Riyadh: The study of human and societal transformations in Saudi Arabia is entering a new research phase, establishing an unprecedented focus on the country's anthropological dimensions. Saudi Vision 2030 supports the effort, placing culture and people at the heart of development.
According to Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Arabia has a rich heritage, and leading national institutions are documenting it through major projects and programs. Among these efforts is the comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, published by King Abdulaziz Public Library (KAPL) in 20 volumes. The vast work serves as an ethnographic and historical reference that supports anthropological dimensions and policies in the study of society and its development.
Although the encyclopedia is a comprehensive scientific and documentary work, it devotes extensive coverage to the study of Saudi people, their surrounding environment, and the indigenous and incoming communities throughout history. It approaches these subjects from an anthropological perspective, portraying the conditions of societies and cultures to help readers understand different periods and places.
The encyclopedia contains a wealth of material prepared by hundreds of researchers, scholars, and academics specializing in various fields of knowledge. It offers extensive data and rigorous academic content comparable in methodology to international encyclopedias, which document the evolution and transformations experienced by societies and peoples.
Its coverage includes regions, cities and villages, as well as geography, history, population, customs and traditions, arts and literature, sciences, professions and crafts, clothing and other aspects, all within a comprehensive encyclopedic scope.
The main branches of anthropology cover cultures, customs and traditions, contemporary social systems, physical, linguistic and archaeological dimensions, as well as the study of human development.
The Kingdom's encyclopedia covers all these areas, focusing on how Saudi people have interacted with their environment throughout history to shape a culture rich in values and diverse ways of life, as well as a unified national and religious identity. It also documents the transformations of Saudi society from one era to another, through to the modern age and the period in which the encyclopedia was published.
The encyclopedia's anthropological dimensions are particularly evident in its extensive documentation of social patterns, customs and traditions, including marriage practices, hospitality, and family and tribal bonds, as well as the evolution from Bedouin and rural life to urbanization. It also highlights oral literature and documents Saudi Arabia's linguistic diversity, recording local dialects, folk proverbs, traditional tales, and Nabati poetry as reflections of society's thinking and moral values.
The encyclopedia documents traditional dances and folk chants associated with celebrations, warfare, and work, including the ardah, samri, and Al-Khutwa Al-Aseeriya (Aseeri Step), and examines their cultural and social significance.
It explores how Saudi people's adaptation to their geographical environments, whether desert, mountainous, or coastal, is reflected through its documentation of traditional occupations. It also examines traditional homes and building styles, including mud- and stone-built structures, and their relationship to social privacy and each region's climatic conditions.
The encyclopedia also focuses on social structures, tribes, families, customs observed during occasions and seasons, and everyday practices. It also documents intangible cultural heritage, providing a clear record of folk traditions, handicrafts, traditional foods, and historical clothing from different regions, cities, and villages across Saudi Arabia.
The encyclopedia also documents historical sites, archaeological remains, and prehistoric inscriptions, intersecting with archaeological anthropology and the development of human settlement in the Arabian Peninsula. It provides extensive descriptive accounts of life and society.
Its anthropological material covers the relationship between Saudi people and their geographical environment and how they adapted to it; demographic transformations in society; everyday practices; traditional ways of life; social values; folklore; and documentation of folk arts, chants, and traditional tales from each region.
It examines cultural symbols in clothing, dress, jewelry, and everyday tools, while documenting linguistic diversity and local dialects to understand cultural identity. It also records the material and cultural remains of people in the Arabian Peninsula, traces the ancient civilizations that settled in what is now Saudi Arabia and their development over the centuries, and analyzes inscriptions, rock art, and ancient symbols left by past societies to shed light on their behavior and beliefs.
The encyclopedia focuses extensively on Saudi Arabia's anthropological features over several centuries, presenting them throughout its volumes. It covers Saudi Arabia by region, including population density. It identifies the country's oldest, most urbanized, and largest cities, as well as those with the greatest variation in population composition.
It also highlights the diverse cultural differences shaped by the environmental and living conditions of communities across Saudi Arabia. These include housing and architecture; traditional and industrial crafts; wells, springs, and lakes; agricultural, desert, and Bedouin areas; commercial and economic areas and ports; and mosques, particularly the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque.
The encyclopedia also covers mineral resources, oil, livestock, including the raising of camels and horses, alongside the diversity of ethnic groups, dialects, clothing and dress, plants and trees.
The encyclopedia also documents the Kingdom's highlands, mountains, and valleys, as well as archaeological remains and inscriptions, all of which serve as tangible evidence of human activity in the region in the pre-Islamic and later periods. It also highlights the intellectual and civilizational significance of each region.
The encyclopedia draws on extensive collections of maps, including geographical, topographical, thematic and illustrative maps covering the Kingdom as a whole and each region individually. It also includes a wide range of illustrations designed to explain and visually represent the material, including statistics on printing, population, the economy, services and other areas. The encyclopedia also includes many detailed tables.
More than 250 academics and researchers contributed to the encyclopedia, which comprises 20 volumes and spans more than 20,000 pages. It contains more than 10,000 photographs that provide visual support for the encyclopedia's scholarly and methodological dimensions, with between 500 and 1,000 images allocated to each of Saudi Arabia's 13 regions.
The Encyclopedia of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is regarded as one of the largest and most comprehensive works covering the Kingdom's regions, serving as a key research reference for anyone seeking to study or gain a comprehensive understanding of Saudi Arabia.