Saudi Gazette report

 

AFTER the Kingdom’s unification several decades ago, the country needed expatriate labor to help in building the infrastructure. The first labor from abroad were Americans and Europeans who joined the Saudi Aramco Company after oil was discovered in abundant quantities. At the time, several oil companies were set up to extract oil. Saudis worked alongside non-Saudi experts, engineers, technicians, etc. and they intermingled with them. Both learned from each other in terms of work, traditions, customs, and languages.



The Eastern Province benefited immensely from the experience of non-Saudis and many Saudis started to learn English. This experience also helped in developing several sectors in the province such as education. The first grocers that sold imported food appeared in the province, a report in Al-Riyadh newspaper said.



New food



When different Arab expatriate communities settled down in several cities and villages around the Kingdom, they worked as teachers and doctors. Most of them were from Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. They built strong relationships with Saudi citizens and introduced local dishes never seen before.



For example, the most popular dishes in the Kingdom were jareesh, qorsan, asida, marqooq, etc. Then the Kingdom imported rice and kabsa was invented and it became the most popular dish. The expatriate community also introduced white bread called samoli.



It was said that a Somali man named Issa Al-Samoli was the first to introduce this type of bread to Saudi Arabia over 50 years ago. He had a bakery at Al-Amariyah neighborhood in south Jeddah, run by his compatriots. The bakery was named after him as well.



Strangely enough, the Ministry of Health banned the selling of this bread because it was believed that it was not baked enough from inside and could pose a public health hazard. However, the bread gained in popularity until it became the most sought-after bread for sandwiches. All canteens use this bread to make their wraps. Al-Somali never thought that this bread would become so favored in the Kingdom. More types of bread such as tameez (a white circle-shaped bread) appeared later.



First teachers



When the Kingdom opened new schools in all major cities and remote areas, the Ministry of Education had difficulty finding Saudi teachers, especially in the 1940s. Arab teachers were recruited from different countries and employed by schools in cities and villages. Those teachers played a vital role in educating citizens all over the country. At the time, Saudi and expatriate teachers used to enjoy a lot of respect and appreciation and were held in high esteem.



With the recruitment of teachers, doctors and nurses started to arrive as more hospitals and polyclinics were built in several regions.



Different dialects



Saudi citizens encountered difficulty at the outset in understanding some Arabic dialects spoken by Arab communities such as the Egyptian or Syrian. In many cases, doctors from these two countries needed the help of Saudi nurses or technicians and sometimes ambulance drivers to help them understand what a Saudi patient was suffering from. Over time, doctors began to understand the spoken Saudi dialect.



Intermarriages



Many of the Arab expatriate community women used to walk in the streets with their faces uncovered. But with the passage of time, they began to follow their Saudi peers and cover their faces and wear abayas. Some Saudi men fell in love with non-Saudi women who were not covering their faces but wearing hijab and married them.



When expatriates arrived in Riyadh, they went to several neighborhoods based on the concentration of their compatriots. For example, the Al-Bat’ha neighborhood was full of Yemenis whereas Al-Nasriya and Ghubaira were home to the Sudanese community. The Syrians settled in the Al-Khazan, Al-Malaz, Al-Olaya, and Al-Sulaimaniy neighborhoods and the Egyptians chose Manfuha. If people were to walk inside one of these neighborhoods they would immediately notice the dominant community. They would feel as if they were walking in streets in Egypt, Sudan, or Syria.



All languages of the world



Al-Bat’ha neighborhood used to be the place where expatriates from different countries worked and lived. In it, one could find retail shops, hotels, restaurants, etc. run by people from different countries such as Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria, and some European countries. Walking in the neighborhood’s streets one would hear different languages spoken.