ARABIA, with its broad steppes and deserts and its scattered oasis settlements, is under normal conditions a lawless land. Here tribe has fought with tribe, nomad has plundered villager, since before the dawn of recorded history. Occasionally, however, a preëminent leader has succeeded for a while in establishing at least an outer semblance of political unity and social order. Such a leader is Abdalaziz ibn Saud. Twenty-eight years ago he was an exile from his own country in Al Kuwait, but he has since succeeded in establishing an "empire" that comprises nearly the entire peninsula. Only a man of
Source URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/1928-07-01/religion-and-politics-arabia