Saudi Arabia is a 20th century nation formed by the union of the two largest Arab kingdoms - Hejaz and Nejd. Both the kingdoms are fairly new with the former gaining its separate entity only in 1916 whereas the Sultanate of Nejd never really got an independent statehood. In either case, both Hejaz and Nejd wouldn't be considered sovereign states as either they were part of the larger Turkish Empire of the Ottomans or would see themselves getting tossed with another rising power along the Nile - the Egyptians. Also, with the ending of the Ottoman rule, there was another imperial power's involvement, this time it is a European that had its power spread throughout the globe - the British.
The Arabian peninsula at present consists of the following nations with their year of formation:
- Saudi Arabia (Al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabīyah as-Saʿūdīyah) (1932)
- Qatar (Dawlat Qatar) (1971)
- Kingdom of Bahrain (Mamlakat al-Bahrayn) (2002)
- United Arab Emirates (al-ʾImārāt al-ʿArabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) (1971)
- Yemen (al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah) (1990)
- Oman (Salṭanat ʻUmān) (1970)
- Kuwait (Dawlat al-Kuwayt) (1961)
It is well-known that throughout history, the Omani Sultanate played a deciding factor over controlling the sea trade as well as a cultural crossover via the Levant opening in Africa at Egypt and Constantinople or Istanbul in mainland Europe. But looking at the 20th-century Arabian peninsula, when the Ottomans had fallen, Britain was almost on the verge of losing its largest colony India, and the recently independent Egypt took a keen interest in repositioning itself as imperial power after century-long Ottoman colonisation. The Red Sea coast was bordered by several smaller Arabic sub-states, vassalage to a bigger entity. The Omani domination was vaguely maintained its prominence with being a dominant nation on the southern Arabian coast, having a Gwadar port stationed near Karachi in British India (soon to be Pakistan in 1947). The dominant Hejaz kingdom would slowly engulf these microstates to form a bigger Arabic kingdom under the Saudi ruling class.
The names that are continuous throughout the 19th-20th centuries before the establishment of the Saudi state are as follows:
- El Hassa or El Hejer (al-ʾAhsā, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrein and UAE)
- El Hejaz (Al-Ḥijāz, in Saudi Arabia)
- Wadi Subeyh (in Saudi Arabia)
- Wadi Schepan (in Saudi Arabia)
- El Afladj (Al Aflaj, in Saudi Arabia)
- Wadi Dowaser (Wadi ad-Dawasir, in Saudi Arabia)
- Asir (Asīr, in Saudi Arabia)
- Abybda (in Saudi Arabia)
- Abu Arisch (Abu 'Arish, in Saudi Arabia)
- Has Drekil (in Saudi Arabia)
- Sana (Ṣanʿāʾ, in Yemen)
- Tehama (Tihāmah, in Saudi Arabia and Yemen)
- Aden (in Yemen)
- Sahan (As Sahan, in Saudi Arabia)
- Wadaa (in Saudi Arabia)
- Senhan (in Saudi Arabia)
- Nejed (Najd, in Saudi Arabia)
- El Kasym (Minṭaqat al-Qaṣīm, in Saudi Arabia)
- El Woshem (in Saudi Arabia)
- El Ared (in Saudi Arabia)
- El Khard (Al Kharj, in Saudi Arabia)
- El Harik (Al Hariq, in Saudi Arabia)
- El Zedeyr (in Saudi Arabia)
- Al Gwaf (Al Jawf, in Saudi Arabia)
- Badieh el Arab
- Arabia Petræa (in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Israel)
- Oman
- Mahra (Al Mahra, in Yemen)
- Hadramaut (Ḥaḍramūt, in Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia)
- Makalla (in Yemen)
- Jafra (in Yemen)
- Belad el Djof (in Yemen)
Romanticizing the Arabic definite article Al to El was one of the common practices of western cartographers. Hence, Al Hariq is mentioned as El Harik, Al Jawf as El Gwaf, and so on. If one has to compare the maps of pre-Saudi dynasty Arabia to that of today's none of the internal boundaries match greatly, since most of the erstwhile kingdoms are either small villages or part of a bigger administrative block. These closely-knitted Arab lands constantly changed with time as if we look at a century back, the 19th and 18th centuries Arabia had a slightly different arrangement. An 18th-century map of Asia by Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724) dating 1716 had the following divisions of the Arabian Peninsula.
- Arabia Petrea
- Arabia Deserta
- Medina
- Beduins
- Mecca
- Tehama
- Hadramut
- Seger
- Oman
- Ormus
- Bahraim
- Iamama
It's interesting to see the common names such as Arabia Petrea, Hadramut, Oman, Tehama, Mecca, Medina and Bahraim (Bahrain) on maps of both centuries. But on most pre-19th century maps, Arabia is marked as a single entity with sub-tribes marked loosely with haphazard borders, mostly because of the desert terrain. This type of incorrect naming finds a common pattern as to how the European map-makers assumed the entire Indian subcontinent as a single entity - India, the entire Iranian dominion as 'Persia', the entire Arabian peninsula as a single 'Arabia' and so on. And it is ironic as to how detailed have been the maps of Europe which had numerous kingdoms and monarchies, the German (or Prussian) being the most complex one.
A more refined map of the late 18th century would find an improved version with names such as Hadramaut, Mahra, Yemen, Nedjd, Hedjaz, El Hassa etc. more prominent. Since the entire Arabian peninsula was devoid of any European occupation till the 20th century (except for the Trucial States or the former United Arab Emirates), the European cartography of Arabia was largely ignorant. That doesn't mean that the Arabian peninsula always had a single geopolitical entity. Even when the Ottoman Sultans ruled the Arabian coast of the Red Sea in the 18th century, Yemen, Oman and Muscat were the key players with their Sultanates and Imamates well-established. But it was the Emirate of Diriyah or the First Saudi State (1744-1818) that expanded astronomically from a small town of Diriyah in the middle of the Arabian desert. The Emirate was the first of its kind to unite numerous Arab tribes under one single entity, that can loosely be called Saudi Arabia even in the 19th century. Apart from this, while Oman and Muscat were the major stakeholders in the Gulf, the Yemeni coast was bombarded with states such as Kathiri, Mahra, Qu'aiti and the majestic Rassid Dynasty, whose name isn't mentioned on any European map although they reigned for more than a thousand years.
The boundaries within the Arabian peninsula started to appear properly on 20th-century maps. Straight lines were drawn differentiating the Omani realm from that of the Arabic. With Aden being a crucial British colony (briefly part of British India between 1839 to 1937) the Arabian peninsula is now clearly divided into Hedjaz in the west, Nedjed and Jebel Shommar in the centre and El Hassa in the east. Apart from the Aden Colony, the other British territories on the peninsula were Bahrain, the Trucial Coast (and the islands were known as East India Company islands), Perim island (a tiny dependency of Aden, today part of Yemen), Socotra island (part of Yemen) and the Kuriya Muriya islands (part of Oman).
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of newer nations such as Jordan, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon etc. started to appear on Arabian maps. Yemen and Oman are now to be seen marked with undecided frontiers with the large territory still called 'Arabia'. And even when in 1932, the Saudi state was established, the boundaries of Saudi Arabia were yet to be organised into what we see today. The boundary between Saudi Arabia and Oman swindled in the Rub' al Khali (literally, the Empty Quarter). The British occupation in Yemen ended in 1963 (the Protectorate of South Arabia dissolved in 1967) and an independent Yemen was formed in 1994, almost at the door of the 21st century. It is indeed remarkable how a power that originated even before the rise of Islamic colonies in the medieval era, gained total independence of any foreign occupation at the brim of the 21st century.
Below here is a recreated version of the Arabian peninsula dated 1858, originally sketched by the American cartographer JH Colton (1800-1893).
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