One ISU professor claims that the Saudi Arabian oil empire may not have been found if it hadn’t been for an accident.

Michael Christopher Low, assistant professor of history, has been doing research on the oil history of Saudi Arabia.

This semester has been Low’s first experience at Iowa State. He received his doctorate in history from Columbia University in May.

Although Low primarily studied history, he recently began looking into the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia.

“Oftentimes, we’re called upon to read things that are well outside of our disciplinary field,” Low said.

When Low was working toward his master’s degree, he focused on studying the history of cholera, a disease usually spread through water. This research led to him learning more about water problems in Saudi Arabia’s past.

“I became more and more interested in the long-term history of Saudi Arabia’s water supply, and that story kind of ran headlong into the story of oil,” Low said.

Low began digging into Saudi Arabia’s history with water. He discovered that when pilgrims were moving into the country in the 1800s, the already dry area began facing even more problems.

“Looking at how the Ottoman Empire tried to provide both enough and safe drinking water for pilgrims was sort of the starting point,” Low said.

The empire finished a new pipeline to bring water into the city of Jidda, and, after a few years, it dried up. Researchers learned that it dried up because the citizens overused it rather than an engineering malfunction.

Wealthy locals began collecting rainwater and selling it to pilgrims at inflated prices. When the Ottomans created a more reliable source of water, the wealthy clogged these pipes up.

The Ottomans began constructing desalination units to collect water for pilgrims throughout what is now Saudi Arabia.

After years, they began to work on a plant for proper desalination, which was opened in 1911 in Jidda.

For many years, the main revenue in Saudi Arabia was from taxes on the pilgrims. However, when the water supply became low, it was hard for the country to keep attracting pilgrims and maintain its legitimacy.

“Everything they could do to find water was super critical,” Low said.

In the 1930s, American Karl Twitchell began helping out with the water crisis, bringing in a different approach. He suggested trying to find extractive commodities. After surveying many different areas, he found an oil well.

Saudi Arabia continued to develop its oil fields over the decades.

“Saudi Arabia has been pumping at their maximum rate in an attempt to recapture their market share,” said Franek Hasiuk, assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences. “It’s very cheap in Saudi Arabia to produce. It’s less than $10 a barrel, while the [United State’s] shale oil can be up to $50.”

Although Low was looking at cholera when looking for research projects, he has found the water and oil connection to be interesting. He is currently working on a book, “The Mechanics of Mecca,” and hopes to write a second book called “Drinking the Sea.”

Low was also recently nominated for an Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, which awards $200,000 grants to up to 32 scholars. 

“The university gets to nominate a junior and senior scholar, and I ended up being the nominee for the junior category,” Low said. “It’s a prestigious competition but also the support is tremendous. It would allow me to do things I wouldn’t otherwise be allowed to do.”

Low expects to find out about the award in April 2016.

He intends to continue to teach at Iowa State and to research the history of the Middle East. Low has planned a trip to Istanbul in the summer to further his research.