MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Saudi Arabia

ONE LAND · 8 ATLASES

Saudi Arabia, on the map of history

What was Saudi Arabia before it was Saudi Arabia? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Arabia (mod. Saudi Arabia) · The Rise and Fall of Rome, 264 BC – AD 476

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Arabia — Mecca, Medina & the Hijaz · The Crusades, 1095–1291

Arabia held Mecca and Medina, whose protection underwrote any Muslim ruler’s legitimacy — and it was the one line the Franks crossed at their peril. In the winter of 1182–83 Reynald of Châtillon launched ships from Oultrejordain onto the Red Sea; his raiders burned pilgrim and merchant vessels along the Hijaz coast and were reported within a day’s march of Medina before an Egyptian squadron hunted them down. Saladin never forgave the sacrilege: the captured raiders were executed, and the sultan swore to kill Reynald with his own hand — an oath he kept in the tent after Hattin. The raid did more than any border skirmish to turn the jihad against the kingdom from a war over land into a war of annihilation.

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Arabia (mod. Saudi Arabia) · The Mongol Empire, 1206–1294

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Saudi Arabia · The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848

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Arabia · The Great War, 1914–1918

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Saudi Arabia · The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945

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Saudi Arabia · The Cold War, 1945–1991

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Saudi Arabia · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

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