Nejd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nejd or Najd (literally "highland", Arabic: نجد) is a region in central Saudi Arabia and the location of the nation's capital, Riyadh. Nejd, also known as Al-Yamamah in medieval times, has been the site of several kingdoms since antiquity, and was also the setting for many of the great romances of classical Arabic poetry. The Saudi royal family, the Al Saud, are natives of Nejd.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
Nejd, as its name suggests, is a plateau ranging from 762 m to 1,525 m in height and sloping downwards from west to east. It is bound by the Nefud desert to the north, the Empty Quarter to the south, the Dahna desert strip to the east, the mountains of Hejaz to the west, and the mountains of 'Asir to the southwest. The eastern sections are marked by oasis settlements, while the rest has traditionally been sparsely occupied by nomadic Bedouins. The main topographical features include the twin mountains of Aja and Salma in the north near Ha'il, and the Tweig mountain range running through its center from north to south. Also important are the various dry river-beds (wadis) such as Wadi Hanifah near Riyadh, Wadi Na'am in the south, Wadi Al-Rumah in the Al-Qassim region in the north, and Wadi Ad-Dawasir at the southernmost tip of Nejd on the border with Najran. Most Nejdi villages and settlements are located along these wadis, due to ability of these wadis to preserve precious rainwater in the arid desert climate, while others are located near oases. Historically, Nejd itself has been divided into small provinces made up of constellations of small villages and settlements, with each one usually centered around one "capital". These subdivisions are still recognized by Nejdis today, as each province retains its own variation of the Nejdi dialect and Nejdi customs. The most prominent among these provinces are Al-'Aridh, which includes Riyadh and the historical Saudi capital of Dir'iyah; Al-Qassim, with its capital in Buraidah; Sdeir, centered around Al-Majma'ah; Al-Washm, centered around Shagraa; and Jebel Shammar, with its capital, Ha'il. Under modern-day Saudi Arabia, however, Nejd is divided into three administrative regions: Ha'il, Al-Qassim, and Riyadh, comprising a combined area of 554,000 square km.
[edit] Major Towns
Riyadh is the largest city in Nejd, as well as the largest city in the country as a whole, with a population of more than 4,250,000 in 2005. Other cities include Buraidah (378,422), Ha'il (267,005), Ad-Duwadmi (165,000), and Al-Kharj (124,671). Smaller towns and villages include 'Unayzah, Az-Zilfi, Al-Majma'ah, Shagraa, Dhruma, Al-Gwei'iyyah,'Afif, Al-Hareeg, Hotat Bani Tamim, Layla, Sulayyil, and Wadi Ad-Dawasir, the southernmost settlement in Nejd.
[edit] Population
[edit] Social and Ethnic Groups
Prior to the formation of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the native population of Nejd consisted mainly of members of several Arabian tribes, who were either nomads (bedouins), or sedantary farmers and merchants. The rest of the population consisted mainly of Arabs who were, for various reasons, unaffiliated with any tribes, and who mostly lived in the towns and villages of Nejd working in various trades such as carpentry and metallurgy (Sonnaa' or tradesmen). There was also a small segment of the population made up of African slaves or freedmen.
The most famous Nejdi tribes in the pre-Islamic era were Banu Hanifa, who occupied the area around modern-day Riyadh, 'Anizzah, Banu Tamim, who occupied areas further north, the tribe of 'Abs who were centered in Al-Qassim, the tribe of Tayy, centered around modern-day Ha'il, and tribe of Banu 'Amir in southern Nejd. By the 20th century, many of the ancient tribes had morphed into new confederations or immigrated to other areas of the Middle East, and many tribes from other regions of the Peninsula had moved into Nejd. However, a large proportion of native Nejdis today still belong to these ancient Nejdi tribes or to their newer incarnations. The royal family of Saudi Arabia, Al Saud, for example, trace their lineage to Banu Hanifa. On the eve of the formation of Saudi Arabia, the major nomadic tribes of Nejd included Qahtan, Mutayr (the successor tribe to 'Abs), Shammar (the successor tribe to Tayy), 'Utaybah, Subay', Harb, the Suhool, and the Dawasir. In addition to those tribes, many of the sedantary population belonged to Banu Tamim, 'Anizzah, Banu Hanifah, Banu Khalid, and Banu Zayd.
Most of the nomadic tribes are now settled either in cities such as Riyadh, or in special settlements, known as hijras, that were established in the early part of the 20th centuries as part of a country-wide policy undertaken by King Abdul-Aziz to put an end to nomadic life. Nomads still exist in the Kingdom, however, in very small numbers - a far cry from the days when they made up the majority of the people of the Arabian Peninsula.
