Saudi Arabia's culture: listed heritage and loosened rules

What religion governs in daily life

Islam is the state religion, and the Basic Law makes the Quran and the Sunnah the constitution. Estimates put Sunni Muslims at 85 to 90% of citizens and Shia Muslims at 10 to 15%; Minority Rights Group notes that some estimates of the Shia share run as high as 25%, and that the absence of a religious census leaves every figure an estimate. Most Shia live in the Eastern Province, around Qatif and al-Hasa, and Minority Rights Group counts about 700,000 Isma'ilis, whom Wikipedia places mainly in Najran. The official form of Sunni Islam is the movement founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the eighteenth century, which its followers call Salafism and others Wahhabism.

The call to prayer sounds five times a day from mosque loudspeakers, though shops are no longer required to close at prayer times. Friday is the day of congregational prayer, and the weekend has been Friday and Saturday since a royal decree of 2013 moved it from Thursday and Friday. In Ramadan working hours are shortened and families gather at sunset to break the fast, usually with dates. The state follows the Islamic lunar calendar, its months set by sighting of the new moon, but civil servants have been paid by the Gregorian calendar since 2016, a change that Wikipedia says cost them 11 payment days.

No non-Muslim place of worship of any kind is permitted. Wikipedia estimates about 2.1 million Christians and over 708,000 Hindus in the kingdom, almost all of them foreign workers who may practise only in private, and conversion from Islam is a capital offence in law. Christmas, once banned, is now marked in some shops and hotels.

Which Arabic the kingdom speaks

Arabic is the only official language, and it comes in regional forms. Wikipedia counts four main dialect groups among Saudis: Najdi, with about 14.6 million speakers, Hejazi with about 10.3 million, Gulf Arabic with about 960,000, and the dialects of the southern Hejaz and Tihamah. Two other languages are spoken by citizens, Faifi, with about 50,000 speakers, and Mehri, with about 20,000, and Saudi Sign Language has about 100,000 users.

The foreign workforce brought its own languages. The census of 2022 counted 13.4 million non-Saudis, 41.6% of residents, and Wikipedia's figures from 2018 give these foreign language communities. Britannica adds that the pilgrimage left small settled communities from many ethnic groups around the holy cities, and that the Red Sea and Gulf coasts carry traces of African, Iranian and South Asian ancestry.

Written culture centres on Arabic calligraphy, which Saudi Arabia inscribed with other states on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2021, and spoken culture on poetry. Nabati, the vernacular Bedouin verse, remains popular, and traditional music is mostly sung collectively to accompany it, with the three-string rababah and percussion such as the tabl and the tar. Censorship has kept literature narrow, though Wikipedia names novelists and poets with readerships across the Arab world, among them Abdelrahman Munif, Turki al-Hamad and Rajaa al-Sanea.

How the state relaxed public life

The turn came by decree. In 2016 the religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, lost the power to pursue, question, demand identification from or arrest anyone. The same year the government created the General Entertainment Authority, and in 2017 Riyadh held its first concerts for 25 years. In April 2018 the first public cinema opened after a ban of 35 years, and Saudi films appeared at Cannes and Saudi art at the Venice Biennale that year.

The rules on women changed in the same sequence. Women voted in municipal elections in 2015, drove from 24 June 2018, entered sports stadiums from 2018, and from 2019 those over 21 no longer needed a male guardian's permission to travel abroad or obtain official documents. Since 2019 restaurants have not had to keep separate sections for men and families. Public-decency rules forbid indecent clothing but do not name the abaya or a head covering. Girls' state schools began teaching physical education in 2017, and by 2023 the Ministry of Education reported more than 200 sports halls equipped in them.

Wikipedia's culture article describes traditional rules on dress and the mixing of men and women as having become optional since the religious police were stripped of their powers. Freedom House's report for 2025 records the other side: arrests and long prison terms in 2024 for criticising the government or its laws on social media. Apostasy remains punishable by death in law.

What the state counts as Saudi heritage

Saudi Arabia joined UNESCO's convention on intangible heritage in January 2008 and has used it steadily since. Saudipedia counts five elements inscribed for the kingdom alone and eleven shared with other countries.

The ardah, which began as a war dance, is now performed at national festivals and as official protocol for visiting heads of state. Al-qatt al-asiri is painted by women, known as qattata, on the inside walls of houses in Asir in geometric and plant patterns. The state has added civic heritage of its own: Founding Day in 2022, with a logo built from a palm, the flag, an Arabian horse, a falcon and a market, and, according to Freedom House, orders between February and August 2024 requiring civil servants and students to wear Saudi national dress at work and in class.

