Starting with the Al-Ahsa Campaign of 1871, the Ottoman government attempted to reassert its authority and bring the Najd and Al-Ahsa regions under its direct authority. Despite the significance of the region assumed by the Ottomans, the research till date has remained limited in scope with regards to this development. The Najd and Al-Ahsa were overshadowed by a plethora of scholarly works written with respect to the reassertion of the Ottoman authority in the nineteenth century in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Hejaz, etc. Except for a few scholars, the Najd and Al-Ahsa have been virtually unknown to Ottoman historians. Moreover, the thin literature on the Ottoman presence in the Najd and Al-Ahsa generally focuses on the historical developments from the perspective of the Ottoman state, the Saudi dynasty, and the British Empire, thus excludes the agency of ordinary people. By examining hitherto un(der)examined Ottoman archival documents, this study argues that locals were active participants in the ‘building’ of Ottoman governance in their respective regions and forged a dialogic relationship with the Ottoman administration that gave legitimacy to Ottoman authority. By studying the complex negotiations, mediations, and interactions between the Ottoman state and the local population, this study aims to incorporate the Najd and Al-Ahsa regions into the Ottoman historiography and extend the literature on the Ottoman modernization and centralization in the Arab lands to these regions as well as including the voice of the ordinary people by examining the agency of farmers, merchants, slaves, poets, scholars, and other neglected groups.