2.3 Reifying a Clear National Identity
Despite the cultural challenges of the 1990s, a shift towards the contemporary significance of the state’s early history helps shape a renewed identity formed around the nation state. Most notable among these developments was the decreeing of September 23 as the country’s National Day in commemoration of King Abdulaziz’s takeover of Riyadh in 1902, and with it, the beginning of the Saudi political unification project. Though the commemoration was announced under King Faisal’s rule in 1965, it was only in 2005 that the government would reify this annual celebration in its fiscal calendar as a national secular celebration.[1] King Abdullah’s early reign saw intense governmental reframing around the history of the state’s founding, which included a reinvigorated effort on the government’s end in the creation of civic engagement.
Moreover, plans for the Supreme Commission for Tourism (hereafter SCT) began to take shape as the Ministry of Education underwent bureaucratic consolidation. The early 2000s saw the effective severing of ties between governmental patronage of education from its patronage of archeological heritage preservation and museums.[2] There is no doubt about the internal cultural opposition from religious segments of Saudi society to these developments. However, King Abdullah’s rule was characterized by a need for palpable cultural change as a counterweight to the years of relenting to the stronghold of religious fundamentalism in government and on society.
Illustrative of the need for structural, visible, and measurable change was the launch of a series of specialized projects meant to diversify the economy away from singular reliance on oil revenues and begin to incrementally open Saudi to the world. Among the programs meant to help reshape Saudi to the world, and especially with the United States, was the brokering of a long-term education scholarship program that would see to the easing of tensions between the two countries and to encourage cultural exchange and understanding between the two countries.[3] Shortly thereafter, King Abdullah announced a series of megaprojects across the country that would mark a new phase in government investment away from industrial and petrochemical projects.[4] During those years, a loud cultural reckoning began to take place, especially regarding the civic and social status of women in Saudi Arabia.[5] In the backdrop of these changes, a quiet change in pace of governmental care and patronage for emblems of the state’s early history.
The buzz created around the megaprojects announced at the beginning of King Abdullah’s rule afforded a quiet process of disentangling the Department of Antiquities and Museums from its tethering to the Ministry of Education. Between 2005 and 2008, several leaps towards this transition took place that saw the preeminence of the Supreme Commission for Tourism assuming the responsibilities of the Department of Antiquities and Museums, and then some. In 2008, AlUla’s Hegra Archaeological Site (Al-Hijr / Mada’in Salih) was inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage list. At the time, it was the first designation of a Saudi archeological site into the World Heritage properties list.[6] The Nomination File submitted on behalf of the Saudi government to UNESCO, represented by the Supreme Commission for Tourism, helped indicate the explicit shift in the type and form of governmental patronage of culture. In making its case for the inclusion of the site, the Secretary General of the Supreme Commission wrote to UNESCO about the ways in which the Saudi government has “reviewed and updated the old Antiquities Laws, and revised legislation” that was in the process of being ratified at the time of the application.[7] The particular approach of the SCT was designed to be completed within a 5-year time frame, and that this particular site – Al Hijr – was among three others that the Saudi government has chosen to nominate to the World Heritage list in 2007. The creation of SCT saw with it the makings of an emergent sector, and the demands of helping create the needs for such an industry, alongside the governmental endeavors for international recognition of Arabian material history through state-based representation.
By 2012, the Department of Antiquities and Museums was transformed into a smaller entity provisioned to exclusively care for archeological projects and museums. It was transformed into The Antiquities and Museums Sector under the purview of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA).[8] Less than two years after its establishment, the SCTA announced plans on spending $1.7bn to build 230 museums across the Kingdom.[9] The SCTA did not stop there, its vibrant reach outwards saw the continued patronage of archeological research and continued representation of historical findings under the patronage of the state.
