116-610: Riyadh ( / r iː ˈ j ɑː d / ree- YAHD ; Arabic : الرياض , romanized : ar-Riyāḍ , standard pronunciation: [ar.riˈjaːdˤ] , Najdi pronunciation: [er.rɪˈjɑːðˤ] ; lit. ' the Meadows ' ) is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia . It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate . The current form of
232-521: A city of canals and trees with most of its inhabitants belonging to the Bani Hanifa , and reports that he continued on with their leader to Mecca to perform the Hajj . Later on, Hajr broke up into several separate settlements and estates. The most notable of these were Migrin (or Muqrin) and Mi'kal , though the name Hajr continued to appear in local folk poetry. The earliest known reference to
348-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
464-525: A commercial spine with and most importantly, that it will be divided into neighborhoods of 2 x 2 km blocks, thus solidifying the grid pattern to be the defining feature of Riyadh's layout. It also maintains the style of housing that was prominent in Malaz, detached houses with setbacks, designed in what Dr. Saleh Al Hathloul identifies as an 'international Mediterranean' style i.e. crimson colors. However, DA's shortcomings lay in their inability to accurately predict
580-513: A continuous approach instead of a one-off plan was adopted. The MEDSTAR was not a long term plan but an ongoing strategy on managing urban growth and economic development in the city. It was initiated after comprehensive studies by the Arriyadh Development Authority (the high commission's research wing) on demographics, land use, transportation, security, environment, and traffic safety. In 2007, MEDSTAR won second place in
696-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
812-853: A cultural and tourist destination. Many roads and streets, such as the Olaya street and the Imam Saud road, are being refurbished. Fewer malls are opening and squares (or plazas) are taking over in popularity, the most popular having been the Riyadh Boulevard on the Prince Turki Al Awwal Road. A new downtown called 'New Murabba' at the intersection of the King Salman and King Khaled roads is planned. New fully residential suburbs, unlike regular neighborhoods that have storefront-lined main streets, are under construction in
928-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1044-487: A fair amount of rain in March and April. It is also known to have dust storms during which the dust can be so thick that visibility is under 10 m (33 ft). On 1 and 2 April 2015, a massive dust storm hit Riyadh, causing the suspension of classes in many schools in the area and the cancellation of hundreds of flights, both domestic and international. Riyadh is divided into fourteen branch municipalities, in addition to
1160-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1276-703: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] {{main other| ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
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#17327765859831392-421: A much faster rate than Doxiadis Associates had projected and very soon, their plan became obsolete. DA predicted that Riyadh's urban area would be 304 km in 30 years when it reached 400 km just four years after the plan was authorized. Therefore, SCET International was assigned to revise and update the original plan to reflect the drastic growth and offer adaptive measures, which were approved in 1982. While keeping
1508-744: A result of a missile attack. The number of missiles which targeted Riyadh are a small portion of the dozens of missiles fired from Yemen at Saudi Arabia due to the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen . In April 2018, heavy gunfire was heard in Khozama; this led to rumors of a coup attempt. A restoration of heritage buildings of historical significance was launched in Riyadh by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on 13 September 2020. Historical Riyadh
1624-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1740-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
1856-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
1972-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
2088-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
2204-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
2320-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2436-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
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#17327765859832552-569: Is a seven-eleven member council appointed by the King in the legal system of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . It supervises the lower courts of Saudi Arabia – overseeing judges' performances and new judicial appointments – but also provides "legal opinions, advises the King, and reviews sentences involving death, stoning, or amputation". (according to a 2006 description of it from Washington Law University). The Minister of Justice serves as
2668-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
2784-663: Is another important archeological site inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage List on 31 July 2010. It was founded in the 15th century bearing an architectural style of Najdi. There are some Historic palaces and monuments in Al-Turaif district include: Salwa Palace, Saad bin Saud Palace, The Guest House and At-Turaif Bath House, and Imam Mohammad bin Saud Mosque. This fortress was built around 1865 under
