The Ottomans took over sovereignty of most of the settled areas of Western Arabia in the 16th Century. The Sharif (ruler) of Mecca accepted the Caliph’s rule in 1517. The Ottoman’s main concerns were the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and the pilgrimage routes leading there. Marauding groups of nomads sometimes raided the caravans and the Hajj was not always an orderly or safe affair. They therefore established forts throughout the Hejaz, to guard the route to Damascus, one of which was built overlooking the holy shrine in Mecca. Remains of Turkish military architecture, caravanserais or other provisions for pilgrims (such as stone wells) can be found throughout northern Saudi Arabia.
The Ottoman Empire’s geographic extent. Image from Naqshbandi.org
The Ottomans also several times attempted to conquer Yemen. They dominated the Red Sea coast of Yemen, with its valuable commodity coffee and its taxable settled population for most of the 16th and 17th Century, but never managed to subdue the highland tribes for long.
The first real challenge to Ottoman rule came from the first Saudi State (Emirate of Diriyah, 1744-1818), which captured Mecca and Medina in 1803. The Saudis ruled both holy cities for ten years. The Ottoman Sultan ordered the Khedive (viceroy) of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, to reconquer the Hejaz, which he did in 1813; his troops followed the Saudis back to their base in Diriyah, which they destroyed so thoroughly that the Saudis had to establish their next base in Riyadh. This happened in 1824.
The historic city of Diriyah. Nowadays it is closed and undergoing thorough restoration. Photo by The Dude of Dhahran on skyscrapercity.com
The second Saudi state, the Emirate of Nejd, lasted from 1824 until 1891. It did not pose a real threat to the Ottomans or to the British presence in the Gulf, as this period was marked by tribal strife between the Saudis and neighboring Arab tribes. At its height, the influence of the second Saudi state encompassed modern-day Qatar and the UAE, as well as central and south Saudi Arabia. In 1891 the Saudis were routed by the Al Rashid dynasty of Ha’il (600 km northwest of Riyadh) and they fled to Kuwait.
In the late 19th Century, the European powers scrambled to assert their influence over the remaining uncontested parts of the globe. The Arabian Peninsula was in itself not a very attractive area, because of its underdevelopment, poverty and few known resources; however, it did occupy a strategic location, especially after the opening of the Suez canal in 1869. The Ottomans therefore moved south into Yemen’s coastal plains and eastwards to reoccupy the Gulf coast all the way to Oman (except Bahrain, which was already firmly under British control). The English were in clear control of the seas however, and rolled back Ottoman influence in the Gulf. They were not as successful along the Red Sea coast, but did not suffer Ottoman attacks on their passage to India either.