History UsefulNotes / SaudiArabia

[[caption-width-right:328: [[IncrediblyLamePun Sheikh that!]] ]]

Saudi Arabia has a long history of being an ally of the West, starting when the British Empire provided muscle to the Al-Saud in their struggles against their Turkish-backed Rashidi rivals and continuing well after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates took over for Britain. They tend to spend time buying military equipment from them and allowed them to use the country as a launching platform for Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. However, this relationship has always been an uneasy one. The first significant interaction between the Saudi dynasty and the West was when the former sponsored pirates in the 18th/early 19th century that attacked British shipping, they didn't support America in the most recent invasion of Iraq, and they took domestic flak for supporting the first invasion. On top of this the country as a whole has a reputation as a terrorist cultivator, not the least of which because UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was a Saudi national. The Saudi state backs the Palestinians in the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict; for this reason, it does not recognize UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}.[[note]]In the wake of the Iranian nuclear program, Saudi Arabia had [[EnemyMine found themselves allying with Israel as means of stopping]] Iran. Israel sees the Iranian government as a existential threat and an unwanted rival for its previously unchallenged position as the region's only nuclear state. The Saudis and a lot of Sunni Arab states--especially the GCC--regard expansion by the Revolutionary Shiite Iranian government as a threat to the conservative Sunni hegemony in the Gulf and broadly the Muslim world. Both view its Shiite radicalism as an alien threat to their respective religions and its support of organizations like Hezbollah, Houthis, and sectarian militias in Iraq as disruptive to the region.[[/note]] Reports of [[AcceptableEthnicTargets anti-Semitic propaganda]] being widely distributed by official channels and taught in schools have led to complaints on several occasions.

A note on the Saudi flag from Wiki/TheOtherWiki: do NOT change the orientation of the Arabic text in white. Seriously, don't. This of course means that if you plan on hanging it vertically, you need to buy another flag with the writing still going properly right to left, and a properly-made flag is actually folded over so that the writing is seen going the right way, no matter what angle you look at it. The caption translates what the writing is; [[SeriousBusiness it's something of a big deal for Muslims in general.]]

** Crown Prince: Mohammed bin Salman

** King: Salman

* However, Shaheen, debuting in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 7'', was designed with the help of the game's Middle-Eastern fanbase, and has a much more realistic look for a modern Arabic character.

* '''Highest point:''' Jabal Sawda (3000 m/9,843 ft) (74th)

* '''Highest point:''' Jabal Sawda (3000 m/9,843 ft) (69th)

* '''Highest point:''' Jabal Sawda (3000 m/9,843 ft) (88th)

Several years later, they came back and bounced the Egyptians out to establish a far smaller but still powerful state, the Emirate of Nejd. It held sway for several decades but never managed to obtain the world fearing scope of the first. However, a combination of tribal politics, a DecadentCourt, and new arch-enemies in the form of the Rashidi clan eventually toppled the Sauds and forced them to [[TheExile flee to]] UsefulNotes/{{Kuwait}}, whose leader welcomed him in.

* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' SA

* '''Area:''' 2,149,690 km (830,000 sq mi) (12th)

* '''Capital and largest city:''' Damascus

->The field is colored green, the traditional color of Islam; at the center is the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahada shahada]]'', the Muslim creed of faith, which reads: "''La 'ilaha 'illa-llah Muḥammadun rasulu-llah''" ("There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Messenger"); and below the ''shahada'' is a scimitar symbolizing the House of Saud, ruler of the country since its creation.

** However, Shaheen, debuting in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 7'', was designed with the help of the game's Middle-Eastern fanbase, and has a much more realistic look for a modern Arabic character.

