Riyadh Saudi Arabia (Dec 2010)

If Makkah & Madina are the spiritual centres then Riyadh is the political & commercial centre of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ultimately it is the home & power base of the Royal Saudi family and Wahabi mazhab (religion). Riyadh is the capital & largest city of Saudi Arabia with about 3.5 million population. Yet the atmosphere of Riyadh is laidback and relaxed like a small city. There are only few skyscraper buildings, largely the city houses are two or three storey, built in grey or cream, the most common colour in middle east. (Click on photos to enlarge):

The bottle opener shaped building Kingdom Tower is the highest building in Saudi Arabia (302.3 m), followed by the Faisalia Tower depicting a ball pen (266.7 m). Kingdom Tower is strikingly similar to the Shanghai World Financial centre, tallest in China. Is it a coincidence or….. Kingdom Tower started 2 years later!

 Saudi Arabia is divided into about 13 provinces and each province is governed by a Saudi Prince. Some parts are green where some agriculture is done, some are high hills whereas a large part is a dry desert. One such part is referred to as empty quarter. Petrol & food are quite cheap. Strangely electricity is available in two flavours, 110 volts in two pin sockets and 220 volts in 3 pin sockets. Why? Don’t ask me, I’m not Saudi. 

This is the city where all the government offices are established. There is a district near ministry offices called Hara. This is the centre of Asian community. People, mostly from Pakistan, used to work in government offices and reside here. Now it is a mixture of Indian, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, etc etc. And as a result all sorts of desi foods, sweets & other items are available here. I tried Dahi Baray, QalaQand and Chai, truly authentic – as tasty & dirty as you would get in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh. 

Weather is very hot & dry. Days get scorching sun and nights get cold, as you would expect in a desert. I came here in November which was the best time weather-wise, nice pleasant sunshine during days and bearable cool during nights. All businesses close at prayer times. Mosques buildings are magnificent.

Talking to one of my colleague who is from Palestine, I started by saying “kaifa Haluk” (how are you in Arabic) just to impress him. He responded in perfectly clear voice “kia haal hai bhai” (in Urdu), I was left speechless for quite a few seconds! Up to 40% Riyadh population is non Saudi, mostly coming from India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. As a result Urdu/Hindi is the most spoken language after Arabic. This is true for all UAE countries. Nearly all taxi drivers & shop keepers are Urdu/Hindi speaking. This made my life easy while shopping, it was painless to communicate and often I got discount when I haggled in Urdu. Surely swearing & arguing can only be done & enjoyed in one’s native language!

 It is ironic that non-Saudi’s cannot work or live here independently, they have to work through a Saudi Kafeel (sponsor) who takes a good cut in the salary or profit. It is compulsory to carry your iqama (work permit) with you all the time. As they say, you may go out without Pyjama but not without iqama. No one gets Saudi nationality irrespective of he lived here forever or was born in Saudi. The minute your job ends you are out.

Riyadh (Nejd province) is the area from where the ruling Saud family originated, as well as Abdul Wahab, the founder of Wahabi fiqh. Sauds & Abdul Wahab formed an alliance in 1744 and established their authority in this area rebelling against Ottamani Khilafat. It collapsed when they were defeated by Khilafat. Sauds regained power later as Khilafat became weak, only to lose again to a rival Al Rashid family. Around 1902 Abdul Aziz Al Al-Saud conquered Riyadh and established the current Saudi Arabia. Help came from British who wanted the Islamic state to breakup in pieces. They sent agents (Lawrence of Arabia!) who incited Arabs against Turks and caused them to fight within. And the result was as predicted, one of the grandest empires broke into pieces leaving us fighting forever; Iran-Iraq, Saudi-Iraq, Kurd-Turk, Kuwait-Iraq, Palestine-Israel,……I have a friend who comes from a Jewish family. His family is spread across UK & Israel. In his own words, middle east had peace only once and that was under Ottomani empire. Even Jews enjoyed peace and harmony. 

Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) Hijrat Route (in Red). Blue is the normal route between Makkah & Madina which He (SAW) avoided. I took this photo in a museum in Riyadh which has nice displays. It has the only cinema in Saudia where movies are shown about how Sauds conquered the land.

