Definitely history and culture more than language. I don't know if I can master enough language to drop words in here or there, so I'm saving that for later in the month, time permitting.

My character (Zain) is Saudi Arabian by birth, but very old (a little over a thousand years old.) He's seen a lot of change in his lifetime. He was born around 1,000 AD, which is after the birth of Islam by a few hundred years, so he comes from a devout Muslim family. But obviously due to his immortality he no longer has a family.

What would his life have been like in 1K? How has his life changed between then and now? Pretty much all I know about Saudi Arabia is that they have a monarchy (I think one that actually rules) and they're very wealthy due to oil resources. Would they have been as wealthy back in 1K, before the industrial revolution turned oil into gold?

Right now, he lives in the US, and I'm pretty sure he's done a lot of traveling (life has gotten pretty boring for him), so he's very worldly and wise today. But I don't know much about his roots.

Cheers,
Michelle