All characters are listed here by their first names. When searching for a word, please ignore Al-, the definite article. Rendering Arabic words and phrases into their precise English phonetic equivalents, complete with accents, gaps, and symbols, is an exercise of great complexity—and not a little snobbery in a book for the general reader. The results are also confusing, since Q’run, badawin, or Ramzan do not correspond to the spellings most people recognize.
Unless you are a devotee of a particular system, you can, in fact, spell Arabic words just the way they sound to you—Abdullah, Abdallah, Abd’Allah. T. E. Lawrence certainly did so in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, even changing spellings as he went along, writingJeddah or Jiddah as the mood took him, and declining his publisher’s attempts to impose uniformity. He was, in fact, quite restrained, since modern transliterations of that city’s name have included Jaddah, Jedda, Jidda, Judda, Juddah, Djiddah, Djuddah, Djouddah, Gedda, Djettah, and Dscheddah, to name only some—and all are acceptable.
The general rule I have adopted in this book, as in The Kingdom, is that Arabic words and names are rendered here whenever possible in the spellings that Western readers will most easily recognize—Koran, bedouin, Ramadan. The transliterations do not take account of the difference between Arabic’s “sun” and “moon” letters, so the definite article is invariably spelled Al-, whether or not it elides. Bin and ibn, meaning “son of,” are used interchangeably.
abaya—black, full-length outer gown worn in public by Saudi women—and, today, by most expatriate women.
Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al-Saud (1876-1953)—creator of modern Saudi Arabia, often known as “Ibn Saud” (Son of Saud). Father of the brothers and half brothers who have ruled the Kingdom since his death (see the family tree, page xxiv).
Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin—leader of Al-Qaeda inside Saudi Arabia during the 2003 attacks.
Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwayjri—known as “T-1.” Died June 2007. Historian and principal adviser to Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince.
Abdul Aziz Bin Baz (1912-1999)—mufti (chief religious sheikh) and principal religious adviser to Saudi kings. Blind from a young age. Notorious for reputedly asserting that the earth is flat.
Abdullah Azzam—Palestinian scholar and jihadi who mentored Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz (b. 1923)—crown prince of Saudi Arabia 1982-2005, and king since August 2005. Head of the National Guard since 1962.
Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem—human-rights lawyer. Imprisoned 2005-6. Defender of the “Qateef girl.”
abu—“father of,” as in “Abu Abdullah,” the father of Abdullah.
agal—double black rope ring, worn on top of the traditional cotton headdress, the shomagh, by Saudi men and other Arabs of the Gulf states.
Ahmad Al-Tuwayjri—lawyer and petitioner for constitutional rights.
Ahmed Badeeb—assistant to Turki Al-Faisal in the Istikhbarat (foreign intelligence).
Ahmad Zaki Yamani—long-serving Saudi oil minister (1962-86)
Aisha Al-Mana—women’s rights campaigner. Helped organize the women’s driving demonstration in Riyadh in October 1990.
Al-hamdu lillah!—“Thanks be to God!” An all-purpose exclamation that extends from greeting safe delivery in childbirth to “(May God) bless you!” following a sneeze.
Ali Al-Marzouq—Shia-rights activist who went into exile. Now returned.
Allahu Akbar!—“God is the greatest!”
anno hegirae—year of the Hijrah (the migration by the Prophet Mohammed to Medina, the starting point of the Islamic calendar). Hijrah years are made up of twelve lunar months, about 354 days. See Hijrah below.
Al-Asheikh—family name borne by the descendants of Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab, literally “the family of the sheikh.”
Ashura—“the tenth” of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim year, an annual period of mourning among the Shia to commemorate the slaying of Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet, by Sunni forces in Karbala, Iraq, in A.H. 61 (A.D. 680).
Asir—southern Saudi province on the border with Yemen. Home to Ismaili Shia, Sufis, gunrunners from Yemen—and four of the 9/11 hijackers.
Assalaamu alaykum—“Peace be upon you!” A greeting often shortened to “Salaam!”
balad—“downtown.” Used in Jeddah to describe the old quarter of narrow alleys and coral-rock homes remaining from the walled city of pre-oil boom days.
bedu—or bedouin, from the Arabic badawi—desert-dwelling Arab nomads.
Bandar bin Sultan—Saudi ambassador to the United States 1983-2005. Now secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council.
bin or ibn—“son of.”
bint—“daughter of.”
bidah—innovation (plural bidaa).
Buraydah—a town in Qaseem that prides itself on its religious purity.