2900-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
3016-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
3132-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
3248-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
3364-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3480-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
3596-535: Is the commercial heart of the city, with accommodation, entertainment, dining and shopping options. The Kingdom Centre , Al Faisalyah , and Al-Tahlya Street are the area's most prominent landmarks. The center of the city, Al-Bathaa and Al-Deerah, is also its oldest part. Some of the main districts of Riyadh are: In 2022, the city had over 7 million people. The city had a population of 40,000 inhabitants in 1935 and 83,000 in 1949. The city has experienced very high rates of population growth, from 150,000 inhabitants in
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3712-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
3828-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
3944-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
4060-572: The First Saudi State , collapsed in 1818. Turki ibn Abdullah founded the Second Saudi State in the early 19th century and made Riyadh his capital in 1825. However, his reign over the city was disrupted by a joint Ottoman– Rashidi alliance. Finally, in the early 20th century, ' Abdulaziz ibn Saud , known in the west simply as Ibn Saud, retrieved his ancestral kingdom of Najd in 1902 and consolidated his rule by 1926 with
4176-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
4292-548: The Global Financial Centres Index , Riyadh ranked at 77 in 2016–2017. Though the rank moved up to 69 in 2018, diversification in the economy of the capital is required in order to avoid what the World Bank called a "looming poverty crisis" brought on by lingering low oil prices and rich state benefits. Since 2017, Riyadh has been the target of missiles from Yemen. In March 2018, one person died as
4408-873: The King Khalid International Airport , King Fahd Stadium , Television tower, King Saud University new campus, the King Faisal Foundation, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MOMRA, and Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud university . And the historical district was rebuilt with the National Museum, Qasr AlHukm district , and the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque . Numerous health facilities were founded as well. Other developments in this period included
4524-598: The Second Saudi State ; the cousin of Saud bin Saud, he ruled for 19 years till 1834, leading to the consolidation of the area though they were notionally under the control of Muhammad Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt. In 1823, Turki ibn Abdallah chose Riyadh as the new capital. Following the assassination of Turki in 1834, his eldest son Faisal killed the assassin, took control of the capital, and refused to be controlled by
4640-731: The Shura Council ), the Council of Ministers , the King and the Supreme Judicial Council are all situated in the city. Alongside these four bodies that form the core of the legal system of Saudi Arabia , the headquarters of other major and minor governmental bodies are also located in Riyadh. The city hosts 114 foreign embassies , most of which are located in the Diplomatic Quarter in the western reaches of
4756-626: The Umayyad and Abbasid eras. Al-Yamamah broke away from the Abbasid Empire in 866 and the area fell under the rule of the Ukhaydhirites , who moved the capital from Hajr to nearby Al-Kharj . The city then went into a long period of decline. In the 14th century, North African traveler Ibn Battuta wrote of his visit to Hajr, describing it as "the main city of Al-Yamamah , and its name is Hajr ". Ibn Battuta goes on to describe it as
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4872-620: The Viceroy of Egypt . Najd was then invaded, and Faisal was taken captive and held in Cairo . However, as Egypt became independent of the Ottoman Empire, Faisal escaped after five years of incarceration, returned to Najd, and resumed his reign, ruling until 1865 and consolidating the reign of the House of Saud. Following the death of Faisal, there was rivalry among his sons which situation
4988-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
5104-462: The city walls did not exceed an area of 1 km, and therefore very few significant architectural remnants of the original walled oasis town of Riyadh exist today. The most prominent is the Masmak fort and some parts of the original wall structure with its gate which have been restored and reconstructed. There are also a number of traditional mud-brick houses within these old limits, but they are for
5220-572: The forty-ninth most visited city in the world and the 6th in the Middle East . Riyadh had a population of 7.0 million people in 2022, making it the most-populous city in Saudi Arabia , 3rd most populous in the Middle East, and the 38th most populous in Asia . The first mention of the city by the name Riyadh was in 1590, by an Arab chronicler. In 1745, Dahham ibn Dawwas , who was from