Older heritage has fared differently. Wahhabi doctrine discourages veneration of historic or religious sites, for fear of idolatry, and Wikipedia cites an estimate that 95% of Mecca's historic buildings, most over a thousand years old, have been demolished, with critics counting 300 sites linked to the Prophet and his companions lost over 50 years. A law of June 2014 gave the tourism and heritage commission powers to protect antiquities, and Vision 2030 allocated 900 million euros to preserving historical and cultural heritage.

What Saudis eat and drink

Food follows Islamic law: pork and alcohol are forbidden and meat must be halal. Lamb, mutton and chicken are the main meats, as many Saudis descend from herders of sheep and goats. Kabsa and mandi, rice cooked with meat or fish, count among the national dishes, and khuzi, a stuffed lamb, is the traditional national dish. Flat unleavened bread comes with almost every meal, as do dates; Wikipedia counts more than 18 million date palms in the kingdom.

Coffee is the drink of hospitality and of state protocol. Saudi coffee is made from beans roasted in a shallow pan, ground in a copper mortar and boiled with cardamom, sometimes with saffron, cloves or ginger, in a long-spouted pot, the dallah. Saudipedia records the customs: the host pours with the left hand and serves with the right, the cup is never filled more than halfway, the oldest or most honoured guest is served first, and a guest shakes the cup to show he has had enough. The Ministry of Culture designated Arabic coffee "Saudi Coffee" on 31 January 2022, the Year of Saudi Coffee. Khawlani coffee, grown on terraces in the mountains of Jazan for more than three hundred years, has its own UNESCO listing.

The roses of Taif are grown for distilling. Saudipedia counts 910 rose farms in the governorate producing about 550 million roses a year, harvested over 35 to 45 days from March and turned into rose water and rose oil.

How Saudis dress and gather

Men wear the thawb, an ankle-length robe of white cotton in summer and darker wool in winter, with a head cloth, the ghutra, plain white or red-and-white check, held by a black cord, the agal; the bisht, a cloak trimmed in metallic thread, is worn on formal occasions. Many women wear the black abaya in public, though it is no longer required. Wikipedia notes that regional dress, once distinct, has been largely displaced by the dress of Najd, the home region of the ruling family, and kept for festive occasions.

The majlis, the sitting room near the front door of a house where neighbours, elders and tribal sheikhs gather to discuss daily affairs, is the centre of social life and was inscribed on UNESCO's list with other Arab states. Saudipedia notes that in the north the majlis has a stone hearth, the mashab, for making coffee before guests, while in Asir its walls carry al-qatt al-asiri. The 2022 census found a young society, with a median age of 29 and 63% of Saudis under 30, and Saudi households averaging 4.8 people.

How family and hospitality order social life

Wikipedia's culture article calls the family the most important social institution in the kingdom, built on obedience and on ties of kinship. Its examples are specific. An older brother, even one older by a few days, has his hand kissed by his younger brothers, sits above them on formal occasions and enters a room first. A woman going away for even a few days visits senior relatives and close neighbours before she leaves and again when she returns, with small gifts.

Hospitality has its own code, which Wikipedia traces to the desert, where a traveller refused shelter might not survive. Business waits until coffee and tea have been drunk and conversation exchanged. A guest is seated beside the best part of the meal, and the host does not leave the table before the guest has finished. Admiring a host's possession is avoided, since the host may feel obliged to give it away.

Family law follows Sharia. A man's testimony equals that of two women in family and inheritance cases, polygamy is permitted to men, and female heirs generally receive half the share of male heirs. The Personal Status Law of 2022 gave women the right to initiate divorce without a guardian's approval.

The state's own cultural calendar includes the Jenadriyah National Festival, ten days of crafts such as pottery and wood carving, folk dance and song held just north of Riyadh, and an annual book fair.

What Saudis watch and play

Football is the national sport. The Saudi Arabia Football Federation was founded in 1956, the national team first reached the World Cup in 1994, and FIFA confirmed the kingdom as host of the 2034 World Cup in December 2024. Since 2023 the Public Investment Fund has brought players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar into the domestic league. The older sports go on: the King's Camel Race has run since 1974, and Saudipedia counted about 20,000 falconers with about 16,000 falcons in 2019, two years after the Saudi Falcons Club was set up as a government body.

Television arrived in 1954, and the first newspaper, Al Fallah, in 1920. Saudi companies own much of the pan-Arab satellite broadcasting market, among them the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and Rotana, and Reporters Without Borders rated the situation of the press "very serious" in 2022. Wikipedia reports that 98% of the population used the internet in 2020.