Since the formation of modern Saudi Arabia, Nejd, and particularly Riyadh, has seen an influx of immigrants from all regions of the country and from virtually every social class. The native Nejdi population has also largely moved away from its native towns and villages to the capital, Riyadh. However, most of these villages still retain a small number of their native inhabitants. About a quarter of the population of Nejd, including about a third of the population of Riyadh, are non-Saudi expatriates, including both skilled professionals and unskilled laborors.
Slavery was abolished in Saudi Arabia by King Faisal in 1962. Some of those freed slaves chose to continue working for their former slave-owners, particurly those whose former owners were members of the royal family. The majority, however, have had to fend for themselves and largely occupy the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. They also tend to live in the poorer sections of cities such as Riyadh.
[edit] Religion
Practically all Nejdis are Sunni Muslims, either nominally or in practice. The region is known across the Islamic world for its puritanical interpretation of Islam and is generally considered a bastion of religious conservatism. In reality, however, many other parts of the Kingdom are no less conservative or religious than Nejd. Other religions, such as Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, are represented in Nejd by members of the expatriate communities.
[edit] Language
The people of Nejd have spoken Arabic, in one form or another, for practically all of recorded history. As in other regions of the Peninsula, there is a divergence between the dielect of the nomadic Bedouins and the dialect of the sedantary townspeople. The variation, however, is far less pronounced in Nejd as it is elsewhere in the country, and the Nejdi sedantary dialect seems to be descendent from the Bedouin dialect, just as most sedantary Nejdis are descendents of nomadic Bedouins themselves. The Nejdi dialect is seen by some to be the least foreign-influenced of all modern Arabic dialects, due to the isolated location and harsh climate of the Nejdi plateau, as well as the apparent absence of any substratum from a previous language. Indeed, not even the ancient South Arabian language appears to have been widely spoken in Nejd in ancient times, unlike southern Saudi Arabia, for example. Within Nejd itself, the different regions and towns have their own distinctive accents and sub-dialects. However, these have largely merged in recent times and have become heavily influenced by Arabic dialects from other regions and countries. This is particularly the case in Riyadh.
[edit] History
[edit] Pre-Islamic Times
Prior to Islam, Nejd was dominated by mostly nomadic tribes such as Tamim, Tayy', 'Amir, 'Anizzah, 'Abs, Taghlib, and others. Banu Hanifa, Kindah, and sections of Tayy' and Tamim seemed to have also established themselves as sedentary townspeople. Kindah are believed to have established the first known kingdom in Nejd, in the 3rd century C.E..
[edit] The Early Islamic Era
At the dawn of Islam, the tribes of Nejd sent delegations expressing alleigance to the Prophet Muhammad in Mecca. However, according to Muslim sources, most of these tribes renounced Islam as soon as Muhammad had died, with some even claiming prophets of their own. The most famous of these "apostates", as the Muslims called them, was Musaylimah (dubbed "the Liar") of Banu Hanifah. Musaylima then entered into an alliance with a female claimant to divine revelation, Sajah Al-Tamimiyyah, who although belonging to Tamim, was supported by her relatives from the powerful tribe of Taghlib. The newly-proclaimed successor to Muhammad's political authority, Abu Bakr, promptly dispatched troops to suppress the rebellions in Nejd and elsewhere in Arabia. It appears, however, that resistance in central Nejd (better known in those times as Yamamah) was especially fierce. After some initial failures, Abu Bakr finally sent his most able general, Khalid Ibn Al-Walid, to fight Musaylimah with 4,000 men. A terrible battle ensued in 'Aqraba (approximately 30 km north of modern Riyadh), but the Muslims were victorious and Musaylimah was killed in battle. Khalid successfully did away with any lingering resistance in the rest of Yamamah, and the once mighty Banu Hanifa were broken beyond recovery.
Once these "Wars of the Apostates" (see Ridda Wars) had been concluded, the Muslims in Medinah directed the energies of their restive compatriots towards conquering the possessions of the neighboring Byzantine and Persian empires. The tribes of Nejd participated in great numbers, especially Banu Tamim, changing the demographics of both Nejd and the conquered provinces of Syria and Iraq.
In the early Umayyad era, the region fell under the sway of Kharijites, an Islamic sect that mixed political egalitarianism with intense religious puritanism. The Kharijite leader in Nejd was himself a member of Banu Hanifa by the name of Najdah ibn 'Amir, and his followers were known as Najdat. Najdah was able to subdue all of Nejd along with the historical province of Bahrain, and was close to gaining control over the holy cities in Hejaz as well. As with most Kharijite movements, however, the Najdat's fanaticism led the movement to consume itself through in-fighting, and Najdah himself was assassinated for being allegedly lacking in religious zeal. Their short-lived state quickly fell apart and the region reverted to being a political backwater. During the next century, the region of Yamamah fell, at least nominally, under the authority of the Caliphate's viceroys of Bahrain (not to be confused with the modern-day islands of Bahrain).
