Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
Eastern Province
المنطقة الشرقية | |
---|---|
al-Mintaqah ash-Sharqiyyah | |
Country | Saudi Arabia |
Capital | Dammam |
Governorates | |
Government | |
• Governor | Arabian Standard Time) |
Area code | 1234 |
ISO 3166 code | SA-04 |
The Eastern Province (
More than a third of the population is concentrated in the
The Eastern Province encompasses the entire east coast of Saudi Arabia and acts as a major platform for most of the kingdom's oil production and exports.
The region was home to the
Geography
Approximately two-thirds of the province is desert, comprising, from south to north, the
The entire eastern coast of the kingdom lies in the Eastern Province. The region borders, from north to south, the countries of Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman.
History
The Eastern Province was home to the Dilmun civilization for several millennia which was an important trading center from the late
The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of the land—then utterly fertile due to artesian wells that have dried since, and due to a much wetter climate—with maritime trade between diverse regions such as the Meluhha (suspected to be Indus Valley Civilisation), Magan (Oman), and Mesopotamia.[8] The Dilmun civilization is mentioned first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the late third millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. One of the earliest inscriptions mentioning Dilmun is that of king Ur-Nanshe of Lagash (c. 2300 BC) found in a door-socket: "The ships of Dilmun brought him wood as tribute from foreign lands."[11]
The great commercial and trading connections between Mesopotamia and Dilmun were strong and profound to the point where Dilmun was a central figure to the Sumerian creation myth.[12] Dilmun was described in the saga of Enki and Ninhursag as pre-existing in paradisiacal state, where predators don't kill, pain and diseases are absent, and people do not get old.[12] Likewise the Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for the Garden of Eden story.[13][14][15]
Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 1000 BC and 800 BC because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf. The most recent reference to Dilmun came during the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Neo-Babylonian administrative records, dated 567 BC, stated that Dilmun was controlled by the king of Babylon. The name of Dilmun fell from use after the collapse of Babylon in 538 BC.[citation needed]
The northern part of the Eastern Province later became inhabited by the Arab
Not much is known of the Uyunids, except that they were the descendants of the
In 1551 AD, the Ottomans invaded the region during their
In the early 1990s, during the First Gulf war, Iraqi troops crossed the Kuwaiti-Saudi border and seized the town of Khafji. The US and Saudi Arabian armies were able to kick them out. This was known as the Battle of Khafji.
Demographics
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Population
According to the Population Characteristics Surveys conducted by the
Religion
Sunni traveler, Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1369 A.D.) mentioned: "Then we traveled to the city of Al-Qatif, its name is derived from fruit picking, which is an oasis of water and a large city with many palm trees inhabited by Shiite Arabs."[22][23]
The local Saudi population is entirely Muslim, with the majority being
governorates.Languages
The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic. The standard spoken dialect in the Eastern Province is a variant of Najdi Arabic,[24] similar to the urban Najdi spoken in Riyadh, but influenced by other dialects local to the Eastern Province. Other dialects spoken natively in the Eastern Province include:
- Gulf Arabic dialects,[25][26] spoken by approximately 2 million people, including Hasawi variants, Bahraini variants,[27] and others.
- Baharna dialects spoken in Qatif.[28]
- Najdi-type dialects spoken among settled bedouin tribes. This includes Central Najdi dialects such as the dialects of Bani Khalid, Southern dialects such as the dialects of Al Murrah and Ajman, and Mixed Northern-Central Najdi dialects such as dialects of Al-Dhafeer.[29]
There are also many dialects spoken by Saudis who have immigrated from elsewhere, such as other Najdi dialects, South Arabian dialects, and Hejazi dialects. The Mehri language is also spoken by Mehri Saudis.[30] Saudi Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community.
The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are some of the Indian languages, Filipino/Tagalog, Bengali, Urdu,[31][32] as well as Arabic dialects such as Egyptian, Levantine, and Yemeni.
Education
From 1,264,687 male residents who were above the age of 10, 88.78%, representing 1,122,738 persons had some form of
Housing
44.42% of residential units in the Eastern Province are apartments and 96.29% of residential units are made of concrete.[21] Homelessness was not reported.[21]
Health
3.51% of the province's Saudi residents, who were above the age of 15, reported some form of disability in 2016, with visual impairment being the most common form of disability and 42,052 persons suffering from some form of visual impairment.[21] 58,000 persons reported severe or extreme disability.[21] 285,754 Saudi residents above the age of 15 reported that they were regularly smoking, with 254,233 reporting daily smoking and 31,521 reporting intermittent smoking.
Governors
Names | Position held | Appointed by |
---|---|---|
Abdullah bin Jalawi
|
1913-38 | Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Al Saud
|
Saud bin Abdullah bin Jalawi | 1935-67 | King Abdulaziz Al Saud |
Abdulmuhsin bin Abdullah Al Jalawi | 1967-85 | King Faisal Al Saud |
Muhammad bin Fahd | 1985-2013 | King Fahd Al Saud |
Saud bin Nayef | 2013–present | King Abdullah Al Saud |
Economy
The economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is largely dependent on oil. As such, the Eastern Province, being the province with most of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves enjoys a high economic position.
The kingdom's main oil and gas fields are located in the Eastern Province with sites such as the
Saudi Arabia's largest agricultural product, dates, also forms a large part of the province's economy. Every year thousands of tonnes of dates are harvested from the date palms in the giant oasis of Ahsa to be sold in and around the kingdom.
