Cradle of Islam

Mai Yamani (2004), of Hijazi identity and a Saudi scholar, provides an account of the schism within Saudi Arabian society between the Wahhabism promoted by the Saudi royal family and the Hijazi identity promoted in secret among members who identify with its customs and practices in Cradle of Islam: The Hijaz and the Quest for an Arabian Identity. By providing and ethnographic and anthropological account of the Hijazi people, their customs and manners as well as their beliefs, Yamani demonstrates how the allegedly homogenous Saudi Arabian culture is split into two distinct identities. The first is the Saudi dynasty that embraces Wahhabism, a more radical and intolerant interpretation of Islam, and the second is the Hijaz culture, a more civilized and cultured identity that pays allegiance to Shafi'i religious doctrine. These two cultures exist uneasily within Saudi Arabia, two cultures whose ideological and cultural differences often stem from the more cosmopolitan and urban history and culture of the Hijazi compared to the more rural and tribal history and culture of the Najd. As Yamani writes:

The urban-tribal distinction is all the more marked in the Hijaz because of the heterogeneous descent of the urban population. Even urban Hijazis who claim tribal descent are still identified with the city of belonging, whereas both urban and nomadic people in the Najd are typically identified with tribal groupings (2004, p. 13).

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umber of rites of passage for the Hijazi, including dress codes, maternity, eating customs and others. For example, there are elaborate dress codes for Hijazi women that make them distinct from Najd culture, "Color consciousness among the Hijazis stems from their urban background�These color conscious rules for dress are much more relaxed for women of the Najd" (Yamani, 2004, p. 157). These native ethnographic accounts of Hijazi society do more than reveal the intricacies and subtleties of this hidden culture. They also show the stark contrast between the customs and culture of the Saudis and the Hijazi. For instance, even the symbolic dishes of the Hijazi like �ashuriya would invoke the disdain of believers in Wahhabism, particularly because they are symbolic of Shia' and Sufi practices to celebrate the day of �ashura (Yamani, 2004). Of and by themselves, these ritual, customs and practices also reveal the more cosmopolitan and urban civilized nature of the Hijazi culture. Language, for instance, and its numerous formalities among the Hijazi serve to reinforce identity and culture in a suppressing environment. As Yamani writes: Throughout the 1980s and 1990s a period of religious and economic insecurity the importance of co

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