Move the slider to any year: every polity recorded for that year is drawn. Arabian states are gold, the other powers featured in the current chapter (Assyria, Rome, the caliphates, the Mamluks and Ottomans) are green, and everything else is grey; 48 chapters carry the story. Borders change only where the dataset records a change, and they fade rather than morph between dated polygons. The slider is stretched so that the dense modern centuries get more room than the long ancient ones. Hover a territory for its name and dates; click it to open its Wikipedia article.

Boundaries are approximate reconstructions, with uncertainty, disputed claims and differing degrees of control, especially over the desert interior, where tribal allegiance mattered more than lines on a map. The dataset has no Arabian polygon before about 3000 BCE. Shapes with a dashed outline (Dilmun, the Qedarite confederation, Nabonidus’s domain, Dedan and Lihyan, Gerrha, Kinda, the Islamic state of Medina, early Diriyah and the Bani Khalid emirate) were drawn for this project from written descriptions because the source dataset does not map them. The 1932–1935 “Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd” is shown as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, proclaimed in September 1932. The dashed line is modern Saudi Arabia, for orientation only; the last map is dated 2024.