Saudi Arabia has a long history of being an ally of the West, starting when the British Empire provided muscle to the Al-Saud in their struggles against their Turkish-backed Rashidi rivals and continuing well after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates took over for Britain. They tend to spend time buying military equipment from them and allowed them to use the country as a launching platform for Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. However, this relationship has always been an uneasy one. The first significant interaction between the Saudi dynasty and the West was when the former sponsored pirates in the 18th/early 19th century that attacked British shipping, they didn't support America in the most recent invasion of Iraq, and they took domestic flak for supporting the first invasion. On top of this the country as a whole has a reputation as a terrorist cultivator, not the least of which because UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was a Saudi national. The Saudi state backs the Palestinians in the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict; for this reason, it does not recognize UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}.[[note]]In the wake of the Iranian nuclear program, Saudi Arabia had [[EnemyMine found themselves allying with Israel as means of stopping]] Iran. Israel sees the Iranian government as a existential threat to its very existence and an unwanted rival for its previously unchallenged position as the region's only nuclear state. The Saudis and a lot of Sunni Arab states--especially the GCC--regard expansion by the Revolutionary Shiite Iranian government as a threat to the conservative Sunni hegemony in the Gulf and broadly the Muslim world. Both view its Shiite radicalism as an alien threat to their respective religions and its support of organizations like Hezbollah, Houthis, and sectarian militias in Iraq as disruptive to the region.[[/note]] Reports of [[AcceptableEthnicTargets anti-Semitic propaganda]] being widely distributed by official channels and taught in schools have led to complaints on several occasions.

Saudi Arabia has a long history of being an ally of the West, starting when the British Empire provided muscle to the Al-Saud in their struggles against their Turkish-backed Rashidi rivals and continuing well after UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates took over for Britain. They tend to spend time buying military equipment from them and allowing them to use the country as a launching platform for Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. However, this relationship has always been an uneasy one. The first significant interaction between the Saudi dynasty and the West was when the former sponsored pirates in the 18th/early 19th century that attacked British shipping, they didn't support America in the most recent invasion of Iraq, and they took domestic flak for supporting the first invasion. On top of this the country as a whole has a reputation as a terrorist cultivator, not the least of which because UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was a Saudi national. The Saudi state backs the Palestinians in the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict; for this reason, it does not recognize UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}.[[note]]In the wake of the Iranian nuclear program, Saudi Arabia had [[EnemyMine found themselves allying with Israel as means of stopping]] Iran. Israel sees the Iranian government as a existential threat to its very existence and an unwanted rival for its previously unchallenged position as the region's only nuclear state. The Saudis and a lot of Sunni Arab states--especially the GCC--regard expansion by the Revolutionary Shiite Iranian government as a threat to the conservative Sunni hegemony in the Gulf and broadly the Muslim world. Both view its Shiite radicalism as an alien threat to their respective religions and its support of organizations like Hezbollah, Houthis, and sectarian militias in Iraq as disruptive to the region.[[/note]] Reports of [[AcceptableEthnicTargets anti-Semitic propaganda]] being widely distributed by official channels and taught in schools have led to complaints on several occasions.

Popularly, Saudis are seen as extremely conservative and devoutly religious, sometimes [[TheFundamentalist to the point of fanaticism]]. To an extent, this is TruthInTelevision: until TheNewTens, Saudi Arabia had probably the world's strictest morality law, especially in regards to gender. Women were not allowed to drive, go outside without wearing headscarves and modest clothing, and make important decisions in their lives without the approval of male relatives. Gender segregation was observed by the religious police, who used to patrol the streets 24 hours a day. This police force also forced businesses and stores to close whenever mosques broadcast the calls to prayer (other Muslim-majority countries usually give a lengthy afternoon break for people to pray, but they don't force them to do it). Cinemas were forbidden; Saudis had to go to Gulf countries if they wanted to watch movies in the silver screen. These policies were rapidly chipped away since 2017 after Prince Mohammad ascended to power and began clamping down on clerical power.

Popularly, Saudis are seen as extremely conservative and devoutly religious, sometimes [[TheFundamentalist to the point of fanaticism]]. To an extent, this is TruthInTelevision: until TheNewTens, Saudi Arabia had probably the world's strictest morality law, especially in regards to gender. Women were not allowed to drive, go outside without wearing headscarves and modest clothing, and make important decisions in their lives without the approval of male relatives. Gender segregation was observed by the religious police, who used to patrol the streets 24 hours a week. This police force also forced businesses and stores to close whenever mosques broadcast the calls to prayer (other Muslim-majority countries usually give a lengthy afternoon break for people to pray, but they don't force them to do it). Cinemas were forbidden; Saudis had to go to Gulf countries if they wanted to watch movies in the silver screen. These policies were rapidly chipped away since 2017 after Prince Mohammad ascended to power and began clamping down on clerical power.

