Inside the Kingdom (64 page)

 

 

abaya—
black, full-length outer gown worn in public by Saudi women—and, today, by most expatriate women.

Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud (1876-1953)—
creator of modern Saudi Arabia, often known as “Ibn Saud” (Son of Saud). Father of the brothers and half brothers who have ruled the Kingdom since his death (see the family tree, page xxiv).

Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin—
leader of Al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia during the 2003 attacks.

Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwayjri—
known as “T-1.” Died June 2007. Historian and principal adviser to Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince.

Abdul Aziz Bin Baz (1912-1999)—
mufti (chief religious sheikh) and principal religious adviser to Saudi kings. Blind from a young age. Notorious for reputedly asserting that the earth is flat.

Abdullah Azzam—
Palestinian scholar and jihadi who mentored Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz (b. 1923)—
crown prince of Saudi Arabia 1982-2005, and king since August 2005. Head of the National Guard since 1962.

Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem—
human-rights lawyer. Imprisoned 2005-6. Defender of the “Qateef girl.”

abu—
“father of,” as in “Abu Abdullah,” the father of Abdullah.

agal—
double black rope ring, worn on top of the traditional cotton headdress, the
shomagh,
by Saudi men and other Arabs of the Gulf states.

Ahmad Al-Tuwayjri—
lawyer and petitioner for constitutional rights.

Ahmed Badeeb—
assistant to Turki Al-Faisal in the Istikhbarat (foreign intelligence).

Ahmad Zaki Yamani—
long-serving Saudi oil minister (1962-86)

Aisha Al-Mana—
women’s rights campaigner. Helped organize the women’s driving demonstration in Riyadh in October 1990.

Al-hamdu lillah!—
“Thanks be to God!” An all-purpose exclamation that extends from greeting safe delivery in childbirth to “(May God) bless you!” following a sneeze.

Ali Al-Marzouq—
Shia-rights activist who went into exile. Now returned.

Allahu Akbar!—
“God is the greatest!”

anno hegirae—
year of the Hijrah (the migration by the Prophet Mohammed to Medina, the starting point of the Islamic calendar). Hijrah years are made up of twelve lunar months, about 354 days. See
Hijrah
below.

Al-Asheikh—
family name borne by the descendants of Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab, literally “the family of the sheikh.”

Ashura—
“the tenth” of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim year, an annual period of mourning among the Shia to commemorate the slaying of Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet, by Sunni forces in Karbala, Iraq, in A.H. 61 (A.D. 680).

Asir—
southern Saudi province on the border with Yemen. Home to Ismaili Shia, Sufis, gunrunners from Yemen—and four of the 9/11 hijackers.

Assalaamu alaykum—
“Peace be upon you!” A greeting often shortened to
“Salaam!”

 

balad—
“downtown.” Used in Jeddah to describe the old quarter of narrow alleys and coral-rock homes remaining from the walled city of pre-oil boom days.

bedu—
or bedouin, from the Arabic
badawi
—desert-dwelling Arab nomads.

Bandar bin Sultan—
Saudi ambassador to the United States 1983-2005. Now secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council.

bin or ibn—
“son of.”

bint—
“daughter of.”

bidah—
innovation (plural
bidaa
).

Buraydah—
a town in Qaseem that prides itself on its religious purity.

 

Caliph—
literally “successor,” from
kalifah,
the title bestowed on leaders of the Muslim community in the years after the Prophet’s death.

 

dawah wahhabiya—
Wahhabi mission

 

Eid Al-Adha—
one of the two Muslim holidays, the day of sacrifice, marking the end of the annual pilgrimage.

Eid Al-Fitr—
the other Muslim holiday, the breaking of the fast at the end of Ramadan.

 

Fahd bin Abdul Aziz (1922-2005)—
crown prince 1975-1982. King of Saudi Arabia 1982- 2005. Eldest of the brothers known as the Sudayri Seven.

Faisal bin Abdul Aziz (1904-1975)—
king of Saudi Arabia 1964-1975. Assassinated by his nephew Faisal bin Musaed, who was declared insane and beheaded in Riyadh.

