Al-Sharqiyyah

Al-Sharqiyyah, region, eastern Saudi Arabia. The region includes most of the desert Rubʿ al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) and extends southward from a neutral zone jointly administered with Kuwait to indefinite borders with Yemen and Oman. It is bounded by Kuwait on the north, the Persian Gulf on the east, and the Al-Riyāḍ (Riyadh) region on the west. Al-Sharqiyyah consists mainly of an undulating plain covered with sand and gravel and is characterized by scattered dry wadis and sebkhas (flat saline plains). In the north of Al-Sharqiyyah lies the rocky Summam plain, but toward the east the terrain changes to flat lowlands marked by numerous fertile oases; Al-Hasa is a large oasis in the centre of the region. The Persian Gulf along the coast is mostly shallow with coral reefs.

In the late 18th century the Wahhābīs, an Islamic reform movement, conquered the region. After their defeat in 1818 and until World War I, Al-Sharqiyyah was under a loose Ottoman sovereignty that was interrupted by the periodic return of Wahhābī control. Ibn Saud, the leader of the Wahhābī Ikhwān movement, incorporated Al-Hasa Oasis into his expanding principality of Najd before World War I.

Al-Sharqiyyah is one of the four main geographic regions of the country and comprises the principal petroleum-producing areas of Saudi Arabia. The wealth produced from extensive oil deposits, discovered in the 1930s, transformed Al-Sharqiyyah into one of the kingdom’s most progressive regions. Many oilfields, including Al-Ghawār (which is among the world’s largest), are operated by the Saudi Aramco oil company. Most of the petroleum is exported by tankers from Ras Tanura. Until the 1970s petroleum was also shipped to Sidon, Lebanon, via the Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline). Major towns in the region include Dammam, one of the largest petroleum centres in the country and a major port on the Persian Gulf; Al-Hasa, the largest oasis in the kingdom; Al-Hufūf, a former administrative centre; Al-Mubarraz, an agricultural centre; and the oil centres of Dhahran and Qatif. A railway, completed in the 1950s, links Dammam with Dhahran, Al-Hufūf, and Riyadh. Dhahran has an international airport.