 For the very reason mentioned above Riyadh is dearly dear to Saudi family. It is the centre of Wahabi religion. The culture is very restrictive in this city (a bit more than other cities). There are mutawas (police) on the doors of shopping centres who would stop loafer-looking single young male. I was quite scared but surprisingly no one stopped me! I look decent enough I suppose. Ladies are not allowed to drive or go out alone. Not many women work, if they do, they have separate seating. You cannot take photos in open in case you infringe someone’s privacy. Alcohol, clubs & parties are banned (at least to poor, rich & influential may continue privately). With the same token, this is the safest place on earth. There is almost Zero crime, far far better than the so called modern democratic states.

 Influence or authority in the Kingdom depends on your origin. Most influential are Saudi royal family (number in thousands), then ordinary Saudis, followed by Americans, British, other Whites, then Asians. Poor workers from Asian countries were treated harshly. However situation has improved slightly in recent years. My friend’s car was struck by a Saudi who was emerging out of a small road and hence guilty. Police arrived, inspected, and declared it was a mutual fault! My friend got some of his Saudi colleagues involved. Only on their interference and realising he was British, given compensation half of the damage. 

 As said by a writer “Riyadh is the best place in Kingdom to watch the continuing collusion of tribal wahabi conservatism grappling with modern technology and western influences.” There are large number of young Saudi’s studying in foreign countries. Change will be significant once they return to country. 

I was a bit scared while coming here but had a wonderful time in Riyadh mainly due to few friend in Riyadh who really looked after very well. We enjoyed dinners out in traditional Saudi style. Rice and meat dish called Kabsa is common and Mandi, a type of Kabsa is most popular in Saudi. I tried many of its varieties with chicken, lamb, beef and camel meat. This was first time I had eaten camel and I loved it. The restaurant where I tried camel, was ISO 22000 certified (a food safety standard)!

Kunafah, a sweet made with cheese or cream and vermicelli is available in all restaurants and I made good use of it. I didn’t get the chance of indulging in Baklawa.

 Surprisingly people don’t follow street addresses in Riyadh. Say for example, you want to go to No 24 Haris Street. No one including taxi driver, DHL & delivery man would understand this. You need to mention a landmark near it. e.g. a shopping centre, a big building or a famous place. Take for example, my office was near Faisaliya tower. To come to my office I would  advise taxi driver that I need to go near Faisaliya Tower. Once near I will point to him the office building and he would drop me there.

Riyadh airport’s interior is beautiful. Immigration was quick, once they start functioning. Everybody waited for about 20 mins in queues before something happened. It was even strange on the way back. There are no signs for check-ins so one needs to use imaginations. Having no imaginations, I preferred to ask. I went though security and landed in front of airline counters, checked-in and then looked for immigration. Couldn’t find any exit. Then I realised I have to go back through security gates in reverse to get to immigration and then through another security again. Then there was another check right at the gate of the plane. Still it was all very quick, all finished within 10 mins. 

 Leila Majnoo:

Layla Majnoon is one of the most famous true romance stories in Arabic literature. The incident happened in 7^th century in famous tribe Banu Amir living in Nejd province. A town some 330 miles away from Riyadh is named Layla after her name. The story is also found in Persian, Turkish and Indian literature. Majnoon means mad in Arabic. His original name was Qays and he was from the Riyadh area. As story goes, he either met Leila at young age or spent early years with her running around in desert wilderness. Developing a love for her, he proposed for Leila to her father but was refused. As a result he became mad and started wandering around in desert, writing poetry about her. Leila was married to another person by her family. Her husband took her to Iraq area where she fell ill and died. As Qays comes to know of this news, he goes to her grave, writes few verses there and then dies (ch ch ch….), end of story in Arabic.

The Indian story however continues (as it would in every Bollywood movie), they ran away from home taking refuge in Bijnore Rajasthan. Hero heroin meet eventually & live happily ever after, a happy ending. According to Indian sotry, they passed away there and their graves are now visited by hundreds of young couple to attend a two day fair in June!

A verse known to be written by Qays (he wrote in Arabic, this is only a translation):

 I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla

And I kiss this wall and that wall
It’s not Love of the houses that has taken my heart
But of the One who dwells in those houses

 The End….