Fajr—
The predawn Islamic prayer.

al-faseqoon
(subject),
al-faseqeen
(object)
—“
those who are immoral.”

fatwa—
a judgment issued by an Islamic scholar.

Fawzia Al-Bakr—
an academic and women’s rights campaigner. Imprisoned in 1982.

fitna—
strong disagreement leading to conflict.

Fouad Al-Farhan—
Jeddah blogger jailed in December 2007 for 137 days.

Fouad Al-Mushaikhis—
uncle of Mahdi, the husband of the Qateef girl.

Frank Gardner—
BBC journalist shot in Riyadh, June 2004.

 

Hadith—
sayings and acts of the Prophet that have been collected and serve as a guide to Islamic belief and practice alongside the direct revelation of the Koran.

Al-Haier prison—
Interior Ministry prison in the south of Riyadh.

Hail—
town in northern Arabia that was formerly the headquarters of the Al-Saud’s rivals the Al-Rasheed family.

hajj—
the pilgrimage, one of the five “pillars” of Islam. All Muslims are required to make their
hajj
to the holy city of Mecca at least once in their lives, if they can afford it.

Al-Hamra (the Red One)—
upscale residential neighborhoods in Riyadh, Jeddah, and other Arab cities, named after the red Alhambra citadel of Moorish Grenada in Spain.

Al-Haraka Al-Wataniya—
the National Movement, a group of Saudi liberals who were campaigning for reforms in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

Haramain—
the two holy places, the grand mosques of Mecca and Medina.

haram (pronounced with a short “a”)—
a holy place.

haram (pronounced with an extended “a”)—
forbidden.

Al-Hasa (Al-Ahsa)—
historical name of the Eastern Province home to most of the Shia in Saudi Arabia and to the world’s largest palm tree oasis. Beneath Al-Hasa lies the world’s largest oil field, Ghawar, from which has come for more than five decades over half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, some 8 to 9 million barrels per day in 2008-9.

Hassan Al-Banna—
Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, assassinated in 1949.

Hassan Al-Saffar—
Shia spiritual leader in exile 1980-93, now back in Qateef.

Al-Hayah—
the Commission (for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice), known to Westerners as the religious police.

Al-Hijaz—
the western region of Arabia along the Red Sea coast, containing the cities of Mecca, Medina, Taif, and Jeddah; an independent kingdom ruled by the Hashemite family until its conquest by Abdul Aziz in 1926.

Hijrah—
the migration. The turning point in the birth of Islam when the Prophet Mohammed left Mecca in A.D. 622 and migrated to the community that would become known as Medina, starting point of the Islamic calendar. See
anno hegirae.

hilal—
new moon, crescent moon.

hisbah—
to promote good and discourage evil.

husayniya—
Shia meeting room (named for Husayn bin Ali, the martyr of Karbala).

 

ibn
or
bin—
“son of.”

Ibn Nimr—
“Son of the Tiger,” a Wahhabi preacher in Riyadh in the 1930s.

iftar—
breaking of the fast at sunset, during Ramadan.

ijtihad—
independent judgment, meaning literally to struggle with oneself using reason, logic, and deep thought. In law
ijtihad
is a method of legal reasoning that does not rely on the traditional schools of jurisprudence.

Ikhwan—
Brethren or Brotherhood, the name given to the settled bedouin who fought alongside Abdul Aziz from around 1912 until 1926 in his conquest of Arabia.

Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon—
Muslim Brotherhood, the austere and sometimes violent Islamic opposition movement active in many Arab countries, particularly in Egypt, where the Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan Al-Banna.

imam—
the righteous religious leader of a community. A religious teacher who calls for prayers and leads his congregation.

inshallah—
“God willing.”

intifada—
uprising.

Al-Islahiyoon
(subject),
Al-Islahiyeen
(object)
—
“the Reformists.”

isterham—
a plea for mercy.

istikhara—
the Muslim prayer for guidance, a brief recitation which can be repeated as many times as needed.

Istikhbarat—
Saudi foreign intelligence, or GID, the General Intelligence Department.