5336-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
5452-404: The "best new skyscraper of the year for design and functionality". A three-level shopping center, which also won a major design award, fills the east wing. The large opening is illuminated at night in continuously changing colors. The shopping center has a separate floor for women only to shop where men are not allowed to enter. The Kingdom Tower has 99 stories and is the fifth tallest structure in
5568-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
5684-815: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Supreme Judicial Council of Saudi Arabia Supreme Council of Magistracy of Saudi Arabia ( Arabic : المجلس الأعلى للقضاء )
5800-527: The (now-defunct) first airport of Riyadh. Government departments were relocated from Jeddah to Riyadh and new ministry buildings were built. To accommodate the government employees who had moved in from Jeddah, the government developed the Malaz housing block. This block's layout was influenced by the layouts of Dammam and Khobar , which in turn were influenced by the Aramco-built Dhahran . Malaz, with its street grid and detached house type,
5916-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
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#17327765859836032-443: The 1960s to over seven million, according to the most recent sources. As of 2017, the population of Riyadh is composed of 64.19% Saudis, while non-Saudis account for 35.81% of the population. Indians are the largest minority population at 13.7%, followed by Pakistanis at 12.4%. The population is so high due to the doubled birth rates and the high economic growth. There was also an influx of immigrants. The old town of Riyadh within
6148-462: The 2km x 2km block, they expanded it in all directions unlike DA's linear expansion. They also added the radial ring roads and altered the DA conception of how commercial and other zones should be distributed. It was in the 80s and 90s that most of the buildings that defined Riyadh's urban identity were constructed. Built in styles contemporary of that time, marble with a hint of desert beige, these included
6264-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
6380-847: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] {{main other|. Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
6496-556: The Arabian Peninsula." He named his kingdom as Saudi Arabia in September 1932 with Riyadh as the capital. King Abdul Aziz died in 1953 and his son Saud took control as per the established succession rule of father to son from the time Muhammad bin Saud had established the Saud rule in 1744. However, this established line of succession was broken when King Saud was succeeded by his brother King Faisal in 1964. In 1975, Faisal
6612-541: The Diplomatic Quarter. Each branch municipality in turn contains several districts, amounting to over 130 in total, though some districts are divided between more than one branch municipality. The branch municipalities are Al-Shemaysi, Irqah , Al-Ma'athar, Al-Olayya, Al-Aziziyya, Al-Malaz, Al-Selayy, Nemar, Al-Neseem, Al-Shifa, Al-'Urayja, Al-Bat'ha, Al-Ha'ir, Al-Rawdha, and Al-Shimal ("the North"). Olaya District
6728-455: The King Fahd Road starting in the 2000s. Significant construction projects like the Riyadh metro and the Princess Noura University , the world's largest women's university, were undertaken. Most malls and hypermarkets opened in this era and became a feature of city life. The municipality added wide sidewalks to a number of streets which became popular spots for walking, and parks were built in many neighborhoods. Major roads were redesigned, such as
6844-415: The King Fahd road, King Abdullah Road, Abu Bakr Al Siddiq road, and Oruba road, transforming the look of the city. In addition, the Royal Commission rehabilitated the Wadi Hanifa wetlands. At the onset of the 2020s, Riyadh's expansion had gone further ahead of the King Salman Road in the north and had reached the Janadriyah road in the east. Vision 2030 has stated its objective for Saudi cities to reach
6960-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
7076-508: The Municipality of Riyadh is involved, are the five old gates on the old walls of Riyadh. These are the eastern gate of Thumaira, the northern gate of Al-Suwailen, the southern gate of Dukhna, the western gate of Al-Madhbah, and the south-western gate of Shumaisi. There are also four historic palaces: Musmak Palace , Murabba Palace (palace of King Abdul Aziz), Atiqah Palace (belongs to Prince Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman ) and Al Shamsiah Palace (belongs to Saud Al Kabeer ). The Turaif district ,
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#17327765859837192-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
7308-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
7424-419: The area around traditional Riyadh which the urban sprawl reached and encompasses. These include Diriyah , Manfuha and Wadi Laban. Unlike in the early days of development in Riyadh during which vernacular structures were razed to the ground without consideration, there is a new-found appreciation for traditional architecture. The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage is making efforts to revitalize
