Trace the main regions—Najd, Hijaz, the Eastern Province, Asir, the Northern Borders, and the Red Sea coast—and see how each has shaped identity, economy, and politics.

Follow life in Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Dammam, Khobar, Dhahran, Abha, Tabuk, and smaller towns, with attention to housing, transport, work, and family rhythms.

Build the religious and cultural vocabulary needed for Saudi history and society, including Islam’s core practices, Sunni and Shia communities, mosques, scholars, and public religious norms.

Cover Arabia before Islam, including caravan routes, oasis towns, tribal systems, poetry, trade, and the links between Arabia, the Levant, Africa, Persia, and South Asia.

Follow the rise of Islam in Mecca and Medina and the continuing importance of the two holy cities for worship, politics, scholarship, and global Muslim communities.

Trace the Arabian Peninsula after the early caliphates, including pilgrimage routes, regional rulers, Ottoman influence, local autonomy, and the changing role of the Hijaz and Najd.

Study the alliance between Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the growth of the first Saudi state, and the religious and political ideas that shaped it.

Follow the second Saudi state, rival families, tribal politics, Ottoman-Egyptian pressure, and the conditions that led to collapse and exile.

Trace Abdulaziz Ibn Saud’s return to Riyadh, his military and political alliances, the unification campaigns, and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

See how oil was found, how ARAMCO grew, and how petroleum revenue changed state power, foreign relations, cities, labor, education, and infrastructure.

Cover the rise of modern ministries, public services, schools, health care, roads, and welfare programs as Saudi Arabia moved from a poor desert kingdom to a high-income oil state.

Examine the 1979 Grand Mosque seizure, the Iranian Revolution, regional tensions, and the shift toward stricter religious and social controls in the late twentieth century.

Follow Saudi Arabia through the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, US military ties, internal debates, and the security challenges that shaped the 1980s and 1990s.

Study the pressures of terrorism, reform debates, succession, education changes, and economic planning under Kings Fahd, Abdullah, and Salman.

Map how power works through the monarchy, the royal family, the Council of Ministers, the Allegiance Council, royal decrees, consultative bodies, and provincial governors.

Cover courts, legal sources, public prosecution, policing, prisons, commercial law, personal status law, and the continuing role of Islamic legal reasoning.

Study citizenship, residency, the kafala legacy, expatriate labor, national ID systems, visas, and the practical rules that shape who can live, work, and move in the kingdom.

Look at family life, marriage, gender roles, youth culture, education, social class, regional identity, and the ways people balance tradition, religion, and rapid change.

Cover Arabic in Saudi Arabia, including Modern Standard Arabic, Najdi, Hijazi, Gulf, and southern dialects, plus the role of English, Urdu, Tagalog, and other migrant languages.

Study Saudi food, clothing, hospitality, poetry, music, television, architecture, and social customs, with attention to regional differences and changing public spaces.

Follow the Hajj and Umrah systems from visa and transport planning to crowd management, health services, security, and the economy of pilgrimage.

Break down the oil economy, public spending, sovereign wealth, subsidies, state-owned firms, private business, banking, and the challenge of relying on one main export.

Cover Saudi Aramco, OPEC+, refining, petrochemicals, natural gas, energy pricing, and the strategic choices that connect Saudi production to global markets.

Study the Public Investment Fund, non-oil growth targets, privatization, local content rules, new sectors, and the effort to make the economy less dependent on crude oil.

Examine Saudization, youth employment, women’s workforce participation, migrant worker reforms, skill gaps, wages, and the changing meaning of a good job.

Cover the lifting of the women driving ban, guardianship changes, public-space reforms, mixed workplaces, and the debates and limits around women’s rights and participation.

Study cinemas, concerts, festivals, the General Entertainment Authority, heritage sites, Red Sea tourism, e-visas, and the push to make leisure a major industry.

Examine NEOM, The Line, Qiddiya, Diriyah Gate, the Red Sea projects, ROSHN, and other giga-projects as tools for investment, branding, housing, tourism, and technology.

Cover football investment, the Saudi Pro League, LIV Golf, boxing, motorsport, esports, and the use of global sports for tourism, soft power, and domestic entertainment.

Study government apps, Absher, Tawakkalna, digital IDs, online services, smart-city systems, cybersecurity, data policy, and the push toward AI-enabled government.

Examine solar and wind projects, hydrogen plans, carbon capture, the Saudi Green Initiative, water scarcity, desalination, dust storms, heat risk, and environmental tradeoffs.

Follow education from Qur’anic schools to modern universities, scholarship programs, technical training, research centers, and the role of science and innovation in national plans.

Study hospitals, public health, insurance reforms, private providers, medical cities, pandemic response, and the changing design of Saudi health care.

Cover newspapers, television, social media, influencers, censorship, public relations, state messaging, and the practical skill of checking Saudi-related claims across sources.

Analyze Saudi foreign policy through the Gulf Cooperation Council, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, China, Russia, Europe, and the United States.

Study Saudi diplomacy since 2015, including the Yemen war, the Qatar crisis and reconciliation, Iran normalization talks, China-brokered diplomacy, and shifting US relations.

Follow a realistic Saudi business or policy project from a problem statement through stakeholder mapping, legal checks, budgeting, cultural judgment, delivery, and follow-up.

Practice using official statistics, maps, budgets, royal decrees, company reports, academic work, local media, and international sources to build a grounded case study on Saudi Arabia.

Cover careers and contribution paths in Saudi studies, business, diplomacy, journalism, development, energy, tourism, security, and research, plus useful Arabic study, fieldwork habits, and ways to stay current.