 

Jaffar Al-Shayeb—
Shia activist formerly in exile, now returned to Saudi Arabia. Elected a municipal councillor in Qateef in 2005.

Al-Jamaa Al-Salafiya Al-Muhtasiba—
The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong, spiritual inspiration of Juhayman Al-Otaybi.

Al-Jazeera—
Island (of the Arabs), the poetic name given to the Arabian Peninsula, which is surrounded by the Red Sea to the west, the Arabian Sea to the south, the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf to the east, and the Syrian desert to the north. The name
Al-Jazeera
has been adopted in current times by a daily newspaper in Riyadh, by an airline in Kuwait, and by the TV news station based in Qatar.

jihad—
holy war. From which comes
jihadi,
holy warrior.

Juhayman Al-Otaybi—
leader of the religious zealots who captured the Grand Mosque in November 1979. Executed January 1980.

 

Kaaba—
the cubelike building in the center of the courtyard of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, traditionally covered in gold-embroidered black cloth. Believed by Muslims to date back to the time of Abraham, the Kaaba is the most sacred site in Islam. At the time of the Prophet, the Kaaba was home to more than three hundred idols, which Mohammed removed and destroyed.

kabsa—
the Saudi national dish of lamb and rice.

kafir
(singular),
kuffar
(plural)—“infidel,” from the noun
kufr,
“blasphemy.”

Kandahar—
second largest city in Afghanistan.

Khadem Al-Haramain Al-Shareefain—
Servant or Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the title borne by Saudi kings since 1985.

Al-Khafji—
a town on the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, briefly captured by Iraq in 1991.

Khaled Al-Faisal—
poet and painter. Former governor of Asir Province. Today governor of Mecca. Son of King Faisal and elder half brother to Saud and Turki Al-Faisal.

Khaled Bahaziq—
marriage counselor. Former jihadi and steel salesman.

Khaled bin Abdul Aziz (1912-82)—
fourth modern Saudi monarch (1975-1982) in succession to his father Abdul Aziz and his half brothers Saud and Faisal.

Khaled bin Sultan—
son of Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. Saudi Joint Forces commander during the Gulf War 1990-91. Now assistant minister, and effectively acting minister, to his father the crown prince, and minister of defense and aviation.

Khaled Al-Hubayshi—
a jihadi who was imprisoned in Guatánamo Bay.

khalawi—
prayer and meditation rooms beneath the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

khawajah—
colloquial term for Christian Westerner formerly applied to the landed gentry of Egypt and the Sudan.

khawarij—
“those who come out and depart,” splinter movements from mainstream Islam over the centuries, sometime violent.

Al-Khidr—
“the Green One,” a legendary Islamic figure sometimes confused with the Mahdi.

Khitab Al-Matalib—
“Letter of Demands,” a reform petition circulated by activists in 1992.

Al-Khobar—
a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, adjacent to Dammam.

Khorassan—
Afghan-based empire of the Prophet’s time.

Koran (Qur’an)—
Islam’s central text, the divine revelation to the Prophet Mohammed.

 

Mabahith—
secret police, a department of the Ministry of the Interior. Literally “investigations,” “investigators,” or “the detectives.”

Madinah—
officially decreed Saudi spelling of “Medina” in English.

madrasa—
a religious school.

Mahdi—
a prophesied Islamic redeemer described in some Islamic traditions, but not mentioned in the Koran.

Mahdi—
fiancé of the Qateef girl.

mahram—
a male guardian.

Majlis—
“the place of sitting.” The main reception hall in a Saudi home—usually two: one for men and one for women.

Majlis Al-Shura—
Consultative Council of 150 “learned and experienced” male citizens appointed by the king.

Makkah—
official Saudi spelling of “Mecca” in English—said to have been first decreed to set the name of the holy city apart from the British chain of Mecca dance halls.

Maktab Al-Khadamat—
Office of Services, a relief and recruitment network financed by Osama Bin Laden to support his 1980s Afghan campaign against the Russians.

Mansour Al-Nogaidan—
writer. Former Salafi preacher and video-store bomber.