Editing Saudi Arabia (section)

=== Middle Ages and rise of Islam ===
{{Main|Caliphate}}
[[File:Umayyad750ADloc.png|thumb|left|At its greatest extent, the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] (661–750) covered {{cvt|11100000|km2|sqmi|-5|comma=gaps}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Rein |last=Taagepera |author-link=Rein Taagepera |date=September 1997 |title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia |journal=[[International Studies Quarterly]] |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=475–504 |doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053 |jstor=2600793 |url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807 |access-date=26 September 2018 |archive-date=19 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119114740/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and 62 million people (29 per cent of the world's population),<ref name=Blankinship>{{citation |last=Blankinship |first=Khalid Yahya |year=1994 |title=The End of the Jihad State, the Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd-al Malik and the collapse of the Umayyads |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-1827-7 |page=37 }}</ref> making it one of the [[List of largest empires|largest empires in history]] in both area and proportion of the world's population. It was also larger than any previous empire in history.]]

Shortly before the advent of Islam, apart from urban trading settlements (such as Mecca and Medina), much of what was to become Saudi Arabia was populated by nomadic pastoral tribal societies.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Rise of Islam |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofislam0000gord |url-access=registration |first=Matthew |last=Gordon |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-313-32522-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/riseofislam0000gord/page/4 4]|publisher=Greenwood Publishing }}</ref> The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in about 570 [[Common Era|CE]]. In the early 7th century, [[Muhammad]] united the [[Tribes of Arabia|various tribes of the peninsula]] and created a single Islamic religious polity.<ref name="James E. Lindsay 2005 33">{{cite book |last=Lindsay |first=James E. |url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinmedie00lind/page/33 |title=Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-313-32270-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinmedie00lind/page/33 33]}}</ref> Following his death in 632, his followers expanded the territory under Muslim rule beyond Arabia, conquering territory in the Iberian Peninsula in the west, to parts of Central and South Asia in the east, in a matter of decades.<ref name="Abbas">{{cite book |last=Abbas |first=Tahir |author-link= |date=March 2011 |title=Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics: The British Experience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FxrGBQAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |page= |chapter=Preface and Introduction |isbn=9781136959592 |quote=The unprecedented initial expansion of Islam led to half of the known world being conquered with huge swathes of territory… |access-date=21 January 2024 |archive-date=28 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328014315/https://books.google.com/books?id=FxrGBQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Reichl">{{cite book |editor-last=Reichl |editor-first=Karl |author-link= |date=2012 |title=Medieval Oral Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhoMdAIfp-EC |location= |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |page=633 |isbn=9783110241129 |quote=With the unprecedented victorious spread of Islam within only a few years over a huge territory… |access-date=21 January 2024 |archive-date=28 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328143858/https://books.google.com/books?id=PhoMdAIfp-EC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Barber">{{cite book |last= Barber|first=Malcolm |author-link=Malcolm Barber |date=August 2, 2012 |title=The Crusader States |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Bz_O7-Lb_CsC |location= |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |page= |chapter=Chapter 2: Syria and Palestine |isbn= 9780300189315 |quote=After his [Muhammad's] death in 632, his successors, driven by what had become a dynamic new religion, committed themselves to an unprecedented territorial expansion.}}</ref> Arabia became a more politically peripheral region of the Muslim world as the focus shifted to the newly conquered lands.<ref name="James E. Lindsay 2005 33" />

[[Arab]]s originating from modern-day Saudi Arabia, the [[Hejaz]] in particular, founded the [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] (632–661), [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] (661–750), [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] (750–1517), and the [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] (909–1171) caliphates. From the 10th century to the early 20th century, Mecca and Medina were under the control of a local Arab ruler known as the [[Sharif of Mecca]], but at most times the sharif owed allegiance to the ruler of one of the major Islamic empires based in [[Baghdad]], [[Cairo]] or [[Istanbul]]. Most of the remainder of what became Saudi Arabia reverted to traditional tribal rule.<ref name="Britannica history">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31568/history-of-Arabia |title=History of Arabia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=18 January 2011 |archive-date=3 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503091224/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31568/history-of-Arabia |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The changing map of Asia |author=William Gordon East |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-416-16850-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/changingmapofasi0000east/page/75 75–76] |publisher=Methuen |url=https://archive.org/details/changingmapofasi0000east/page/75 }}</ref>

