The Country Known as Saudi Arabia

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When people think about the Middle East and the Arab world, a large number think of Saudi Arabia. The nation has come to the world stage in many aspects of society and now has become one of the most influential and popular nations in the Arab world. The geographical location of this nation is in the Persian Gulf, while having Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait sharing its northern border, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates sharing the eastern border, and finally Yemen and Oman sharing its southern border. The nation as a whole has almost 29 million citizens, consisting of around 90% Arabic population and 10% Afro-Asian (World Fact Book). The capital of the nation is Riyadh, with the official language being Arabic, religion Islam, and a gross domestic product of over US$700 billion. The nation is not only known for its economic power, but also because it is regarded as the origin of Islam and contains the Mecca and Medina. These holy places are called Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi respectively, while Mecca is the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and the first revelation of the Quran and Medina is the burial ground of Muhammad (Al-Rasheed, History).

Saudi Arabia as a nation began when it was founded in 1933 by Abdulaziz Al Saud, however the nation is much older than that with signs of human activity up to 20,000 years ago. The nation original was a collection of urban trading centers, however when the Prophet Muhammad was born in the late 500s many tribes of the peninsula joined forces to create an Islamic religious community. When the Prophet died in 632, the once small collection of tribes expanded under Muslim rule conquering a lot of land. In the meantime, what was then Arabia became the hub of the Muslim world, and the ...

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... 2013. Print.

“Arab Uprising: Country by Country.” BBC News. BBC News, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Apr.

2014. .

Cordesman, Anthony H. Saudi Arabia Enters the Twenty-first Century: The Political, Foreign

Policy, Economic, and Energy Dimensions. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Print.

“Saudi Arabia Market Description.” (n.d.): n. pag. WARC. WARC. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.

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“Saudi Arabia: Statistics & Information.” Central Department Of Statistics & Information. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .

“World Fact Book: Saudi Arabia.” Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency,

n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .

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