The country is popularly known as the birthplace of UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} and home to two of its holiest sites and tourist meccas... Mecca (now you know how the word came into English) and Medina. UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad was born and raised in Mecca and subsequently spent the rest of his life preaching from Medina, which served as the capital of the burgeoning caliphate ruled by Muhammad's three successors. However, beginning with Ali, the caliphate's base of power was relocated to outside the peninsula (specifically, to Kufa, Iraq), and neither the following Umayyad dynasty nor later Muslim states moved back to the Arabian heartland, which being mostly desert was undesirable compared to the more green and populous lands elsewhere. As a result, despite serving as a holy land, it had little political importance in the Muslim world (let alone the world) until the modern era, though conquerors of Mecca and Medina could fancy themselves the title "Custodians of the Two Holy Mosques"[[note]]Mecca's Masjid al-Haram and Medina's Masjid an-Nabawi[[/note]] (the current king still can).

The country is popularly known as the birthplace of UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} and home to two of its holiest sites and tourist meccas... Mecca (now you know how the word came into English) and Medina. UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad was born and raised in Mecca and subsequently spent the rest of his life preaching from Medina, which served as the capital of the burgeoning caliphate ruled by Muhammad's three successors. However, beginning with Ali, the caliphate's base of power was relocated to outside the peninsula (specifically, to Kufa, Iraq), and neither the following Umayyad dynasty nor later Muslim states moved back to the Arabian heartland, which being mostly desert was undesirable compared to the more green and populous lands elsewhere. As a result, despite serving as a holy land, it had little political importance in the Muslim world (let alone the world) until the modern era.

A decade later, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud led a war party that retook Riyadh, reopening the war for Arabian supremacy and starting the modern Saudi state. You can read more about the process in his page, but over the next several years of byzantine politics and both victories and defeats he was able to steadily consolidate his power until UsefulNotes/WorldWarI broke out. Then, the Saud--like other anti-Turkish Arab rebels--made [[SummonBiggerFish a deal with the Western Allies]] who distracted and eventually destroyed the Turkish Empire, while the Saud used the opportunity to polish off all other rivals ([[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness including the Ikhwan]]) to dominate what is now Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية; ''Al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabiyyah as-Su‘ūdiyyah''), is the biggest country in West Asia and UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast and the second biggest country in the UsefulNotes/ArabWorld, after UsefulNotes/{{Algeria}}. It takes up most of the Arabian Peninsula, including its oil-rich but extremely barren Rub' al Khali desert, and borders UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}, UsefulNotes/{{Jordan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Kuwait}}, UsefulNotes/{{Oman}}, UsefulNotes/{{Qatar}}, the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates, and UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}}, as well as the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, two of the world's most important shipping lanes. It is also connected to the island country of UsefulNotes/{{Bahrain}} through the King Fahd Causeway.

Saudi Arabia in fiction:

The country is popularly known as the birthplace of UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} and home to two of its holiest sites and tourist meccas... Mecca (now you know how the word came into English) and Medina. UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad was born and raised in Mecca and subsequently spent the rest of his life preaching from Medina, which served as the capital of the burgeoning caliphate ruled by Muhammad's four successors. However, beginning with Muawiyah of the Umayyad dynasty, the caliphate's base of power was relocated to outside the peninsula (specifically, to Damascus, Syria), and neither of his successors nor later Muslim states moved back to the Arabian heartland, which being mostly desert was undesirable compared to the more green and populous lands elsewhere. As a result, despite serving as a holy land, it had little political importance in the Muslim world (let alone the world) until the modern era.

Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية; ''Al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabiyyah as-Su‘ūdiyyah''), is a huge Western Asian country and the country of the Islamic holy sites. Also, the sacred homeland of UsefulNotes/{{the Prophet Muhammad}} and the birthplace of Islam. Home of two of the world's biggest tourist meccas... Mecca (now you know how the word came into English) and Medina.

The country is an absolute monarchy, founded by UsefulNotes/AbdulAzizIbnSaud at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, who wanted to unite all the vast land around the ancestral home of his family, which had been something of the historical pastime of his dynasty like the English Kings [[UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar tried to conquer France and Scotland.]] But like them, it wouldn't have been a pastime if they got it over and done with. What most people don't know is that the Saudi Arabia that exists today is actually the *third* dynastic Saud state to hold sway, and the middle of the road in terms of size. But every time the Sauds would start to get powerful, the surrounding forces would combine to smack them down.

