisal defies Islamist opposition when he introduces television and later women’s education. Riots ensue. Later senior clerics are convinced by the government that television could be used to promote the faith.
June 6, 1967 An Arab oil embargo is put into effect after the beginning of the Arab–Israeli Six Day War.
September 3, 1967 Mohammed bin Laden, the wealthy father of Osama bin Laden, dies in a plane crash, leaving the well-being of his children to King Faisal.
1973 An embargo against Western nations is announced, lasting until 1974. Gasoline prices soar from twenty-five cents per gallon to one dollar. As a result, the New York stock market falls.
March 25, 1975 King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated by his nephew. Crown Prince Khalid becomes king.
June 18, 1975 Saudi Prince Faisal bin Musaid is beheaded in Riyadh for killing his uncle King Faisal. Crown Prince Khalid is declared king.
November 1975 Armed men and women seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca. They denounce the al-Saud rulers, demanding an end to foreign ways. The radicals are led by Saudi preacher Juhayman al-Utaybi. The siege goes on until French special forces are flown to Mecca to assist. The extremists are shot and killed, or captured and later beheaded.
1980 Osama bin Laden starts his struggle of fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. This is where he will found his Al-Qaeda network. Saudi Arabia executes the remaining radicals for the siege of the Grand Mosque. The radicals are beheaded in various towns across the country.
June 13, 1982 King Khalid dies. He is succeeded by his half-brother Crown Prince Fahd.
1983–2005 Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud, one of King Fahd’s favorite nephews, serves as Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Washington.
1985 Great Britain signs an $80 billion contract with Saudi Arabia to provide 120 fighter jets and other military equipment over a period of twenty years.
July 31, 1987 Iranian pilgrims and riot police clash in the holy city of Mecca. The Iranians are blamed for the death of 402 people.
1988 Saudi-born Osama bin Laden founds Al-Qaeda (the base), a Sunni fundamentalist group with a goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate throughout the world.
1990 Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expel a million Yemen workers as the government of Yemen sides with Saddam in the first Gulf War.
July 1990 The worst tragedy of modern times occurs at the hajj in Mecca, when 1,402 Muslim pilgrims are killed in a stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel.
November 6, 1990 A group of Saudi women drive cars in the streets of Riyadh in defiance of a government ban. The protest creates enormous problems for the women drivers: they are arrested and fired from their jobs, banned from traveling, and named as prostitutes. This event lead to a formal ban of driving for women.
January 16–17, 1991 Operation Desert Storm begins. American, British, French, Saudi, and Kuwaiti aircraft bomb military and strategic targets in Iraq.
1992 King Fahd outlines an institutional structure for the country. A law is passed that allows the king to name his brothers or nephews as successors and to replace his
successor at will.
1994 Osama bin Laden is disowned by his Saudi family and stripped of his Saudi citizenship. His fortune is estimated at $250 million.
May 23, 1994 As worshippers gather for the symbolic ritual of “stoning the devil,” 270 pilgrims are killed in a stampede in Mecca.
1995 A record number of people—192—are beheaded in Saudi Arabia during the year.
May 18, 1996 Osama bin Laden is asked to leave Sudan after the Clinton administration puts pressure on the Sudanese government. Osama takes his son Omar with him to return to Afghanistan. The rest of his family and close associates soon follow.
January 1996 An ailing King Fahd cedes power to his half-brother Crown Prince Abdullah.
April 15, 1997 In a fire outside the holy city of Mecca, 343 Muslim pilgrims die and more than a thousand are injured.
April 10, 1998 During the “stoning of the devil” ritual, 150 pilgrims die during a stampede that occurs on the last day of the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.
1999 The Saudi Arabian government claims it will issue travel visas into the kingdom to upscale travel groups.
January 26, 2001 A U.N. panel angers the Saudi government and citizens when it criticizes Saudi Arabia for discriminating against women, harassing minors, and for punishments that include flogging and stoning.
March 2001 The Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law in Saudi Arabia says that Pokémon games and cards have “possessed the minds” of Saudi children.
March 5, 2001 During the “stoning of the devil” ritual at the annual hajj in Mecca, thirty-five Muslim pilgrims suffocate to death.