7540-442: The area by the name Riyadh comes from a 17th-century chronicler reporting on an event from the year 1590. In 1737, Deham ibn Dawwas, a refugee from neighboring Manfuha , took control of Riyadh. Ibn Dawwas built a single wall to encircle the various oasis towns in the area, making them effectively a single fortress city . The name "Riyadh", meaning "gardens" refers to these earlier oasis towns. The capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh,
7656-412: The chief of the Council. As of a decree made January 2013, the council will be headed by the justice minister and its members will include the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia (which was created by later reforms), four Chiefs of the Court of Appeals, the deputy justice minister, chairman of the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution. The term of office for the council members
7772-401: The city. Riyadh also holds economic significance , as it contains the headquarters of many banks and major companies, such as the Saudi National Bank (SNB), Al-Rajhi Bank , SABIC , Almarai , STC , and Samba Financial Group . Highway 65 , known locally as the King Fahd Road, runs through some of these important centers in the city, including the King Abdullah Financial District , one of
7888-509: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
8004-431: The country established either sole headquarters or a large office in the city. For this reason, there has been significant growth in high-rise developments in all areas of the city. Most notable among these is King Abdullah Financial District which is fast becoming the key business hub in the city. Riyadh also has the largest all-female university in the world, the Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University . According to
8120-481: The country, rising to 300 m. A special aspect of the tower is that it is divided into two parts in the last one-third of its height and is linked by a sky-bridge walkway, which provides extensive views of Riyadh. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
8236-415: The declaration of the First Saudi State , with Diriyah as its capital. The First Saudi State was destroyed by forces sent by Muhammad Ali of Egypt , acting on behalf of the Ottoman Empire . Ottoman forces razed the Saudi capital Diriyah in 1818. They had maintained a garrison at Najd . This marked the decline of the House of Saud for a short time. Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad became the first Amir of
8352-652: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
8468-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
8584-674: The extent of Riyadh's future growth. At the start of the 70s, Riyadh did not go much beyond what is today the Khurais road. But nearing the 80s, Riyadh's expansion had already reached the Northern Ring Road in the north and had made considerable progress in the eastern part of the city. In 1974, the government founded the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh (later Royal Commission for Riyadh City ) which
8700-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
8816-465: The far north and far east of the city. Riyadh has a hot desert climate ( Köppen Climate Classification BWh ), with long, extremely hot summers and short, very mild winters. The average high temperature in July is 43.9 °C (111.0 °F). If not for its elevation Riyadh would experience an even hotter climate. The city experiences very little precipitation, especially during the summer, but receives
8932-529: The final Saudi conquest of Hejaz , subsequently naming his kingdom 'Saudi Arabia' in September 1932 with Riyadh as the capital. The town was the administrative center of the government until 1938, when Ibn Saud moved to the Murabba Palace . In the 1950s, the walls were dismantled and Riyadh metropolis outgrew as an offshoot of the walled town . Riyadh is the political and administrative center of Saudi Arabia. The Consultative Assembly (also known as
9048-644: The first Saudi capital Diriyah , on the northwestern outskirts of Riyadh was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO . The mayor is Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz al-Muqrin. Al-Muqrin was appointed in 2019 by royal decree and succeeds Tariq bin Abdul Aziz Al-Faris. Riyadh is now the administrative and to a great extent the commercial hub of the Kingdom. According to the Saudi Real Estate Companion, most large companies in
9164-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
9280-513: The hand of the rival Al Rashid clan, which ruled from the northern city of Ha'il . The al-Masmak fort dates from that period. Abdul Rahman bin Faisal al-Saud had sought refuge among a tribal community on the outskirts of Najd and then went to Kuwait with his family and stayed in exile. However, his son Abdul Aziz retrieved his ancestral kingdom of Najd in 1902 and consolidated his rule by 1926, and further expanded his kingdom to cover "most of
9396-519: The historic architecture in Riyadh and other parts of the kingdom. Ain Heet cave has an underground lake (150 meters deep) situated at the face of Mount Al Jubayl in Wadi As Sulay in a small village called Heet in Riyadh. Between Riyadh and Al Kharj road, it is one of the easily accessible caves in the area of Riyadh. The archeological sites at Riyadh which are of historical importance, in which