The Saudi family's rose to royal might in the 18th when the leader of a relatively small clan with big dreams made a savvy alliance with religious philosopher, [[TheFundamentalist Wahhab.]] The patriarch of the Saudi dynasty gave Wahhab political protection and armed muscle, and in term Wahhab offered him legitimacy and the [[ChurchMilitant Ikhwan, or "Brotherhood]]", a group of Wahhab's militant followers driven by his fiery preaching and radical philosophy.

Over the next several decades, this alliance carved out an imperial emirate across most of Arabia that is actually larger than Saudi Arabia is today and influence stretching beyond that even, with Ikhwan raiding as far afield as Damascus. However, their fall was just as rapid as their rise. The new Saudi emirate recognized neither the Ottoman Caliph who was the nominal ruler of Arabia and Sunni Islam or the claims of Turkey's treacherous vassal Egypt to the Red Sea Coast of Arabia. The Staunchly Sunni massacres of Shiites along the Persian Gulf alienated the equally Shiite Imperial Iran. Finally, they subsidized Wahhabist Piracy in the Gulf and Straits of Tiran right around the time the Napoleonic British Empire was becoming involved there. As if to cap this all off, the atrocities the Ikhwan committed in the holiest cities in Islam when they captured them scandalized the entire Muslim world almost more than the French had.

So all of these powers decided to [[EnemyMine set aside their differences]] and go after the Saudis. The main heavy lifter was to be Egypt's newly instated Muhummad Ali and his equally new Westernized army. He promptly [[CurbStompBattle invaded Arabia and killed every Saudi he could while the British put down the pirates]], leaving the leaders of the Saud on Ottoman execution blocks and the survivors to flee into the desert to lick their wounds.

A few years later they came back and bounced the Egyptians out to establish a far smaller but still powerful emirate. It held sway for several decades but never managed to obtain the world fearing scope of the first. However, a combination of Tribal Politics, a DecadentCourt, and new arch-enemies in the form of the Rashidi clan eventually toppled the Sauds and forced them to [[TheExile flee to Kuwait]], whose leader welcomed him in.

A few years later, UsefulNotes/AbdulAzizIbnSaud led a war party that retook Riyadh, reopening the war for Arabian supremacy and starting the modern Saudi State. You can read more about the process in his page, but over the next several years of byzantine politics and both victories and defeats he was able to steadily consolidate his power until UsefulNotes/WorldWarI broke out. Then, the Saud- like other anti-Turkish Arab rebels- made [[SummonBiggerFish a deal with the Western Allies]] who distracted and eventually destroyed the Turkish Empire, while the Saud used the opportunity to polish off all other rivals ([[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness including the Ikhwan]]) to dominate what is now Saudi Arabia.

And because succession has de facto gone from older brother to younger brother and *then* father to son, [[LongRunner the throne is still being passed to his various sons today.]] With the passage of time, however, there has been a lot of bickering among members of the royal family. Most of that has cooled down with time, too, but given the old age of Ibn Saud's surviving children and grandchildren there is a SuccessionCrisis everybody can see coming in the near future. Expect more squabbles in the next decade or two. The latest change to the succession came in June 2017, when Muhammad bin Nayef, a grandson of Ibn Saud, was removed as Crown Prince in favor of Mohammad bin Salman, a considerably younger[[note]]born in 1985, as opposed to Muhammad bin Nayef, born in 1959[[/note]] son of current King Salman. Muhammad bin Nayef had only been elevated to Crown Prince in April 2015, when Ibn Saud's youngest surviving son, Muqrin, was removed from the position.

Saudi Araba is well known for its [[ArabOilSheikh massive oil and gas reserves]] and sparse desert, being something of a {{Qurac}} in fiction. Economy is primarily driven by these oil and gas, but the country is also counting on the multibillion dollar annual pilgrimage business during the Hajj season, which attracts millions of Muslims all over the world to Mecca. Because of its historical significance as the homeland of the Arabs, including several nomadic tribes (such as the famous [[BedouinRescueService Bedouin people]]), Saudis are sometimes seen as {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s. Despite its renown as a staunch supporter of Sunni Islam, the country has a surprisingly large population of non-Sunnis, notably in the Eastern Province, which has a Twelver Shia majority, and the southern Najran Province, which has an Ismaili Shia majority. Since the founding of Islam, Mecca itself has been serving as a room for Muslims of various sects and schools to discuss with impunity. Many of the aforementioned Hajj pilgrims chose to settle throughout the centuries, making the city one of the most cosmopolitan in the world.

