Saudi Arabia’s highland heart raised the House of Saud
Najd, Arabic for “highland,” is the historical centre of the Arabian Peninsula, covering most of interior Saudi Arabia between Hejaz, the Nafud, ad-Dahna, and the Empty Quarter. About one-third of Saudis live here, including in Riyadh, capital since 1824, which sits in Yamama along Wadi Hanifa beneath the Tuwaiq escarpment.
Three provinces make up the region today. Riyadh Province includes Yamama and the Sudair district around Majmaah; Qassim, centred on Buraidah, the second-largest Najdi city, is known for date groves and oases along Wadi Rummah; and Ha’il lies in the north below the Jabal Shammar mountains. The House of Saud rose here and pushed toward union with Hejaz from the days of the Emirate of Diriyah. The borders have never been fixed, shifting with politics and geography.
In the southwest, the Neolithic site of Al-Magar has yielded objects radiocarbon-dated to about 9,000 years ago, and it may have been among the first places to farm widely and tame animals, horses included, before the land dried out. At Shuwaymis, some 370 kilometres southwest of Ha’il, rock art found in November 2017 shows leashed dogs resembling Canaan dogs; at roughly 8,000 years old, these may be the earliest dog images anywhere.
Around AD 425 the Himyarite king Hasan ibn Amr installed Hujr Akil al-Murar as the first ruler of Kinda, based at Qaryat al-Faw. Kindite kings led through prestige rather than force, and al-Harith ibn Amr even took the Lakhmid capital al-Hira before al-Mundhir recaptured it around 529 and executed him with about fifty relatives. After Aksum invaded Himyar in 525, Kinda splintered into four groups, and in 540 the Lakhmids destroyed its Najdi settlements.
Muhammad’s forces raided a Quraysh caravan here in 624, taking booty worth 100,000 dirhams, and campaigned in Najd again in October 625. After his death, Musaylima rallied the Banu Hanifa in Yamama, Tulayha led rebels at Buzakha, and Malik ibn Nuwayrah held out with part of the Banu Tamim. Khalid ibn al-Walid defeated Tulayha in mid-September 632 and later had Malik executed.
Source: Najd
