two family patterns: family structure and the roles of men and women. Yet we must, from the very beginning, understand that this very system of classification is characteristic of American (and generally of Western) culture, and is very different than the classification that a Saudi would naturally use. Saudi society is based on the Islamic religion, and a Saudi would not regard "government," "law," "family structure," and "the role of women" as institutions or family patterns that stand alongside and largely independent of religion, but as features of Islam in action.
Islam is, in the Saudi view, the very basis of their society, reaching into and shaping every custom and value. Saudi Arabia has no other constitution than the Koran. It has no other law than the Shari'a law of Islam. When the government must formulate rules about matters not touched upon by the Koran, these are called "regulations," not laws. Even so, they must conform to Islamic concepts and values (Bannerman, 1988: 50).
To understand Saudi society, we must briefly sketch out its history; in turn, understanding how Saudi Arabia came into being will explain much about both its governmental institutions and its family patterns. Saudi Arabia is the original Arabia, the site of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and the place from which the Muslim religion was spread throughout the Middle East and beyond; most other "Arabs" became Arabic in language and culture only after they were won for Islam by the Saudi based armies of the early Muslim Caliphs.
The first fact about Saudi Arabia is that it is a desert land, originally peopled by wandering Bedouins (Badawi) and scattered oasis towns and villages. The harsh, demanding, but sometimes beautiful desert has been a central shaping feature of Saudi culture, going back even before Muhammad (Lacey, 1982: 29). Even in ancient times, the majority of the population probably lived in oasis settlem...