Sakaka

The Al Jawf depression has been inhabited for a very long time. The standing stones at Rajajil, south of the modern town, were raised in the fourth millennium BC, making them among the oldest monuments in Arabia, and the springs and shallow water table of the oasis supported settlement continuously afterwards. Sakaka sits in a basin where sandstone outcrops rise from farmland, and its earliest inhabitants cut wells, cisterns and rooms into that soft rock.

The oasis lay on the route between Arabia and Mesopotamia and was therefore fought over. Dumat al-Jandal, the larger ancient centre nearby, appears in Assyrian records as Adummatu, a stronghold of Arab queens raided in the seventh century BC; it later fell within the orbit of Nabataean, Roman-client and Byzantine-allied powers before coming into the early Islamic state, when the oasis was the object of expeditions from Medina. Sakaka grew alongside it as a farming settlement, guarded by the fort on the Zabal rock, whose present stone and mud-brick form dates from later centuries though the site is far older.

For much of the modern period the oasis was contested between tribal confederations and neighbouring powers, including the Al Rashid of Ha'il and the Al Saud, before it was secured within the Saudi state in the 1920s. Sakaka was made the capital of Al Jawf province, which brought government offices, schools and hospitals. Deep wells and mechanised irrigation from the later 20th century turned the surrounding plain into one of the kingdom's agricultural districts, and Al Jouf University was founded here in 2005; large solar and wind projects have since been built in the province.

Al Jawf is a northern, tribal province with ties running across the desert to Iraq, Jordan and Syria, and Sakaka's social life reflects that. Families identify strongly with tribe and lineage, hospitality is close to an obligation, and the ritual of Arabic coffee — poured from a long-spouted pot into small cups and refilled until the guest shakes it — opens every visit. Nabati poetry, recited in the local dialect, is the prestige art form, performed at weddings and gatherings along with drumming and sword dances.

Farming shapes the calendar as much as religion does. The date harvest in late summer and the olive picking in autumn are social events as well as economic ones, with families working the groves and the province's oil sold and compared; Al Jawf's olives are a point of local pride, unusual in a country better known for dates. Winter brings camping in the desert, hunting and falconry, and long evenings around a fire.

Religious observance is public and structured: shops close for each prayer, Ramadan reverses the day, and the Eid holidays fill the streets at night. Dress is conservative and social mixing between unrelated men and women is more limited than in the big cities, although the national changes of recent years are visible among students at the university and in the cafés they fill in the evenings. Visitors are a novelty here rather than an industry, and curiosity is usually met with an invitation.

Sakaka had a population of 204,174 at the 2022 census and is the largest settlement in Al Jawf, with Dumat al-Jandal and Qurayyat as the other main centres of the province. Most residents are Saudi, with Egyptian, Sudanese, Syrian, Yemeni and South Asian workers in agriculture, shops, construction and health care.

The economy rests on agriculture, government and services. Wheat, fodder, dates, citrus and above all olives are grown on irrigated land around the town and processed locally; provincial administration, Al Jouf University, schools and hospitals provide most salaried employment; and shops, contractors and transport firms serve the province and the traffic heading for the Jordanian and Iraqi borders. Renewable energy projects in the province have added a newer kind of industrial employment.

Life follows the heat and the prayers: business in the morning, a long quiet afternoon, and the markets, cafés and parks filling after sunset. Weekends go to family visits, farms and, in the cool months, desert camping. Housing is mostly detached villas with walled yards, and nearly every household depends on a car. The issues residents discuss are water use in a province that irrigates heavily, jobs for graduates, and the distance from the country's economic centres.

Northern Arabian cooking dominates. Kabsa — rice cooked with meat, onion, tomato and spices including dried lime — and mandi, meat cooked slowly and served over rice, are the dishes of any gathering, brought to a shared tray and eaten with the right hand. Winter brings jareesh, coarsely cracked wheat simmered with meat or yoghurt to a thick porridge, and qursan, thin dry flatbreads layered and softened in broth with meat and vegetables — both dishes of the north rather than the coast.

The oasis supplies the rest. Dates are eaten daily, offered to every guest and sold by variety; olives and locally pressed olive oil are the province's signature product, used in cooking and eaten with bread at breakfast; and the farms provide citrus, tomatoes, wheat and dairy. After good winter rains, faqa, the pale desert truffles of the northern deserts, appear in the market in late winter and spring and are cooked with meat or rice.

Drinks are non-alcoholic, alcohol being illegal in the kingdom. Arabic coffee, pale, lightly roasted and heavy with cardamom, is the ceremonial one; sweet black tea, often with mint or sage, follows meals; camel's and goat's milk and laban are drunk in farming households. Speciality coffee shops and karak tea stands have multiplied around the university, and evening bakeries sell semolina cakes and syrup-soaked pastries.