Provinces of Saudi Arabia
administrative region of the Arabian Kingdom
The provinces of Saudi Arabia, also referred to as regions, are the 13 first-level administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Each province is governed by a governor (emir).
History
Prior to the unification of Saudi Arabia in 1932, the Arabian Peninsula was composed of several distinct regions, many of which had been part of or influenced by the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), including the Hejaz Vilayet and the Lahsa Eyalet. Earlier in the region’s history, the First Saudi State (1727–1818) and the Second Saudi State (1824–1891) had established Saudi rule over much of Najd and its surroundings, laying the groundwork for later unification efforts. After unification, these historical regions — such as Najd and Asir — along with former Ottoman territories like Hejaz, formed the basis for the kingdom’s evolving administrative divisions, which were later reorganized into modern provinces.
King Fahd issued Royal Order A/92 on March 2, 1992, known as Law of the Provinces, which provided for the division of the kingdom into 13 provinces. Subsequently, the five previous provinces were divided into thirteen provinces, called provinces (manātiq), each governed by administrative bodies called the emirates of the provinces (imārāt al-manātiq). The provinces form the first-level administrative division of the Organization of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and are further divided into 136 governorates (muḥāfaẓāt), which are the second-level division, which are further subdivided into 1,347 municipal-level units (marakiz), and further subdivided into villages (qura) and neighborhoods (ahya).
Government
Each province is governed by an Emir (provincial governor), who is assisted by the deputy emir, called nā'ib. The persons holding these positions are appointed by the King of Saudi Arabia.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Provinces of Saudi Arabia” as administrative region of the Arabian Kingdom. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as administrative region of the Arabian Kingdom. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15728204. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1932, 1299, 1922 and 1727.
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This entry incorporates text from “Provinces of Saudi Arabia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.