Caliph—literally “successor,” from kalifah, the title bestowed on leaders of the Muslim community in the years after the Prophet’s death.
dawah wahhabiya—Wahhabi mission
Eid Al-Adha—one of the two Muslim holidays, the day of sacrifice, marking the end of the annual pilgrimage.
Eid Al-Fitr—the other Muslim holiday, the breaking of the fast at the end of Ramadan.
Fahd bin Abdul Aziz (1922-2005)—crown prince 1975-1982. King of Saudi Arabia 1982- 2005. Eldest of the brothers known as the Sudayri Seven.
Faisal bin Abdul Aziz (1904-1975)—king of Saudi Arabia 1964-1975. Assassinated by his nephew Faisal bin Musaed, who was declared insane and beheaded in Riyadh.
Fajr—The predawn Islamic prayer.
al-faseqoon (subject), al-faseqeen (object)—“those who are immoral.”
fatwa—a judgment issued by an Islamic scholar.
Fawzia Al-Bakr—an academic and women’s rights campaigner. Imprisoned in 1982.
fitna—strong disagreement leading to conflict.
Fouad Al-Farhan—Jeddah blogger jailed in December 2007 for 137 days.
Fouad Al-Mushaikhis—uncle of Mahdi, the husband of the Qateef girl.
Frank Gardner—BBC journalist shot in Riyadh, June 2004.
Hadith—sayings and acts of the Prophet that have been collected and serve as a guide to Islamic belief and practice alongside the direct revelation of the Koran.
Al-Haier prison—Interior Ministry prison in the south of Riyadh.
Hail—town in northern Arabia that was formerly the headquarters of the Al-Saud’s rivals the Al-Rasheed family.
hajj—the pilgrimage, one of the five “pillars” of Islam. All Muslims are required to make their hajj to the holy city of Mecca at least once in their lives, if they can afford it.
Al-Hamra (the Red One)—upscale residential neighborhoods in Riyadh, Jeddah, and other Arab cities, named after the red Alhambra citadel of Moorish Grenada in Spain.
Al-Haraka Al-Wataniya—the National Movement, a group of Saudi liberals who were campaigning for reforms in the late 1970s and early ’80s.
Haramain—the two holy places, the grand mosques of Mecca and Medina.
haram (pronounced with a short “a”)—a holy place.
haram (pronounced with an extended “a”)—forbidden.
Al-Hasa (Al-Ahsa)—historical name of the Eastern Province home to most of the Shia in Saudi Arabia and to the world’s largest palm tree oasis. Beneath Al-Hasa lies the world’s largest oil field, Ghawar, from which has come for more than five decades over half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, some 8 to 9 million barrels per day in 2008-9.
Hassan Al-Banna—Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, assassinated in 1949.
Hassan Al-Saffar—Shia spiritual leader in exile 1980-93, now back in Qateef.
Al-Hayah—the Commission (for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice), known to Westerners as the religious police.
Al-Hijaz—the western region of Arabia along the Red Sea coast, containing the cities of Mecca, Medina, Taif, and Jeddah; an independent kingdom ruled by the Hashemite family until its conquest by Abdul Aziz in 1926.
Hijrah—the migration. The turning point in the birth of Islam when the Prophet Mohammed left Mecca in A.D. 622 and migrated to the community that would become known as Medina, starting point of the Islamic calendar. See anno hegirae.
hilal—new moon, crescent moon.
hisbah—to promote good and discourage evil.
husayniya—Shia meeting room (named for Husayn bin Ali, the martyr of Karbala).
ibn or bin—“son of.”
Ibn Nimr—“Son of the Tiger,” a Wahhabi preacher in Riyadh in the 1930s.
iftar—breaking of the fast at sunset, during Ramadan.
ijtihad—independent judgment, meaning literally to struggle with oneself using reason, logic, and deep thought. In law ijtihad is a method of legal reasoning that does not rely on the traditional schools of jurisprudence.
Ikhwan—Brethren or Brotherhood, the name given to the settled bedouin who fought alongside Abdul Aziz from around 1912 until 1926 in his conquest of Arabia.
Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon—Muslim Brotherhood, the austere and sometimes violent Islamic opposition movement active in many Arab countries, particularly in Egypt, where the Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan Al-Banna.
imam—the righteous religious leader of a community. A religious teacher who calls for prayers and leads his congregation.
inshallah—“God willing.”
intifada—uprising.
Al-Islahiyoon (subject), Al-Islahiyeen (object)—“the Reformists.”
isterham—a plea for mercy.
istikhara—the Muslim prayer for guidance, a brief recitation which can be repeated as many times as needed.
Istikhbarat—Saudi foreign intelligence, or GID, the General Intelligence Department.
