Najdi

The Najdi are the Arabs of Najd, the high plateau of central Arabia whose name means 'highland', scattered across oasis towns such as Wadi Hanifa and Al-Qassim and the tribal ranges between. In the fifth century the Kingdom of Kinda first united the tribes of central Arabia, and in the seventh century Najdi tribes such as the Banu Tamim swelled the early caliphate's armies.

Najd then slipped to the edge of imperial politics: the Kharijite Najda ibn Amir briefly held it from 692, and the Zaydi Ukhaidrid dynasty ruled parts after 867. In 1337 Najd remained a patchwork of oasis principalities and Bedouin domains beyond the great empires, and a Hanbali stronghold.

In 1744 Muhammad ibn Saud of Diriyah allied with the reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to found the first Saudi state; Egyptian armies destroyed it in 1818, but a second arose at Riyadh in 1824. Their Najdi Arabic ranks among the least externally influenced Arabic dialects.