The politics of encapsulation: Saudi policy towards tribal and religious opposition

This article examines the Saudi state through its strategies towards two types of political opposition. Both Shammar tribal opposition at the beginning of the formation of the state early this century and Shiite religious opposition in the last two decades challenged the legitimacy of the Saudi state at different historical periods.' The analysis of such strategies throws light on the characteristics of the state. We, however, exclude other opposition such as that of the Arab Nationalists, Nasserites, and the Free Princes in the 1960s; all have been dealt with in various publications.2 Nor do we consider the recent religious dissident movement within the Wahhabi establishment that started with the seizure of the Mecca Mosque in 1979 and gathered momentum after the recent Gulf War in 1991. The end of colonialism this century and the abrupt emergence of states which did not exhibit fully the characteristics of the 'Western capitalist state' led some political scientists to reconsider their initial models, or simply adapt them and expand their parameters to account for this proliferation of political entities. Some call such relatively recent political entities 'states' whereas others qualify the term state with adjectives like 'early states', 'archaic states' or 'inchoate states'.4 The emergence of the Saudi state in 1932 is one such development which has so far attracted the attention of scholars from various disciplines. As Saudi Arabia has special, some would say unique characteristics relating to the cultural, economic, religious, geographical and historical specificity of the country, already established Weberian or Marxist state paradigms seem to be inadequate frameworks for understanding its political processes. Among such characteristics are the country's total reliance on wealth produced from oil, a combination of monarchic rule and Wahhabi religious dogma, a small population concentrated in urban centres (cities, towns and oases) separated from each other by vast desert areas, strong tribal loyalties and identities, a tradition of pastoral nomadism and finally regional variations manifested in three cultural zones, the Hijaz in the west, Najd in the centre, and al-Hasa in the east. The amalgamation of these three zones in one political entity is a recent development resulting from the expansion