Jaffar Al-Shayeb—Shia activist formerly in exile, now returned to Saudi Arabia. Elected a municipal councillor in Qateef in 2005.
Al-Jamaa Al-Salafiya Al-Muhtasiba—The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong, spiritual inspiration of Juhayman Al-Otaybi.
Al-Jazeera—Island (of the Arabs), the poetic name given to the Arabian Peninsula, which is surrounded by the Red Sea to the west, the Arabian Sea to the south, the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf to the east, and the Syrian desert to the north. The name Al-Jazeera has been adopted in current times by a daily newspaper in Riyadh, by an airline in Kuwait, and by the TV news station based in Qatar.
jihad—holy war. From which comes jihadi, holy warrior.
Juhayman Al-Otaybi—leader of the religious zealots who captured the Grand Mosque in November 1979. Executed January 1980.
Kaaba—the cubelike building in the center of the courtyard of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, traditionally covered in gold-embroidered black cloth. Believed by Muslims to date back to the time of Abraham, the Kaaba is the most sacred site in Islam. At the time of the Prophet, the Kaaba was home to more than three hundred idols, which Mohammed removed and destroyed.
kabsa—the Saudi national dish of lamb and rice.
kafir (singular), kuffar (plural)—“infidel,” from the noun kufr, “blasphemy.”
Kandahar—second largest city in Afghanistan.
Khadem Al-Haramain Al-Shareefain—Servant or Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the title borne by Saudi kings since 1985.
Al-Khafji—a town on the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, briefly captured by Iraq in 1991.
Khaled Al-Faisal—poet and painter. Former governor of Asir Province. Today governor of Mecca. Son of King Faisal and elder half brother to Saud and Turki Al-Faisal.
Khaled Bahaziq—marriage counselor. Former jihadi and steel salesman.
Khaled bin Abdul Aziz (1912-82)—fourth modern Saudi monarch (1975-1982) in succession to his father Abdul Aziz and his half brothers Saud and Faisal.
Khaled bin Sultan—son of Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. Saudi Joint Forces commander during the Gulf War 1990-91. Now assistant minister, and effectively acting minister, to his father the crown prince, and minister of defense and aviation.
Khaled Al-Hubayshi—a jihadi who was imprisoned in Guatánamo Bay.
khalawi—prayer and meditation rooms beneath the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
khawajah—colloquial term for Christian Westerner formerly applied to the landed gentry of Egypt and the Sudan.
khawarij—“those who come out and depart,” splinter movements from mainstream Islam over the centuries, sometime violent.
Al-Khidr—“the Green One,” a legendary Islamic figure sometimes confused with the Mahdi.
Khitab Al-Matalib—“Letter of Demands,” a reform petition circulated by activists in 1992.
Al-Khobar—a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, adjacent to Dammam.
Khorassan—Afghan-based empire of the Prophet’s time.
Koran (Qur’an)—Islam’s central text, the divine revelation to the Prophet Mohammed.
Mabahith—secret police, a department of the Ministry of the Interior. Literally “investigations,” “investigators,” or “the detectives.”
Madinah—officially decreed Saudi spelling of “Medina” in English.
madrasa—a religious school.
Mahdi—a prophesied Islamic redeemer described in some Islamic traditions, but not mentioned in the Koran.
Mahdi—fiancé of the Qateef girl.
mahram—a male guardian.
Majlis—“the place of sitting.” The main reception hall in a Saudi home—usually two: one for men and one for women.
Majlis Al-Shura—Consultative Council of 150 “learned and experienced” male citizens appointed by the king.
Makkah—official Saudi spelling of “Mecca” in English—said to have been first decreed to set the name of the holy city apart from the British chain of Mecca dance halls.
Maktab Al-Khadamat—Office of Services, a relief and recruitment network financed by Osama Bin Laden to support his 1980s Afghan campaign against the Russians.
Mansour Al-Nogaidan—writer. Former Salafi preacher and video-store bomber.
“Mashael”—pseudonym for the former lesbian featured in chapter 29.
milka—the plighting of the troth that allows Muslim couples to have private time for sexual relations if their families agree. More serious than a Western engagement, slightly less than full marriage.
Mohammed Abdullah Al-Qahtani—the “Mahdi,” proclaimed by his brother-in-law Juhayman Al-Otaybi. Killed in the siege of the Great Mosque, November 1979.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Qunaybit—Shura member and newspaper columnist.
Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab—eighteenth-century scholar, born in Nejd around 1703, whose puritannical teachings were championed by the House of Saud and form the basis of the austere interpretation of Islam known in the West as Wahhabism. His descendants, who bear the name Al-Asheikh, literally “Family of the Sheikh,” occupy many of the prominent religious positions in modern Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Bin Laden—Yemeni-born builder-by-appointment to successive Saudi kings and remodeler of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Founder of the Bin Laden construction company. Father to Osama Bin Laden and some fifty other children.
Mohammed bin Fahd—businessman son of King Fahd. Governor of the Eastern Province since 1984.
Mohammed bin Nayef—assistant to his father, the minister of the interior, and himself director of the ministry’s Terrorist Redemption Program.
Mohammed Saeed Tayeb—Jeddah lawyer and constitutional reformer.
mufti—an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter of shariah law. The “grand mufti” is the supreme religious figure in Saudi Arabia.
mujahid (plural subject mujahidoon, plural object mujahideen)—holy warrior; a Muslim serving in a military force led by an imam to defend Muslim communities.
Mullah Omar—Afghan Taliban leader.
murshid—spiritual mentor.
Al-Muslimoon—“The Muslims,” the name of a magazine whose title can be rendered into English as Muslim World.
mutawwa—a volunteer, or enforcer of virtue. The Saudi name for members of the religious police, “those who promote virtue and prevent vice.”
Mudhakkarat Al-Nasiha—“Memorandum of Advice,” a 1992 reform petition.
muwahiddoon (subject), muwahiddeen (object)—monotheists, the name favored by Wahhabis for their interpretation of Islam, sometimes rendered into English as “Unitarian.”
National Guard—tribally based domestic defense force under the command of Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz since 1962. Also known as the “White Army.”
Nayef bin Abdul Aziz (b. 1934)—minister of the interior from 1975 to the present. Named second deputy premier in March 2009 and hence a possible future king.
Nejd—“Highland”; the central plateau of the Arabian Peninsula, regional power base of the House of Saud.
niqab—a veil that covers the face.
Osama Bin Laden (b. 1958)—founder of Al-Qaeda, inspirer of 9/11. Son of construction magnate Mohammed Bin Laden.
Pashtu—Language of the forty million or so Pashtun people of southern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.
Peshawar—town in northern Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan.
qadi—Islamic judge.
Al-Qaeda—Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist organization, founded in the late 1980s. Qaeda means “foundation” or “basis”—“the rule” even—and can also refer to a military base or database.
Qaseem—the area of Nejd to the north of Riyadh, containing the towns of Unayzah and Buraydah, often described as the heartland of Wahhabism.
“Qateef girl’—Rape victim sentenced to ninety lashes by an Islamic court in Qateef in October 2006. Pardoned in December 2007 by King Abdullah.
qibla—the direction of Mecca: a Muslim should face this way during prayer.
rafada—“rejectionists,” a term used by Sunni Muslims to characterize Shia rejection of the early line of succession in Islamic leadership.
Ramadan—the Islamic holy month of fasting (the ninth Islamic month of the year).
Saddam Hussein—president of Iraq 1979-2003.
Safa-Marwah corridor—once a separate site, this 490-yard-long gallery has now been incorporated into the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Pilgrims move to and fro along the corridor, replicating the Koranic story of how Abraham’s wife Hagar ran desperately between the hills of Safa and Marwah looking for water for her son Ishmael.
Safar Al-Hawali—a Sahwah sheikh who called for Islamic revival in the 1990s and was imprisoned. Now released.
Sahwah—“Awakening,” the name embracing the various Islamic revival movements originating in the 1980s and 1990s.
sakina—“serenity,” a state of spiritual calm.
Salafi—a Muslim seeking to live in the style of a salaf, one of the seventh-century Companions of the Prophet Mohammed.
Salman Al-Awdah—Sahwah sheikh who was imprisoned following his outspoken calls for Islamic revival in the 1990s. Today the host of a popular TV show.
Salman bin Abdul Aziz (b. 1936)—governor of Riyadh since 1962.
Al-Saud—the House of Saud. Eighteenth-century rulers of Dariyah in central Nejd who enlisted the austere teachings of the preacher Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab to create a succession of three Saudi states, the latest of which became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. There is a definitive list of members of the royal family at the royal court and also in the branch of the Riyadh Bank that pays their monthly stipends, but this is treated as a state secret, concealed from most members of the family. Those Al-Saud who are willing to discuss the matter—and most are—set their number today at around seven thousand princes and princesses.
Saud Al-Faisal—foreign minister since 1975. Son of King Faisal’s reforming wife Queen Iffat and full brother of Turki Al-Faisal.
Saud bin Abdul Aziz (1902-69)—second modern Saudi monarch (1953-64), forced to relinquish the throne in favor of his half brother Faisal.
