Q 01/05

Saudi Arabia's tectonic plate is splitting away from Africa along which sea?

A) The Persian Gulf

B) The Red Sea

C) The Arabian Sea

D) The Mediterranean

Answer · why

B) The Red Sea

The Red Sea opened as Arabia split from the Horn of Africa, and geologists expect the widening rift to become a new ocean in time.

Q 02/05

Who founded the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, after campaigns that began in 1902?

A) Turki bin Abdullah

B) Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud)

C) Saud bin Abdulaziz

D) Mubarak Al-Sabah

Answer · why

B) Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud)

Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud) had ruled it as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd until a decree renamed it after his own dynasty, the Al Saud.

Q 03/05

In 1902 a small raiding party back from exile in Kuwait began the third Saudi state by seizing which city?

A) Jeddah

B) Riyadh

C) Ha'il

D) Buraydah

Answer · why

B) Riyadh

Riyadh fell after the raiders ambushed the Masmak fort, which was later turned into a museum and opened to the public in 1995.

Q 04/05

The 1744 alliance underpinning Saudi rule paired the emir of Diriyah with which religious reformer?

A) Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyyah

B) Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

C) Shah Waliullah Dehlawi

D) Jamal al-Din al-Afghani

Answer · why

B) Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab founded the Al ash-Sheikh family, which has long led the religious establishment under a power-sharing deal with the Al Sau...

Q 05/05

The First Saudi State, the Emirate of Diriyah, was destroyed in 1818 by forces of which ruler?

A) Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt

B) The Emir of Kuwait

C) The Shah of Persia

D) The Sultan of Muscat and Oman

Answer · why

A) Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt

Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt sent Ibrahim Pasha into Arabia, and his army besieged Diriyah for nearly five months in 1818 before it fell.