Saudi Arabia : Ask Biography

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( ), commonly known in English as Saudi Arabia ( c-enaudio=En-us-Saudi Arabia-3.oggˌsaʊdi_əˈreɪbiə or c-enaudio=En-us-Saudi Arabia-2 and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah ( ), is the largest state in the Middle East by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World. It is bordered by Jordan, and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. It is also connected to Bahrain by the King Fahd Causeway. The Red Sea lies to its west, and the Persian gulf lies to the northeast , the name of which has been the cause of controversy since at least the mid-20th century. Whilst the traditional and internationally used name is the Persian Gulf, the official name in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab World is the Arabian Gulf. Saudi Arabia has an estimated population of 25.7 million of which 5.5 million are non-citizens, and its size is approximately 2149690 km2 (829999.9 sqmi).

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (known for most of his career as Ibn Saud) in 1932, although the conquests which eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom began in 1902 when he captured Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud, referred to in Arabic as the Al Saud. The Saudi Arabian government, which has been an absolute monarchy since its inception, refers to its system of government as being Islamic, though this is contested by many due to its strong basis in Salafism, a minority school of thought in Islam. The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.

Saudi Arabia has the world's largest oil reserves and is the world's largest oil exporter. Oil accounts for more than 90% of exports and nearly 75% of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state. However, human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly expressed concern about the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia.