Al-Batʼha البطحاء ( Arabic) আল বাথা ( Bengali) ബത്ത ( Malayalam) Little Bangladesh
Commercial district
Al Batha Street on the side of Thulaim district, 2023
Nickname:  Hillat al-Kuwaitiyyah (formerly)
Coordinates: 24°38′47″N 46°42′55″E / 24.64627°N 46.71524°E / 24.64627; 46.71524
Country	Saudi Arabia
City	Riyadh
Region	Old Riyadh
Emerged	1940s
Named for	Wadi al-Batʼha
Boroughs	List Al-Amal (west) Thulaim (west) Margab (west) Al-Dirah (east) Al-Futah (east) Al-Oud (east)
Language
• Official	Arabic
• Spoken	Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, Filipino, Malayalam

Al-Batʼha ( Arabic: البطحاء, romanized: al-Baṭʼḥāʾ, lit. 'the wide valley'), also simply romanized as Batha, ^{[1] [2] [3]} is a colloquial umbrella term used for the partial agglomeration of six neighborhoods in downtown Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that are primarily situated along the al-Batʼha Street on the either edge of the now-dried up stream of Wadi al-Batʼha, ^[4] located between al-Murabba and the Qasr al-Hukm District. It is one of the oldest commercial districts in Riyadh and the financial nerve center of the city's downtown area, ^{[5] [6]} covering east of al-Futah and al-Dirah whereas west of al-Amal, Margab, Thulaim and to some extent, al-Oud. It emerged in the 1940s as Hillat al-Kuwaitiyyah ( Arabic: الحلة الكويتية, lit. 'quarter of the Kuwaitis') during World War II when a number of Kuwaiti merchants and traders chose to set up an auction market just outside the northeastern fringes of the erstwhile walled town. ^{[7] [8]}

Besides being a open-air marketplace that hosts a number of large and medium-scale trading centers, ^[9] the surrounding locality has been the heart of the city's Bangladeshi community since the oil boom of the 1970s, ^{[10] [11]} alongside Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos and Sri Lankans, who altogether contribute in almost 70% of the economic activity in the area. ^{[12] [13] [14] [15]}

Traditional Kuwaiti goods accounted for majority of Batha's imports during the early days of its emergence , however, products from various countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, China, Taiwan, Switzerland, Vietnam and Thailand soon began increasing the diversity of Batha's trading centers. ^[16]

Public transport services were introduced In the area in the 1960s. ^[17] 1977, the Riyadh Municipality created the al-Batha Sub-Municipality, ^{[18] [19]} one of the 16 sub-municipalities of Riyadh, that also includes two of five neighborhoods that constitute the Batha area, namely ad-Dirah and Margab.

Gallery

• 
  Al Batha Street, 1983

References