Swapna Sundari
(First Draft.)
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia (16)
I do not know how many times
I waited at the airport
near various gates
or how many poems I wrote
wanderer, nomad, traveller,
waiting for a sign
from the gypsy woman
who was a queen
to say everything's all right
The lights were constellations
the doves cooed
the poems kept on flowing
through the glass the big jet engines
roared and then took off
Strange world, stranger life
but in the middle of it all
and uncertainty fraught
the thought remained
This must be purgatory's draught.
( (16) Capital city of Saudi Arabia
Old Riyadh -- Eric Shelton
The capital of Saudi Arabia is ar-Riyaḍ, situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau. Known as Hair, it was founded by the Banu Hanifa, a Christian branch of the Bani Bakr branch of the Rabi'ah tribe. The prophet Muhammad sent an expedition against them in 627, dispersing them and capturing their leader, Thumamah bin Uthal Al-Hanifi. Interrogated by Muhammad, he replied "If you were to kill someone, then you would have to choose one of noble descent, if you were to be gracious, then let it be to a grateful man and if you were to ask for money, you would have to ask for it from a generous man;" Muhammad ordered his release, and he later converted to Islam. Later, Hajr broke up into several separate settlements and estates, though the name “Hajr” continued in local folk poetry. The earliest reference to the area as “Riyad” is a 17th-century chronicle reporting on an event from 1590. In 1744, radical religious leader Muhammad ibn Abdel Wahhab formed an alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud, the ruler of Diriyah, who created the first Saudi state in 1774. Acting on behalf of the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad Ali’s Egyptian troops destroyed the emirate in 1818, but Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad, the cousin of Saud bin Saud, became the amir of the second Saudi state in 1824, under Muhammad Ali’s sovereignty, with Riyad as his new capital. Following his assassination of in 1834, his eldest son Faisal took control, and rejected Egyptian control; Egypt invaded, imprisoned Faisal in Cairo for five years, and installed Khalid ibn Saud as the new ruler. When Egypt withdrew in 1840, Khalid was deposed, and Faisal resumed his rule until 1865. After his death his sons battled for control; his third son, Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, finally reunified much of the amirate in 1889, only to be ousted two years later by the rival Al Rashid clan, which ruled from the northern city of Ha'il. Abdul Rahman fled to Kuwait, but his son Abdul Aziz retrieved his ancestral kingdom in 1902 and consolidated his rule over most of the Arabian peninsula by 1926.
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