Popularly, Saudis are seen as extremely conservative and devoutly religious, sometimes [[TheFundamentalist to the point of fanaticism]]. To an extent, this is TruthInTelevision: until TheNewTens, Saudi Arabia had probably the world's strictest morality law, especially in regards to gender. Women were not allowed to drive, go outside without wearing headscarves and modest clothing, and make important decisions in their lives without the approval of male relatives. Gender segregation was observed by the religious police, who used to patrol the streets 24 hours a week. This police force also forced businesses and stores to close whenever mosques broadcast the calls to prayer (basically an extreme version of the so-called "prayer break" observed in other Muslim-majority countries). Cinemas were forbidden; Saudis had to go to Gulf countries if they wanted to watch movies in the silver screen. These policies were rapidly chipped away since 2017 after Prince Mohammad ascended to power and began clamping down on clerical power.

Saudi Arabia has a long history of being an ally of the West, starting when UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire provided muscle to the Al-Saud in their struggles against their Turkish-backed Rashidi rivals and continuing well after America took over for Britain. They tend to spend time buying military equipment from them and allowing them to use the country as a launching platform for Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. However, this relationship has always been an uneasy one. The first significant interaction between the Saudi dynasty and the West was when the former sponsored pirates in the 18th/early 19th century that attacked British shipping, they didn't support America in the most recent invasion of Iraq, and they took domestic flak for supporting the first invasion. On top of this the country as a whole has a reputation as a terrorist cultivator, not the least of which because UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden was a Saudi national. The Saudi state backs the Palestinians in the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict; for this reason, it does not recognize Israel.[[note]]In the wake of the Iranian nuclear program, Saudi Arabia had [[EnemyMine found themselves allying with Israel as means of stopping]] UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}. Israel sees the Iranian government as a existential threat to its very existence and an unwanted rival for its previously unchallenged position as the region's only nuclear state. The Saudis and a lot of Sunni Arab states- especially the GCC- regard expansion by the Revolutionary Shiite Iranian government as a threat to the conservative Sunni hegemony in the Gulf and broadly the Muslim world. Both view its Shiite radicalism as an alien threat to their respective religions and its support of organizations like Hezbollah, Houthis, sectarian Shi'a militia, and al-Maliki in Iraq as disruptive to the region.[[/note]] Reports of [[AcceptableEthnicTargets anti-Semitic propaganda]] being widely distributed by official channels and taught in schools have led to complaints on several occasions.

[[AC:The Saudi Arabian flag]]
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saudi_arabia_flag_6230.png
->The field is colored green, the traditional color of Islam; at the center is the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahada shahada]]'', the Muslim creed of faith, which reads: "''La 'ilaha 'illa-llah Muḥammadun rasulu-llah''" ("There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Messenger"); and below the ''shahada'' is a scimitar symbolizing the House of Saud, ruler of the country since its creation.

----

Saudi Araba is well known for its [[ArabOilSheikh massive oil and gas reserves]] and sparse desert, being something of a {{Qurac}} in fiction. Economy is primarily driven by these oil and gas, but the country is also counting on the multibillion dollar annual pilgrimage business during the Hajj season, which attracts millions of Muslims all over the world to Mecca. Because of its historical significance as the homeland of the Arabs, including several nomadic tribes (such as the famous [[BedouinRescueService Bedouin people]]), Saudis are sometimes seen as {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s. Popularly, Saudis are seen as extremely conservative and devoutly religious, sometimes [[TheFundamentalist to the point of fanaticism]]. Despite its renown as a staunch supporter of Sunni Islam, the country has a surprisingly large population of non-Sunnis, notably in the Eastern Province, which has a Twelver Shia majority, and the southern Najran Province, which has an Ismaili Shia majority. Since the founding of Islam, Mecca itself has been serving as a room for Muslims of various sects and schools to discuss with impunity. Many of the aforementioned Hajj pilgrims chose to settle throughout the centuries, making the city one of the most cosmopolitan in the world.

* The Middle Stage in ''VideoGame/MegaMan8'' is located here.