Recently I had an opportunity to chat with a Japanese man during a foreign trip. Our conversation covered various issues but focused on Saudi Arabia.
He asked me about the characteristics of Saudis. I told him ours was a new nation. He interrupted and said: “But you are an old nation.”
I replied: “Yes, you are correct.” But in reality we are an old but new nation.
The Semitic race was born in the Arabian Peninsula. When their number increased, they were forced to leave the region in search of fertile land for agriculture, potable water and other necessities.
The recurrent migrations of Semites over the past centuries passed by Al-Hilal Al-Khaseeb (the Fertile Crescent), which begins from the south of Sham (present Syria, Lebanon and Palestine), passes by the southeast Central Asia and northern Iraq and ends on the southern coast of Iraq on the Arabian Gulf.
The Semites settled in these fertile territories and established one of the greatest ancient human civilizations, dazzling people with its generous contributions in terms of knowledge, culture, invention of writing, mathematics, astronomy, irrigation and others.
The Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Akkadians, the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Phoenicians and others taught humanity the meaning of civilization and civility. They were the teachers of the world. We should not forget the contribution of the last of Semites to leave this peninsula. They are the Arabs who upheld and spread the message of Islam in the whole world and established the greatest civilization ever witnessed by humanity.
Those who go through the history of the Semites will notice an ironical but amazing phenomenon. All these civilizations developed and prospered after the Semites left the Arabian Peninsula, which remained ignored and forgotten by its people as soon as they had left its territory. Naturally all the credit went to other countries, as if their sons did not want to remember from where they came and which country gave birth to their race.
For the first time in the history of the Arabian Peninsula and since the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it became possible for its people to establish a civilization without leaving the region as migrants or invaders. It happened thanks to the blessing of God on the people of this country and thanks to modern technology and oil wealth.
Today the Saudis have been able to create artificial rivers in various parts of the country in the form of desalination plants. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water. The desalination plant in Jeddah, where I live, produces quantities of potable water equal to the River Jordan. Thus every city in the Kingdom has become like those with Euphrates, Tigris and Nile flowing through them.
We, the people of this old but new nation, must be proud that we live in a land which has given birth to nations and civilizations. By the grace of God, our country has become a generous, fertile and gracious land for us, giving us an opportunity to establish a great civilization, which may serve as a beacon for other nations.
- Arab News Opinion 12 October 2003
