Book

The Black Savannah

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rashad bin Hassan Mufti

Publication date: 08 July 2026 23:56 KSA

When we say that the Arabian Peninsula was green, the imagination might immediately jump to dense forests like the Amazon, with intertwined trees and shadows blocking the sun from the ground. But the closer image for most areas of the ancient peninsula was not a closed forest, but an open environment resembling the savannah.

The word 'savannah' originally refers to the open grassy plain, where grasses extend over wide areas, and trees and shrubs are distributed at wide intervals, not forming a closed canopy over the ground. Hence, the sun reaches the soil, so grasses grow after rain, and the land turns in the fertile season into a vast green carpet, where animals and humans move. The savannah is neither a desert nor a forest. It is an intermediate zone between the two worlds; a land that allows life to appear when rain comes, then becomes harsh when drought prolongs. If rainfall increased greatly, it would turn into a forest, and if rain disappeared for long, it would become a desert. Its secret lies in this delicate balance between greenery and thirst.

From here, we can understand the volcanic harrats (lava fields) in the Kingdom in a different way. Today we see them as harsh black land, covered with basalt rocks and sharp stones, so we might imagine that they have always been an environment hostile to life. But during some wet periods of the Arabian Peninsula's history, especially in the time known as the 'Green Arabian Peninsula', these harrats were part of a more vibrant ecological scene than what we see today. This does not mean that every harrat turned into a permanent savannah similar to the great plains of Africa, but rather it is more accurate to say that they were, in some periods, within a seasonal savannah or savannah-like environment, where grasses grew after rain, water collected in depressions and channels, and animals and humans moved through them. Here, the harrats are no longer just silent volcanic fields, but become a stage for life. The black rocks that appear inert to us today held water in their cavities, directed the paths of torrents, and created small environments suitable for plants and animals. Around these resources, humans moved, followed the tracks of animal herds, and left traces of their existence on the stones. Perhaps some ancient stone structures, including animal traps scattered in volcanic environments, cannot be understood apart from this scene. Humans did not build them in a vacuum, but on land that knew seasons of fertility, where animals passed, and where the need for water, food, and movement intersected. Hence, the Saudi harrats appear like a dual archive: a geological archive preserving the history of volcanoes, and a human archive preserving the memory of life on the black land. And perhaps 'The Black Savannah' is the closest expression for this beautiful contradiction: dark basalt on the surface, and a green memory deep within.

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