In 2014, Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah was listed under the UNESCO World Heritage list as “the gateway for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca who arrived by sea” and the “a thriving multicultural center, characterized by a distinctive architectural tradition, including tower houses built in the late 19th century by the city’s mercantile elites, and combining Red Sea coastal coral building traditions with influences and crafts from along the trade routes”.[10] Shortly followed by the listing of Rock Art in the Hail Region of Saudi Arabia also under UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2015.[11] All the while, no reports on the role of the SCT in the continuity of the museums built by its predecessor institution, the Department of Antiquities and Museums.
In 2015, shifts in the form and type of governmental patronage were on the horizon again. The SCTA remained steadfast in its goals, and a modest visibility in the development of a tourism industry began to take shape. However, by 2016, another iteration of the governing body overseeing the government’s cultural endeavors came to be. The Department of Antiquities and Museums was transitioned under the purview of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH), for one last time before taking on its contemporary constitution under the Ministry of Culture. [12] Under the SCTNH, the Department of Antiquities and Museums oversaw “The Custodian of the Holy Two Mosque’s Cultural Heritage Program” which was extension on the work of the Comprehensive Archeological Survey Program that began in the 1970s.
“Saudi National Day,” accessed May 21, 2024, https://www.mofa.gov.sa/en/ksa/Pages/nationalday.aspx. ↑
Saad Al Rashid et al., eds., ATLAL : The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, Hawliyat al-Āthār Al Arabia al-Saʻūdīyah, 18, no. 1 (2005): Preface. ↑
“Record Number of Saudi Students Now Studying in the U.S. | The Embassy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” accessed May 19, 2024, https://www.saudiembassy.net/press-release/record-number-saudi-students-now-studying-us. ↑
Sydney Franklin, “The Saudi Arabian Megaprojects of King Abdullah’s Reign - Architizer Journal,” Journal (blog), January 26, 2015, https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/industry/rip-king-abdullah/. ↑
Madawi Al-Rasheed, “The Long Drive to Prison The Struggle of Saudi Women Activists,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 15, no. 2 (July 1, 2019): 247–50, https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-7491185; Martin Chulov, “Saudi Women to Be given Right to Vote and Stand for Election in Four Years,” The Guardian, September 25, 2011, sec. World news, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/25/saudi-women-right-to-vote; “Saudi Arabian Women and Group Activism,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 11, no. 2 (July 1, 2015): 235–37, https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-2886613; Samar Fatany, “New Era for Saudi Women,” Arab News, September 23, 2005, https://www.arabnews.com/node/273471. ↑
“AlUla and Arab Documentary Heritage in Numbers | UNESCO,” accessed May 17, 2024, https://www.unesco.org/en/alula/numbers. ↑
Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, “AL-HIJR ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE (MÂDAIN SÂLIH) NOMINATION DOCUMENT FOR THE INSCRIPTION ON THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LIST” (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, January 2007), https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1293/documents/. ↑
“SCTA, Aramco Tie up to Promote Tourism,” Arab News, June 14, 2015, https://www.arabnews.com/node/761676/amp; “Saudi Arabia Approves Law to Protect National Antiquities,” Al Arabiya English, June 24, 2014, sec. Art and culture, https://english.alarabiya.net/life-style/art-and-culture/2014/06/24/Saudi-Arabia-approves-law-to-protect-national-antiquities. ↑
Catherine Milner, “The Government of Saudi Arabia to Spend $1.7bn on Building 230 Museums,” The Art Newspaper - International Art News and Events, April 30, 2014, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2014/05/01/the-government-of-saudi-arabia-to-spend-dollar17bn-on-building-230-museums. ↑
Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, “Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah” (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, January 2013), https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1361/. ↑
Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, “Rock Art in the Hail Region of Saudi Arabia” (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, January 2013), https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1472/. ↑
“النسخة المؤرشفة - الموقع الرسمي لهيئة الآثار والمتاحف [Archived Version - the Official Website of the Antiquities and Museums Authority],” SCTNH, August 18, 2011, https://web.archive.org/web/20110818181719/http://www.thar.info:80/taimamus.html. Ali I. Al Ghabban et al., eds., ATLAL : The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, Hawliyat al-Āthār Al Arabia al-Saʻūdīyah, 20, no. 1 (2010): Preface. ↑