1987/04/01 by Mordechai Abir · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Class (philosophy) #Consolidation (business) #Economics #History #Law #Political science #Politics #Ruling class #Socioeconomic Development in MENA
paper · doi:10.1080/00263208708700697
openalex publication_date 1987/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
At the beginning of the twentieth century the Saudi population was mainly a classless society. There was no upper class to speak of in Arabia at the time. Only a small proportion of the merchants and the ulama in the towns of Hijaz and Najd could be described as 'middle class'. The great majority of the Arabians townspeople as well as rural nomads and agriculturalists lived at subsistence level and could be regarded as 'lower class'. The unification of the Saudi kingdom by Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud in the first decades of the century, consolidated the power and authority of a new Saudi ruling class the aristocracy. The development of the kingdom's oil industry since 1938 and the modernization of Saudi Arabia after the Second World War, produced moreover in addition to existing regional and other differences new classes and a relatively rigid social structure. The latter, largely a heritage of the past, depends not so much on power, wealth and education as on regional (Najd) and tribal (noble) origin. This article will examine the consolidation and composition of the Saudi aristocracy and whether it has undergone a change in recent decades under the impact of the rapid development of the kingdom and its society and due to the rise of new elites.