Modernity and TraditionIn the Name of Allah,
the Compassionate,
the Merciful
DEDICATION
To King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Sa'ud, the patron of the Saudi revival and leader of the Kingdom's progress and development.
If a man (whether he be a national leader, a military commander, a social reformer, or a scientific researcher) performed a single act in the national interest which secured the defense of his homeland, or assured for his country a prominent place amongst the nations of the world, or improved living conditions for the citizens, or ensured the prosperity of his people, or established security, stability and social justice, then such a man would, from the national viewpoint, deserve for this single act the highest degree of admiration and respect.
What then would history say of a man who has achieved all this for his country, many times over!
Any attempt to comprehend the scope and scale of the achievements of King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz can be only partially successful, for his unique personality and outstanding abilities are not limited to the material benefits he has brought to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but extend to issues of morality and humanity in the world at large. King Fahd has been recognized as a powerful statesman; skilful, talented and experienced politician; leader of his country's march to development; a powerful voice for Arab and Islamic solidarity; and a moderate international politician who works tirelessly to achieve peace based upon justice for all nations.
This book is dedicated with the deepest respect, appreciation and gratitude to the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz. His acceptance of this dedication will do me the greatest honor, for this modest book is but one of the fruits of his flourishing and auspicious reign.
Fouad Al-Farsy
MODERNITY
AND TRADITION
The Saudi Equation
FOUAD AL-FARSY
First published in 1990 by
Kegan Paul International
This edition first published in 2009 by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Fouad Al-Farsy 1990
Transferred to Digital Printing 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 10: 0-7103-0395-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-7103-0395-0 (hbk)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. The publisher has made every effort to contact original copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
Contents
Foreword
More than thirteen years ago, when I began preparing my first book in English (entitled Saudi Arabia: A Case Study in Development), I based my study of the subject on a purely academic foundation. At that time, there was an urgent need in the West for reference books with well-documented information on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a result, Saudi Arabia: A Case Study in Development has become a standard reference source in many universities, schools and other centers of learning, particularly in the United States of America and Great Britain.
A country's development does not take place in a vacuum and it was therefore essential in this earlier work that the main subject (the Kingdom's development) should be set into an historical, political and social context. I therefore devoted much of the text to a summary of this background information, starting with the Kingdom's geographical location and proceeding with a brief account of its history, its political importance and its role in the world economy. Within this context, I described the development and progress the Kingdom had achieved, outlining the country's governmental structure, its administrative divisions, its available investment potential, its prevailing legal and commercial regulations, and its future plans and ambitions.
Collating all these data in a book of 264 pages revealed the difficulty of balancing such an equation. One of the difficulties was (and still is) that development is not an historical event which can be recorded once and for all, but a continuing process which demands permanent follow-up, lest the information supplied should become out of date. As a result, for every new edition of Saudi Arabia: A Case Study in Development, (of which there have been four), I had to revise substantial sections of the book.
I have now reached the conclusion that it is no longer sensible to continue simply altering the data, since the new information on the Kingdom's development, which now extends to many areas not originally covered in the earlier work, imposes an insupportable strain on that book's structure.
I have therefore decided to publish this new book, Modernity and Tradition: The Saudi Equation, as a natural extension of my earlier researches. This new book, which has been structured to encompass all aspects of the Kingdom's development, contains the latest statistical data on the Kingdom's progress, together with the newly revised background information of the former book. Thus each of the books complements the other, for each records the relevant information at a particular stage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's continuing developmental process.
F.A.-F.
Preface
This book greatly extends the scope of the author's original work (Saudi Arabia: A Case Study in Development) to cover all major aspects of development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In its new form it has three main aims:
to give a succinct account of the historical development of the Kingdom
to provide a useful reference book for any specialist reader (be he academic, businessman, journalist or politician) who seeks detailed and up-to-date statistical information on the Kingdom's progress
to provide the lay public with an overview of what must surely rank as the most ambitious development program ever undertaken
In attempting to fulfil these objectives, the author confesses that he hopes to modify the stereotype of the Kingdom and of its citizens so often projected by the Western media.
The sources on which the author has drawn are many. References to direct quotations in the text and the bibliography give some indication of the author's debt to others. Most of the statistical information in the book has been drawn from Saudi Arabian Government sources and the author's debt to the ministries and Government officers who have been so generous with their time and patience is here acknowledged.