9512-487: The history of Saudi Arabia. The story of the event is often retold and has as its central theme the heroism and bravery of King Abdulaziz al-Saud. The Masmak Fortress is now a museum and is in close proximity to the Clock Tower Square, also known to English-speaking residents as Chop Chop Square , referring to the capital punishment that takes place there. Designed by the team of Ellerbe Becket and Omrania ,
9628-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
9744-512: The international award for liveable communities. One of the MEDSTAR strategies was balanced development by turning Riyadh into a polycentric city rather than having one single downtown. [Riyadh: The Metamorphosis of a City From Centerless to Polycentric Fernando Perez,] This has resulted in there being multiple hubs scattered around the city such as Olaya, KAFD , Sahafa, Granada, Business Gate, Digital City, and Hittin. Riyadh's skyline arose along
9860-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
9976-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
10092-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
10208-517: The list of top 100 cities of the world in quality of life and the city is working towards this goal through new development investments. Every year, the number of tourists visiting Saudi Arabia and Riyadh increases. In the large empty area where the old airport once was, the world's largest urban park, King Salman Park is being constructed, with leisure, residential, office, hospitality, and retail spaces. The historical city of Diriyah , now encompassed by Riyadh, has been restored and developed into
10324-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
10440-648: The mayor is Faisal bin Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Ayyaf Al-Muqrin. Riyadh will host Expo 2030 , becoming the second Arab city to host after Dubai in 2020 . During the Pre-Islamic era , the city at the site of modern Riyadh was called Hajr ( Arabic : حجر ), and was reportedly founded by the tribe of Banu Hanifa . Hajr served as the capital of the province of Al-Yamamah , whose governors were responsible for most of central and eastern Arabia during
10556-563: The metropolis emerged as an offshoot of the eponymous walled town following the dismantling of its defensive fortifications in the 1950s, after which the city underwent several phases of expansion and urbanization. It is the largest city on the Arabian Peninsula , and is situated in the center of the an-Nafud desert, on the eastern part of the Najd plateau . The city sits at an average of 600 meters (2,000 ft) above sea level, and receives around 5 million tourists each year, making it
10672-489: The most part dilapidated. Expansion outside the city walls was slow to begin with, although there were some smaller oases and settlements surrounding Riyadh. The first major construction beyond the walls was King Abdulaziz's Murabba Palace . It was constructed in 1936, completed in 1938, and a household of 800 people moved into it in 1938. The palace is now part of a bigger complex called The King Abdulaziz Historical Centre . There are other traditional villages and towns in
10788-744: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] {{main other| (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
10904-516: The neighboring Manfuha , seized control of the town . Dahham built a mudbrick palace and a wall around the town , and the best-known source of the name Riyadh is from this period, thought to be referring to the earlier oasis towns that predated the wall built by Ibn Dawwas . In 1744, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab formed an alliance with the Emir of Diriyah , Muhammad bin Saud , and they took Riyadh from Deham. However their state, now known as
11020-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
11136-518: The opening of the first shopping centers and supermarkets. Approaching the 2000s, Riyadh had expanded well beyond the Northern Ring Road in the north and had reached the Second Ring Road in the east. The MEDSTAR (metropolitan development strategy for Arriyadh) was the strategy that directed urban development in this era. Since the SCET plan also turned out to underestimate the rate of growth,
11252-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
11368-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
11484-515: The reign of Mohammed ibn Abdullah ibn Rasheed (1289-1315 AH), the ruler of Ha'il to the north, who had wrested control of the city from the rival clan of Al Saud . In January 1902 Ibn Saud , who was at the time living in exile in Kuwait , succeeded in capturing the Masmak fortress from its Rashid garrison. The event, which restored Saudi control over Riyadh, has acquired an almost mythical status in
11600-409: The royal residential district, in 1950. Following the example of American cities, new settlements and entire neighborhoods were created on grid plans , and connected by high-capacity main roads to the inner areas. The grid pattern in the city was introduced in 1953. The population growth of the town from 1974 to 1992 averaged 8.2 percent per year. On 16 November 1983, King Khalid International Airport
