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Saudi Arabia
Diversity and Social Stratification
The Saudi population is characterized by a high degree of cultural
homogeneity and by an equally high degree of social stratification.
The territory that in 1992 constituted the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
consisted of four distinct regions and diverse populations. Each
region has sustained some measure of nomadic and seminomadic population:
as recently as 1950, at least one-half the total population of
the kingdom was estimated to be nomadic. Tribal identities were
paramount among the nomadic population and among those in towns
and villages who recognized a tribal affiliation. The Eastern
Province had a substantial Shia (see Glossary) population with
cultural links to Iran, Bahrain, and other places in the gulf
region, as well as an Indian, Yemeni, and black African component
(see Shia , this ch.). Asir was more closely linked to Yemen than
to Saudi Arabia both by population and geography. Najd was geographically
divided into three regions, with town centers that functioned
almost as independent city-states until the early twentieth century.
Until the era of development began in the 1960s, Najd remained
relatively isolated, located as it was in the center of the peninsula
in the midst of three deserts and a mountain chain, but its towns,
too, had populations linked to the gulf, the Hijaz, and Africa.
By contrast, the Hijaz, being home to the holy sites of Islam
and host to pilgrimage traffic, was directly tied historically
into the Ottoman bureaucratic system. The populations of Mecca,
Medina, and Jiddah have been infused for centuries by descendants
of foreign Muslims who had come for the pilgrimage and stayed.
Mecca had substantial Indian and Indonesian communities, and Jiddah
had descendants of Persians and Hadramis (from Hadramaut, or Aden),
as well as Africans and people from other parts of the Arabic-speaking
world. The cities of the Hijaz benefited by donations from pious
Muslims throughout the world and became major centers of Islamic
scholarship and learning. Jiddah was virtually without peer as
the commercial center in the kingdom until the 1960s, and in all
the Hijaz towns, mercantile families comprised a powerful elite.
Social stratification was linked to this population diversity.
Tribal affiliation constituted a major status category based on
bloodline. At the top of the tribal status category were the qabila,
families that could claim purity of descent from one of two eponymous
Arab ancestors, Adnan or Qahtan, and could therefore claim to
possess asl, the honor that stemmed from nobility of
origin. To some extent, tribal status could be correlated to occupation,
yet manual labor in general, but particularly tanning hides and
metal work, was considered demeaning for individuals of qabila
status. Qabila families considered themselves distinct
from and distinctly superior to khadira, nontribal families,
who could not claim qabila descent. Khadira
include most tradesmen, artisans, merchants, and scholars, and
constituted the bulk of the urban productive population of pre-oil
Arabia. Marriage between individuals of qabila and khadira
status was not normally considered. The claim to qabila
status was maintained by patrilineal descent; therefore, qabila
families were concerned to observe strict rules of endogamy (marriage
back into the paternal line) so that status might be maintained
and children, who were considered to belong to the family of the
father, not the mother, would not suffer the taint of mixed blood.
Within the qabila status group, however, there were status
differentials, some groups being considered inferior precisely
because they had once intermarried with khadira or an
abd (slave) and were unable to claim purity of descent.
The abd was at the bottom of the tribal-linked status
hierarchy in the past. Black Africans were imported into the peninsula
in large numbers to be sold as slaves until the late nineteenth
century. Although slavery was not formally abolished until 1962,
intermarriage between khadira and the black population
has been extensive and has blurred social distinctions between
the two. In contemporary Saudi Arabia, new status categories based
on education and economic advantage began to undermine the importance
of tribal affiliation to status and were having an homogenizing
effect on this barrier to social integration.
An additional status category based on bloodline was that of
ashraf, those who claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
The ashraf (sing., sharif--see Glossary) were significant
in the Hijaz but far less so in Najd.
These status categories based on blood have at times in the past
and were in the 1990s being transcended by status groups based
on religion, commerce, professions, and political power. Religious
authority, for example, constituted an additional category of
status. The ulama historically have represented a powerful intellectual
elite of judges, scholars, imams, notaries, and preachers. Prestige
still strongly adhered to religious scholarship and especially
to the groups of scholars whose religious authority was recognized
by the rulers and who were employed in the government bureaucracy
(see Islamism in Saudi Arabia , this ch.; The Ulama , ch. 4).
To some extent, as secular education became more valued and greater
economic rewards accrued to those with technical and administrative
skills, the status of the ulama declined.
Merchants constituted an additional elite status category based
on wealth. Many of the traditional merchant class, especially
merchants from the Hijaz and the Eastern Province, lost influence
as Saudi rulers ceased borrowing from them and began to compete
with them, using oil resources to create a new merchant class
favoring Najdis. The rulers also used preferential recruitment
for administrative personnel from Najdi tribes, who in turn used
their position to favor other Najdis and Najdi businesses. The
result has been the creation of powerful administrative and commercial
classes supplanting older elite groups based outside Najd.
The interest and status of these groups may overlap others. In
the Hijaz, members of an elite group known as the awaali
(first families) claimed group solidarity based on past family
connections; their association was actually distinguished by wealth
and life-style, and the circle of families was constantly in flux.
Families who belonged to the group came from diverse backgrounds
and included descendants of religious scholars, merchants, and
pilgrimage guides.
The Shia of the Eastern Province were near the low end of the
social ladder in relation to the fruits of development and access
to sources of power. According to literature produced outside
Saudi Arabia, Shia opposition groups were active inside the kingdom
and constituted the majority of the political prisoners in Saudi
jails. Shia were generally disparaged in society by the Wahhabi
(see Glossary) antipathy in which their rituals were held. The
status of Shia, however, was in flux: they began to be drawn into
positions of responsibility in government service and since the
1980s have received an increased share of government funding for
development.
Data as of December 1992
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