Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia
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Categories: Arab statesmen | Kings of Saudi Arabia | World War II political leaders | Saudi royal family | 1876 births | 1953 deaths | Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
`Abd al-`Azīz Āl Sa`ūd, King of Saudi Arabia, GCIE ( 1876 – November 9, 1953) (Arabic: عبدالعزيز آل سعود) was the first monarch of Saudi Arabia. His full name was `Abd al-`Azīz Ibn Abdur Rahman Al-Feisal Āl Sa`ūd [1]. In the West, he was referred to as Ibn Saud, a much abbreviated form of his name [2]. He was born in Riyadh into the House of Su'ūd (commonly transliterated Saud), which had followed the Wahhabi sect of Islam since the 18th century and had historically maintained dominion over the interior highlands of Arabia known as the Nejd (see First Saudi State and Second Saudi State). Beginning with the reconquest of his family's ancestral home city of Riyadh in 1902, Ibn Saud consolidated his control over the Nejd in 1922, conquered the Hejaz in 1925, and founded the unified nation of Saudi Arabia in 1932. His later reign saw the discovery of petroleum in Saudi Arabia in 1938, and the beginning of large-scale exploitation of that resource after World War II. Ibn Saud was the father of some 50 to 60 children, including all kings of Saudi Arabia that have ruled after him.
Loss and reclamation of powerKing Abdul Aziz ibn Saud was born in Riyadh in central Arabia in 1876. In 1890, at the age of fourteen, Ibn Saud followed his family into exile in Kuwait following the conquest of the family's lands by the rival dynasty of Al Rashid. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Kuwait. Abd al-Rahman had a stipend from the Turkish government of 60 Turkish pounds a month and Abdul Aziz went on several profitable raids in Nejd as he grew to adulthood. He attended the daily majlis of the emir of Kuwait, Mubarak al Sabah, from whom he learned much about the world. However, the family's home in Riyadh was one of the simplest and cramped by five sons and at least one daughter. In the Spring of 1901, Ibn Saud and some relatives, including a half-brother Mohammed, and several cousins, set out on a raiding expedition targeting for the most part tribes associated with the Rashidis. As booty was abundant, with many camels stolen, the raiding party grew to around 200 as tribesmen loyal to the Sauds joined the party. In the Fall, with Ramadan approaching, the group, reduced in number by defections, holed up in the Jabrin Oasis. It may have been only then that Ibn Sa'ud decided to attack Riyadh and regain his family's heritage. On the night of January 15, 1902, together with a party of some sixty, including seven relatives and some slaves, he recaptured Riyadh with only twenty; the rest were guarding the camels in an isolated oasis. They had been told to escape if the venture failed. The Rashidi governor of the city, Ajlan, was killed as he fled the attack by Ibn Sa'ud in front of the fort gate. Ibn Sa'ūd was considered a "magnetic" leader, and following the capture of Riyadh many former supporters of the House of Saud once again rallied to its support. In the two years following his dramatic seizure of Riyadh, Ibn Sa'ūd recaptured almost half of Nejd from the Rashidis. In 1904, however, Ibn Rashid appealed to the Ottoman Empire for assistance in defeating the House of Sa'ūd. The Ottomans sent troops to Arabia, setting Ibn Sa'ūd on the defensive. The armies of the House of Saud suffered a major defeat on June 15, 1904, but his forces soon regrouped and returned to the offensive as the Turkish troops left the country due to supply problems. Ibn Sa'ūd finally consolidated control over the Nejd in 1912 with the help of an organized and well-trained army. In that year he founded the Ikhwan, a militant religious organization which was to assist in his later conquests. More broadly, he revived his dynasty's traditional alliance with Wahhabism. In the same year, he instituted an agrarian policy to settle the nomadic Bedouins into colonies, and to dismantle their tribal organizations in favor of allegiance to the Ikhwan. During World War I the British government attempted to cultivate favor with Ibn Sa'ūd via their Political Agent Captain William Shakespear, but this was not seriously continued after Shakespear's unexpectedly early death at the Battle of Jarrab. Instead the British transferred support to Ibn Sa'ūd's rival Sherif Hussein ibn Ali, leader of the Hejaz, with whom the Sa'ūds were almost constantly at war. Despite this, the British entered into a treaty in December 1915 which made the lands of the House of Sa'ūd a British protectorate. In exchange, Ibn Sa'ūd pledged to again make war against Ibn Rashid, who was an ally of the Ottomans. Ibn Sa'ūd did not, however, immediately make war against Ibn Rashid, despite a steady supply of weapons and cash (£5,000 Sterling per month) from the British. He