11716-531: The ruler of the nearby town of Diriyah . Ibn Saud then set out to conquer the surrounding region with the goal of bringing it under the rule of a single Islamic state. Ibn Dawwas of Riyadh led the most determined resistance, allied with forces from Al Kharj , Al Ahsa , and the Banu Yam clan of Najran . However, Ibn Dawwas fled and Riyadh capitulated to the Saudis in 1774, ending long years of wars, and leading to
11832-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
11948-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
12064-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
12180-548: The tower is built on 94,230 square meters of land. The Kingdom Centre is owned by a group of companies including Kingdom Holding Company , headed by Al-Waleed bin Talal , a prince of the Saudi royal family, and is the headquarters of the holding company. The project cost 2 billion Saudi Arabian Riyals and the contract was undertaken by El-Seif. The Kingdom Centre is the winner of the 2002 Emporis Skyscraper Award , selected as
12296-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
12412-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
12528-881: The world's largest financial districts, the Faisaliyah Center and the Kingdom Center . Riyadh is one of the world's fastest-growing cities in population and is home to many expatriates . The city is divided into 15 municipal districts, which are overseen by the Municipality of Riyadh headed by the mayor; and the Royal Commission for Riyadh , which is chaired by the Governor of the Province, Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud . As of July 2020,
12644-409: Was enclosed by walls. At its center was a town square and a market ( souq ), surrounded by residential quarters of mosques and adobe homes, each with an interior courtyard. Outside its walls were orchards of date trees , hence the name 'Riyadh' or 'gardens'. During the 1930s, there was an initial outward expansion because new administrative buildings were needed for the country and because the population
12760-641: Was exploited by Muhammad bin Rashid who took most of Najd, signed a treaty with the Ottomans, and also captured Hasa in 1871. In 1889, Abdul Rahman bin Faisal , the third son of Faisal again regained control over Najd and ruled till 1891, whereafter the control was regained by Muhammad bin Raschid. Internecine struggles between Turki's grandsons led to the fall of the Second Saudi State in 1891 at
12876-412: Was growing. According to Dr. Saleh Al Hathloul, former deputy minister of town planning, this era coincided with the period of sedentarization as nomads settled in and around towns and cities such as Riyadh. When commercial oil production began, there was a rapid rise in the rate of urbanization and the city transitioned from traditional to newer houses and buildings. This included the railway station and
12992-456: Was headed by the then governor of Riyadh Province , King Salman Bin Abdulaziz , who oversaw Riyadh's development. With the economic growth and national development plans of the 70s, the national infrastructure consisting of electricity grids, telecommunications networks, water pipelines, and highways was laid down that made further urban growth possible. The old and new industrial cities of Riyadh were both founded in this period. The city grew at
13108-629: Was initially known for its availability of water and fertile land which made it ideal for farming dates and other crops. Wheat was also widely grown until the crops were infested with insects and mites. After Riyadh was designated as the capital in the mid-1900s, Riyadh became a manufacturing hub. Almost one-third of Saudi Arabia's factories are located in Riyadh, producing a range of products including machinery, equipment, metallurgical goods, chemicals, construction materials, food, textiles, furniture, and numerous publications. In 1750, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab formed an alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud ,
13224-409: Was instrumental in shaping the master plans for Riyadh that followed, as per Dr. Saleh Al Hathloul. The Department of Municipal Affairs (later Ministry of Municipalities and Housing ) selected Doxiadis Associates (DA) in 1968 to prepare a masterplan for Riyadh. After preliminary studies, they submitted a plan that was approved in 1972. They proposed that Riyadh will expand in the north-south axis along
13340-518: Was officially opened by King Fahd , in memory to the late King Khalid . It remains the biggest airport in the world at nearly 300 sq miles to date. Al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden launched coordinated attacks on compounds in Riyadh on 12 May 2003, resulting in the deaths of 39 people. The bombings were considered to be a terrorism campaign against Western influence in Saudi Arabia. In 2010,
13456-476: Was succeeded by his brother King Khalid. In 1982, King Fahd took the reins from his brother. This new line of succession is among the sons of King Abdul Aziz who has 35 sons; this large family of Ibn Saud hold all key positions in the large kingdom. From the 1940s, Riyadh mushroomed from a relatively narrow, spatially isolated town into a spacious metropolis. When King Saud came to power, he made it his objective to modernize Riyadh, and began developing Annasriyyah,
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