1000AD? Around that point, Saudi Arabia was mostly fractious at the time. Medina and Mecca, the two holiest cities in Islam, are both to be found in Saudi Arabia, remember. Around that point, you have the Fatimids (who are Shi'i and based in Cairo) and the Abbasids, Sunnis based in Baghdad, fighting over control of the Peninsula. So, really, the first question you've got to ask is: is he a Shia or Sunni? Depending on which one, he'll have more or less power. Saudi Arabia at the time wasn't powerful as an entity the way it is now, since the current state has its earliest beginnings in the 1700s with the Wahhabis. Anyway, so... back in his day. By that point, the Qarmatians are already on their way out...

OK, so... boiling this down to its most basic: whether your character is Sunni or Shia will determine what path he takes. Sunnis make up the majority, so it's far more likely he'd be one, but there are benefits to being Shia, and Ismaili, in particular. However, I'd say being Sunni under the Abbasids is better as the Abbasid era is considered the Islamic Golden Age. So, literature, math, science, architecture, etc. Also, did he come from a wealthy or a poor family?

So, no... oil wasn't big and they really didn't have their own rulers. Two different caliphates were fighting over them at the time. A couple hundred years later, in the 1200s, the Sunnis end up winning most of it. The current royal family are also Sunni, though they tend to be a hard-line sect.
-Quaddy

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