February 17, 2002 Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah presents a Middle East peace plan to the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. The plan includes Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist if Israel pulls back from lands that were once part of Jordan, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
March 2002 There is a fire at a girl’s school in Mecca, but the police block the girls from fleeing the building because they are not wearing the veil. A surge of anger spreads across Saudi Arabia when fifteen students burn to death.
April 2002 The Saudi Arabian government close several factories that produce women’s veils and abayas that are said to violate religious rules. Some of the robes are considered too luxurious, with jewels sewn onto the shoulders.
April 13, 2002 Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the Saudi poet and ambassador to Great Britain, , publishes the poem “The Martyrs” in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat, praising a Palestinian female suicide bomber.
April 25, 2002 U.S. President George W. Bush meets with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Crown Prince Abdullah tells the American president that the country must reconsider its total support of Israel. Abdullah gives Bush his eight-point proposal for Middle East peace.
May 2002 There is a disagreement between Saudi diplomats and members of the U.N. Committee Against Torture over whether flogging and the amputation of limbs are violations of the 1987 Convention Against Torture.
December 2002 Saudi dissidents report the launch of a new radio station, Sawt al-Islah (the Voice of Reform), broadcasting from Europe. The new station is formed with the explicit purpose of pushing for reforms in Saudi Arabia.
February 2003 Fourteen Muslim pilgrims are trampled to death when a worshipper trips during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia.
April 29, 2003 The U.S. government announces the withdrawal of all combat forces from Saudi Arabia.
May 12, 2003 Multiple and simultaneous suicide car bombings at three foreign compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kill twenty-six people, including nine U.S. citizens.
October 14, 2003 Hundreds of Saudi Arabians take to the streets, demanding reform. This is the first large-scale protest in the country, as demonstrations are illegal.
2004 It is discovered that Libya planned a covert operation to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah in 2003.
February 1, 2004 During the hajj, 251 Muslim worshippers die in a stampede.
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April 10, 2004 Popular Saudi Arabian TV host Rania al-Baz is severely beaten by her husband, who thought he had killed her. She survived, suffering severe facial fractures that required twelve operations. She allowed photos to be broadcast and opened discussions of ongoing violence against women in Saudi Arabia. She traveled to France, where she wrote her story. It was reported that she lost custody of her children after her book was published.
May 2004 In Yanbu al Bahr, Saudi Arabia, suspected militants spray gunfire inside the offices of an oil contractor, the Houston-based ABB Ltd. Six people are killed. Many are wounded. Police kill four brothers in a shoot-out after a car chase in which the attackers reportedly dragged the naked body of one victim behind their getaway car.
June 2004 The Saudi parliament pass legislation overturning a law banning girls and women from participating in physical education and sports. But in August, the Ministry of Education announces that it will not honor the legislation.
June 6, 2004 Simon Chambers, a thirty-six-year-old Irish cameraman working for the BBC, is killed in a shooting in Riyadh. A BBC correspondent is injured.
June 8, 2004 An American citizen working for a U.S. defense contractor is shot and killed in Riyadh.
June 12, 2004 An American is kidnapped in Riyadh. Al-Qaeda post the man’s picture on an Islamic Web site. He is identified as Lockheed Martin businessman Paul M. Johnson Jr. Islamic militants shoot and kill American Kenneth Scroggs in his garage in Riyadh.
June 13, 2004 Saudi Arabia holds a three-day “national dialogue” in Medina on how women’s lives could be improved and the recommendations are passed to Crown Prince Abdullah.
June 15, 2004 Al-Qaeda threatens to execute Paul M. Johnson Jr. within seventy-two hours unless fellow jihadists are released Saudi prisons.
June 18, 2004 Al-Qaeda claim to have killed American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. They post photos on the Internet showing his body and severed head.
July 20, 2004 The head of slain American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr. is found during a raid by Saudi security forces.
July 30, 2004 In the United States, in a Virginia court, Abdurahman Alamoudi pleads guilty to moving cash from Libya to pay expenses in the plot to assassinate Saudi Prince Abdullah.