argued with the British that the payment he received was insufficient to adequately wage war against an enemy as powerful as Ibn Rashid. In 1920, however, Ibn Sa'ūd finally marched again against the Rashidis, extinguishing their dominion in 1922. The defeat of the Rashidis doubled the territory of the Ibn Sa'ūd, and he was able to negotiate a new treaty with the British at Uqair in 1922, abolishing the 1915 protection agreement in return for Ibn Saud's agreement not to attempt to expand his state's borders into British protectorates on the Gulf Coast. British subsidies continued until 1924. In 1925 the Sa'ūds captured the holy city of Mecca from Sherif Hussein ibn Ali ending 700 years of Hashemite tutelage of the Islamic holy places. On 10 January 1926, Ibn Saud was proclaimed King of the Hejaz in the Great Mosque at Mecca. On May 20, 1927, following the defeat of Husayn, the British government signed the Treaty of Jedda that recognized the independence of the Hejaz and Najd, over much of what is today Saudi Arabia, with the Saud family as its rulers. At this point, Ibn Saud changed his title from Sultan of Nejd to King of Nejd. Initially the two parts of his dominians (Nejd in the east and Hejaz in the west) were administered separately. From 1927 to 1932 Ibn Saud continued to consolidate power throughout the Arabian Peninsula. In March 1929 he defeated elements of the Ikhwan, which had disobeyed his orders to cease raiding and had invaded Iraq against his wishes, at the Battle of Sbilla. In 1932, having conquered most of the Peninsula, Saud renamed the area from the lands of Nejd and Hejaz to Saudi Arabia. He then proclaimed himself King of Saudi Arabia. Oil and the rule of Ibn SaudOil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938, and Ibn Saud through his adviser St. John Philby granted substantial authority over Saudi oil fields to American oil companies. In the early days of the oil boom most oil revenues received by the government of Saudi Arabia were immediately directed to the coffers of the royal family. As the income from oil grew, however, Ibn Saud began to spend some revenues on improving the lives of his subjects. Saud forced many nomadic tribes to settle down and abandon "petty wars" and vendettas. He also began to fight crime in Saudi Arabia, particularly crime against pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Foreign warsIbn Saud positioned Saudi Arabia as neutral in World War II, but was generally considered to favour the Allies.[3] In 1948 Saud participated in the Arab-Israeli war. The contribution of Saudi Arabia was generally considered token.[4] Family and succession
 The number of children that Ibn Saud fathered are unknown, and estimates range from about 50 to over 60. They include: (names of Kings in bold) Succession to Saudi Arabia's throne has been a process that has, to a large extent, excluded all but the senior members of the Al Saud. Male progeny, with tenure in senior government positions, whose mothers were King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud's wives and from prominent peninsula based families and tribes, and who have shown both the willingness and ability to build the necessary consensus from other wings in the family are, in theory, the most eligible candidates.
Haya Sultana
All of these carry the surname "bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud" for men and "bint Abdul Aziz Al Saud" for women. Ibn Saud is the father of all the Kings of Saudi Arabia that have succeeded him. King Saud succeeded his father as regent of Saudi Arabia in 1953, three months after being appointed Prime Minister by his father. In 1964 King Saud was deposed by the Saudi Council of Ministers and succeeded by King Faisal, another of Ibn Saud's sons. Faisal was followed by three further sons, King Khalid, King Fahd and King Abdullah. According to the Saudi Basic Law of 1992, the King of Saudi Arabia must be a son or grandson of Ibn Saud. References
Notes
6.The birthdate of Abdul Aziz has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted as 1876, although a few sources give it as 1880. A primary reason stated in Robert Lacey's book "The Kingdom", which gives a clear statement on the reasons why 1876 is more reasonable, is that a leading Saudi historian found records that show Abdul Aziz in 1891 greeting an important tribal delegation. The historian reasoned that a nine or ten-year-old child (as given by the 1880 bithdate) would have been too young to be allowed to greet such a delegation, while an adolescent of 14 or 15 (as given by the 1876 date) would likely have been allowed. The major reason, though, is that when Lacey interviewed one of ibn Saud's sons prior to writing the book, the son recalled that his father often laughed at records showing his birthdate to be 1880. ibn Saud's response to such records was that "I swallowed four years of my life."
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