Transportation
Dammam's King Fahd International Airport, operating since October 1999,[34] the largest airport in the world in terms of land area, serves as the primary hub for the entirety of the Eastern Province.[34] Located 30 km northwest of the city, the airport is well connected by air to 43 destinations in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, provided by 37 airlines. Other airports in the province include Ahsa International Airport and Qaisumah-Hafr Al Batin Airport. Saudi Aramco has a separate terminal at the King Fahd International Airport for their employees and aircraft with scheduled flights to Shaybah, Yanbu, Jeddah and other sites where the company is active.
Built in the 1940s, the King Abdulaziz Sea Port, located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is the second largest and second busiest port in Saudi Arabia, after the Jeddah Islamic Port in Jeddah. It is also the largest port in the Persian Gulf. The port is equipped with 9 ports with 214 platforms.[35] The port receives more than 15,000 ships carrying more than 13 million containers or 532 million tons of cargo annually.[35]
Highway 95 (Route 5M) connects
Intercity bus services are operated in the province by the Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO).[36] Umrah and Hajj shuttle services are also provided to residents of the kingdom by private contractors. Shuttle services also connect the Dammam metropolitan area to the Bahrain International Airport, northeast of Manama in Bahrain.
The Saudi Arabian railways are managed by two separate organizations, the
A plan to build a metro in Dammam was also in the works, but its current status is unknown.[38]
Administrative divisions
The Eastern Province is one of the 13
The Eastern Province's capital city of Dammam has special status. Like the other 12 regional capitals, Dammam is not included within any governorate but is instead simply known as the City of Dammam, in Arabic, the word أمانة (amānah) is used and the city is headed by a
List of governorates
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See also
- Bahrain (historical region)
- List of cities and towns in Saudi Arabia
- Regions of Saudi Arabia
- Shi'a Islam in Saudi Arabia
References
- ^ "Estimating Saudi Arabia's Regional GDP Using Satellite Nighttime Light Images" (PDF), www.kapsarc.org
- ^ a b c "Population Characteristics surveys" (PDF). General Authority for Statistics. 2017.
- ^ "Riyadh most populous Saudi city, Makkah most populous province". Arab News. 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- ^ "Population of Cities in Saudi Arabia (2021)". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- ^ "Ghawar Oil Field". Hydrocarbons Technology. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ^ "The World's Largest Industrial Areas". WorldAtlas. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- ^ Smith, Sylvia (2013-05-21). "Bahrain digs unveil one of oldest civilizations". BBC News. BBC.
- ^ a b "Qal'at al-Bahrain – Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun". UNESCO. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
- ^ Roads of Arabia p.180
- ^ Harriet E. W. Crawford (1998). "Dilmun and Its Gulf Neighbours". p. 152.
- ^ Samuel Noah Kramer (1963). The Sumerians: their history, culture, and character. p. 308.
- ^ a b The Arab world: an illustrated history p.4
- ^ Edward Conklin. Getting Back Into the Garden of Eden. p. 10.
- ISBN 978-0-8122-1047-7. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-226-45238-8.
In fact, there is some reason to believe that the very idea of a paradise, a garden of the gods, originated with the Sumerians.
- ^ )
- ^ Glassé, Cyril. 2008. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Walnut Creek CA: AltaMira Press p. 369
- ^ Edward William Lane. Arabic-English Lexicon. p. 2519.
- ^ mod1111222@, محمد العبدالله (القطيف) (2019-06-23). "القطيف: إعادة رونق عين «الكعيبة» الأثري". Okaz (in Arabic). Retrieved 2021-08-04.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Ad-Dammam, Saudi Arabia Population 1950-2020". www.macrotrends.net. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Demographic Survey 2016" (PDF). General Authority for Statistics.
- ^ Battuta, Ibn (2017-08-08). Ibn Battuta Journey. Al-Maktaba Al-Asriyya for printing and publishing. Archived from the original on 2017-08-08.
- ^ Al-Ramis, Salman (2004). Qatif, a study in ancient history. Al-hazen library.
- ^ Al Bohnayyah, Moayyad (2019), Dialect Variation and Change in Eastern Arabia: Al-Ahsa Dialect, retrieved 18 September 2022
- )
- ^ Languages of Saudi Arabia Ethnologue
- ^ Alaodini, Hind (June 2019), A Sociolinguistic study of the Dawāsir dialect in Dammam, Eastern Arabia: fortition of /j/ and unrounding of /a:/, University of Essex
- JSTOR 43615788.
- ISBN 9781556197253.
- ^ الحيدري, فيصل (20 June 2012). "20 ألف سعودي يتحدثون "المهرية"". Watanksa (in Arabic). Retrieved 19 September 2022.
- ^ "Migrant Communities in Saudi Arabia", Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, 2004
- ^ Saudi Arabia. Ethnologue
- ^ Charles Riley (12 December 2019). "The world has its first $2 trillion company. But for how long?". CNN. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
- ^ a b "About King Fahd International Airport | King Fahd International Airport". kfia.gov.sa. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ^ a b Mawani. "King Abdulaziz Port Dammam King Abdulaziz Port Dammam". mawani.gov.sa. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ^ "SAPTCO - InterCity Transport". SAPTCO - InterCity Transport. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- ^ "SRO". www.saudirailways.org. Archived from the original on 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
- ^ 2014-05-23T11:26:00+01:00. "Dammam metro plans announced". Railway Gazette International. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Saudi Arabia: Administrative divisions". arab.net.