The Ottoman Empire maintained a nominal suzerainty over the territory which is today part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after its major expansion eastward in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. When Salim I occupied Egypt in 1517, he inherited the guardianship of Hijaz as the last Mamluks gave him the keys of Mecca. The Ottoman Sultan issued a firman confirming the amir of Mecca, Sharif Barakat, in his position. The Sultans later appointed governors in Jeddah and Madina (al-Sibaʿi 1984: 344), and ruled in Hijaz for four hundred years in cooperation with the Sharifian family.

While the incorporation of Hijaz in the Ottoman Empire was an extension of their rule in Egypt, their authority in eastern Arabia was an extension of their occupation of the Euphrates valley that began in 1534 when Sulayman the Magnificent conquered Baghdad. Hasa submitted voluntarily to the Ottomans in 1550 (Anscombe 1997: 12). This first phase of Ottoman occupation ended with the rebellion of the Banu Khalid in 1670 (ibid.). The Ottomans did not return to eastern Arabia until the time of Midhat Pasha in the 1870s.

The Ottomans, however, failed to extend their control into the interior of Arabia, known as Najd.