The Capture of Riyadh Revisited: Shaping Historical Imagination in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The Saudi state of 1932 is one of the new states of the Arab world born after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. It dedicates large financial resources to historical research, publications, and dissemination of information about the past in an attempt to define its uniqueness as a national and political entity.¹ The state publishes history textbooks, encyclopedias, local chronicles, and archival material inside the country but mainly abroad. These are constantly reproduced, printed, and distributed. So far one of the main preoccupations of this vast literature is defining the key historical event that led to the birth of Saudi Arabia in the twentieth century. State sponsored historiography remains predominantly a history of the origins of the state, the role of important historical agents, and the material modernization of the country following the discovery of oil. This is an ideological history concerned with political legitimacy² rather than analytical interpretations of the past. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, the majority of contemporary Saudi historians work in state institutions and academic research centers that militate against critical evaluation of the past. Most historical research is sponsored by the state. Since the 1970s oil wealth has allowed the state to increasingly dominate constructions and interpretations of the past.