In 866, a descendant of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima launched a doomed and bloody insurrection in Mecca and Jeddah against the Abbasids. The rebel, Muhammad ibn Yusuf Al-Ukhaidhir, fled to Yamamah and was able to take control of the town of Al-Khidhrima (modern-day Al-Kharj), where he established the independent kingdom of the Banu Ukhaidhir. The Ukhaidhirites rejected Abbasid authority and are believed to have followed the moderately Shi'a Zaydi school of Islam. It is unclear how much of Nejd fell under the direct authority of the Ukhaidhirites, though it probably did not extend further north than the area of Wadi Hanifa. They did not seem to have had much of an effect on the religious orientation of their subjects, and the great historian of Shi'ism, Madelung, remarks in Encyclopedia of Islam that other Zaydis in the Islamic world took little notice of them, and that they probably did not give much attention to religious scholarship. It's been speculated that Ibn Al-Ukhaidhir's family already had extensive family ties with the tribes of Bani 'Amir that were dominant in Nejd at the time, and that that may have been the decisive factor in gaining him control over the region. The Ukhaidhirite state lasted until some time in the late 11th century, when it was destroyed by the radical Qarmatians of neighboring Al-Ahsa.
[edit] Pre-Wahhabi Nejd
[edit] The Wahhabi Movement and the First Saudi State
[edit] The Second Saudi State and the Emirate of Ha'il
[edit] The Era of Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud
[edit] The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
[edit] Prominent Nejdis
- Antarah ibn Shaddad - semi-mythical poet and warrior, purported author of one of the Hanged Poems of pre-Islamic Arabia.
- Al-A'sha - pre-Islamic poet from the village of Manfuha (currently part of Riyadh).
- Musaylima "the Liar" - the "false prophet" of Banu Hanifa and nemesis of the early Muslims in the Ridda Wars.
- Najdah ibn 'Amir - leader of the Najdat sub-sect of Kharijites.
- Abdullah ibn Ibadh - founder of the Ibadhi school of Islam, still followed in Oman and parts of North Africa.
- Jarir - great poet of the Umayyad era, famous for his rivalry with Farazdaq.
- Qays ibn Al-Mulawwah - lover of Layla from the romance of Layla wal Majnun.
- Humaydan Al-Shuway'ir - 18th century poet, one the Arabian Peninsula's finest poet of vernacular Arabic, whose poems contain valuable information on pre-Wahhabi Nejd.
- Muhammad ibn Abd Al-Wahhab - Islamic scholar and founder of the Wahhabi Movement.
- Muhammad ibn Saud - founder of the First Saudi State and first titular head of the Wahhabi movement.
- Uthman ibn Bishr - author of one of two important chronicles of the early Wahhabi movement.
- Muhammad ibn Rashid - Emir of Ha'il and Nejd from 1869 to 1897, and head of the Al-Rashid family of emirs.
- King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud - the founder of Saudi Arabia.
- Saudi Royal Family
- Sheikh Abdul Aziz Ibn Baz - late mufti of Saudi Arabia and a leading Salafi scholar.
- Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen - highly influential Salafi scholar.
- Abdullah Al-Qassimi - late Saudi essayist who achieved some popularity in the 1960's and 70's; perhaps the first openly atheist author from Saudi Arabia.
- Hamad Al-Jassir - dubbed the "Scholar of the Peninsula"; prominent historian, geographer, geneaologist, and man of letters; author of the popular Compendium of the Lineages of the Settled Families of Nejd (died 2003).
- Turki Al-Hamad - liberal Saudi writer and novelist and author of the controversial trilogy Apparitions of the Abandoned Alleyways.
- Abdul Rahman Al-Munif - late Saudi-Iraqi novelist; author of the Cities of Salt trilogy.
- Salman Al-Oudah - former dissident Islamic scholar.
- Madhawi Al-Rashid - London-based historian belonging to the Al-Rashid family, former rulers of Nejd.
- Turki Al-Dakhil - host of a popular interview show on pan-Arab satellite news station, Al-Arabiyah.
- Lubna Al-Olayan - businesswoman and head of the Olayan Group, one of the largest holding companies in the region.
- Al-Walid ibn Talal - one of the world's wealthiest investors and head of the Kingdom Holding Company.
- Sulaiman Al-Rajhi - entrepreneur from Qassim and pioneer of Islamic Banking; founded one of the largest business empires in the Middle East.
- Field Marshall Saleh Al-Muhaya - Chief of the General Staff of the Saudi Armed Forces.
- Saleh ibn Humaid - Speaker of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia (the Shura Council).
- Abdul Rahman Al-Lahim - Saudi human rights lawyer and activist.
[edit] See also
- Yamamah
- Kindah
- Banu Hanifah
- Arabian tribes that interacted with Muhammad
- Ridda Wars
- Banu Ukhaidhir
- Kingdom of Hejaz
- History of Kuwait
- History of Saudi Arabia
- 'Utaybah
- Al Rashid
