ABSTRACT
Sacred and secular values legitimise the House of Saud as the ruling institution in Saudi Arabia. This power stems from the compact in 1745 between the Hanbalite religious reformer, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud of Diriyah, a small town in Najd in northeastern Arabia. Oil wealth has plunged Saudi Arabia into the technological revolution of the late twentieth century. The growth of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia stimulated social and economic development which occurred within the framework of traditional values and institutions. Oil was discovered in 1938 by American oil companies, but serious production did not take place until after World War II. During the late 1950s and early 1960s President Nasser had focused on the reformist aspects of Islam which he identified with Arabism and the liberation of societies oppressed by capitalism and reactionary Islam, namely Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
