ABSTRACT
The genesis of modern urbanisation in Saudi Arabia lies in the early battles fought by King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the founder of modem Saudi Arabia starting with the capture of Riyadh in 1902. Saudi Arabia occupies an area of 2,149,690 square kilometers, slightly less than one fourth the size of the United States. Warlords appeared in various parts of the Arabian Peninsula whose subordination to the Ottoman Caliph became nominal. The socio-political order of the Arabian Peninsula had changed little since the time of the Prophet Mohammed when the Arabian tribes extended their sway over the vast of the Islamic world as it is known today. The sedentarisation of nomads in Saudi Arabia was a manifestation of such objectives. The kaleidoscopic events that engulfed the Arabian Peninsula at the turn of the century resulted in the creation of the new nation of Saudi Arabia, a monarchic state governed by tradition.