Sayyid Qutub—Egyptian author of Milestones, one of the guiding works of the Muslim Brotherhood. Executed by the Nasser regime in 1966.
shaheed—“martyr” who sacrifices their life for God and goes straight to heaven.
Shareef—successor of the Prophet, the title employed by the Hashemite family when they were kings of Al-Hijaz.
shariah—meaning “way” or “path to the water source.” Islamic law.
shaytan—devil or Satan.
Shia—Muslims who assign special importance to Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet. Shiat Ali means the party of Ali. The Shia, or Shiites, make up the majority of Muslims in Iran, Iraq, and in certain areas in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, and Yemen.
shirk—polytheism.
shomagh—commonly a red and white checkered cloth headdress, worn beneath the double black rope rings of the agal. An all-white cloth ghutra is a more formal indoor headdress.
Al-Shumaysi—a pious neighborhood of Riyadh. Home to Abdul Aziz Bin Baz.
Sibillah—the battle, north of Riyadh, in which Abdul Aziz defeated the rebel members of the Ikhwan in March 1929.
souk—market.
Sudayri Seven—the seven sons of Abdul Aziz by Hissa Al-Sudayri, making up the most significant power bloc in the Saudi royal family: Fahd, Sultan, Abdul Rahman, Turki, Nayef, Salman, and Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz (see family tree, page xxiv).
Sultan bin Salman—born 1956, the son of the governor of Riyadh. The first Arab and first Muslim to fly in space, orbiting the earth in June 1985. Today secretary general of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.
sunna—words, actions, and example of the Prophet.
Sunni—the largest denomination of Islam: those who follow the sunna of the Prophet.
Al-Suwaydi—the Riyadh neighborhood where Frank Gardner was shot.
taahud—“pledge” or “promise.”
tafsir—commentary on the Koran.
tahliah—“to sweeten,” the name given to principal shopping streets in Jeddah and Riyadh that are near the local desalination plants or terminals.
takfeer—religious condemnation.
Talal bin Abdul Aziz—maverick prince who served as communications minister and finance minister, before going into exile 1961-64 with a group of his brothers, the “Free Princes.” Later a special envoy to UNESCO.
talib, plural taliban—pupil, student. These Afghan-Persian words derive from the Arabic word talib ilm, someone who wishes to be educated.
tal omrak—an abbreviation of tal allah omrak, “May God lengthen your life,” a greeting of respect to elders, often used to royalty.
taqiya—discretion or cautionary dissimulation, a tradition by which Shia Muslims may conceal their faith if under threat or persecution.
Tawfiq Al-Seif—Shia spokesman who helped negotiate the return from exile in 1993.
Turki Al-Faisal—son of King Faisal. Head of Saudi foreign intelligence 1977-2000, later Saudi ambassador to Britain and to the United States.
thobe—the long, white, shoulder-to-ankle cotton garment worn by most Saudi males. Also spelled thawb.
ulema—“those who possess knowledge’—plural of alim, a learned man. The supreme council of Islamic scholars entitled to make definitive interpretations of the Koran, hadiths, and shariah.
umm—mother, or “mother of,” as in “Umm Abdullah,” the mother of Abdullah.
umma—the Islamic community.
umrah—the minor or lesser pilgrimage that a Muslim can undertake at any time.
Unayzah—a pious and traditional town in Qaseem.
Wahhabism—Western name given to the austere interpretation of the Islamic faith enunciated by Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab in eighteenth-century Nejd, championed by the House of Saud and prevailing today in Saudi Arabia.
wali al-amr, plural awaliyn al-amr—responsible person, from a father to a mayor, governor, tribal chief or king. The authorized leader of a community or family.
Wallah! (“By God!”) and Wallahi! (“By my God!”)—common exclamations.
wasta—string-pulling and influence.
White Army—nickname of the National Guard, derived from its original white thobe uniform.
Al-Yamamah—“The Dove,” an historic name for part of the plateau of Nejd, and the name given to the lucrative and controversial 1985 contract whereby Britain supplied Tornado fighters and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia for more than twenty years.
Yasser Arafat—Palestinian leader. Nobel Peace Laureate 1994.
Yasser Al-Zahrani—Saudi jihadi said to have committed suicide in Guantánamo Bay.
Yathrib—original name of oases later known as Al-Medina, “The City” of the Prophet.
Zaynab—sister of Husayn, daughter of Ali, and hence the granddaughter of the Prophet, through Ali’s marriage to Mohammed’s daughter Fatima.
Zulfiqar—the legendary sword of the Islamic leader Ali.