[[File:Siyer-i Nebi - Imam Ali und Hamza bei dem vorgezogenen Einzelkampf in Badr gegen die Götzendiener.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Battle of Badr]], 13 March 624 CE]]
For much of the 10th century, the [[Isma'ilism|Isma'ili]]-Shi'ite [[Qarmatians]] were the most powerful force in the Persian Gulf. In 930, the Qarmatians pillaged Mecca, outraging the Muslim world, particularly with their theft of the [[Black Stone]].<ref>Glassé, Cyril (2008). ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam''. Walnut Creek CA: AltaMira Press p. 369</ref> In 1077–1078, an Arab sheikh named [[Abdullah bin Ali Al Uyuni]] defeated the Qarmatians in [[Eastern Arabia|Bahrain]] and [[Al-Ahsa Oasis|al-Hasa]] with the help of the [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuq Empire]] and founded the [[Uyunid dynasty]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Commins|first=David|title=The Gulf States: A Modern History|year=2012|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-84885-278-5|page=28}}</ref><ref>C.E. Bosworth, ''The New Islamic Dynasties'', (Columbia University Press, 1996), 94–95.</ref> The [[Uyunid Emirate]] later underwent expansion with its territory stretching from Najd to the [[Syrian Desert]].<ref name="Safa Khulusi">{{Cite journal |last=Khulusi |first=Safa |author-link=Safa Khulusi |volume=6 |pages=91–102 |jstor=41223173 |year=1975 |title=A Thirteenth Century Poet from Bahrain |journal=Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies }} {{Registration required}}</ref> They were overthrown by the [[Usfurids]] in 1253.<ref>Joseph Meri, ''Medieval Islamic Civilization'', Taylor and Francis, 2006, p. 95</ref> Usfurid rule was weakened after Persian rulers of [[Ormus|Hormuz]] captured Bahrain and [[Qatif]] in 1320.<ref>Curtis E. Larsen. ''Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society'' University Of Chicago Press, 1984 pp66-8</ref> The vassals of Ormuz, the Shia [[Jarwanid dynasty]] came to rule eastern Arabia in the 14th century.<ref name=JuanCole>{{Cite book |author=Juan Ricardo Cole |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ntarP5hrza0C&pg=PA35 |title=Sacred space and holy war: the politics, culture and history of Shi'ite Islam |page=35 |year=2002 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |access-date=27 September 2017 |isbn=978-1-86064-736-9 |archive-date=28 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328144403/https://books.google.com/books?id=ntarP5hrza0C&pg=PA35 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uv.es/EBRIT/macro/macro_5000_24_15.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222053120/http://www.uv.es/EBRIT/macro/macro_5000_24_15.html|title=Arabia|archive-date=22 February 2012}}</ref> The [[Jabrids]] took control of the region after overthrowing the Jarwanids in the 15th century and clashed with Hormuz for more than two decades over the region for its economic revenues, until finally agreeing to pay [[tribute]] in 1507.<ref name=JuanCole /> [[Al-Muntafiq]] tribe later took over the region and came under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[suzerainty]]. The [[Bani Khalid (tribe)|Bani Khalid tribe]] later revolted against them in the 17th century and took control.<ref>Zāmil Muḥammad al-Rashīd. ''Suʻūdī relations with eastern Arabia and ʻUmān, 1800–1870'' Luzac and Company, 1981 pp. 21–31</ref> Their rule extended from Iraq to Oman at its height, and they too came under Ottoman suzerainty.<ref>Yitzhak Nakash (2011)[https://books.google.com/books?id=a43C-4RKGcgC&pg=PA21 Reaching for Power: The Shi'a in the Modern Arab World] p. 22</ref><ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45995 "Arabia, history of."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829110204/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-45995 |date=29 August 2006 }} Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 30 November 2007.</ref>