ifferent from a tribal set-up.
Propelled into the twentieth century and into
the rough waters of international politics by
its huge new resources of wealth and power, the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now confronted by
similar problems on a vast and complicated scale.
The burgeoning oil industry and the American
company managing it, the King, and the new genera-
tion of secular nationalists seem to be the three
main pivots around which ultimate solutions will
The police force was only established in the 1960's, a time of great change in Saudi Arabia. Slavery, for example, was not outlawed until 1962.
The purpose of the police force is to promote domestic tranquility. The police are part of the overall internal security system which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, a post first established in 1951 by King Abd al-Aziz, "in his efforts to formalize a modern government . . . responsible for the maintenance of law and order and for the internal security of the state."
The original police force was the autonomous religious police used by Abd al Azia to maintain public order. In present day Saudi Arabia the religious police have become something of an anomaly.
Their strict conservatism is increasingly in
contrast to the setting of the major urban popu-
lations, and according to some observers many
Saudis consider the rigorous methods used by
the religious police to enforce religious con-
formity unnecessary. Their power is mainly to
enforce public observance of such religious
requirements as the five daily prayers, fasting
during Ramadan, the modesty of women, and the
proscriptions against the use of alcohol and
The modern internal security force of Saudi Arabia consists of the uniformed National police, the Frontier police, the Coast Guard, the Fire Brigade, and the prestigious National Guard. The Natio...