King founder of Saudi Arabia

King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, founder of Saudi Arabia

He reconquered his family's ancestral home city of Riyadh in 1902, starting three decades of conquests that made him the ruler of nearly all of central and north Arabia. He consolidated his control over the Najd in 1922, then conquered the Hejaz in 1925. He extended his dominions into what later became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. As King, he presided over the discovery of petroleum in Saudi Arabia in 1938 and the beginning of large-scale oil production after World War II. He fathered many children, including 45 sons,  and all of the subsequent kings of Saudi Arabia.

Early life and family origins

Ibn Saud was born on 15 January 1875 in Riyadh in the region of Najd in central Arabia. He was the son of Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, last ruler of the Emirate of Nejd, the "Second Saudi State", a tribal sheikhdom centered on Riyadh. His family, the House of Saud, had been a power in central Arabia for the previous 130 years. Under the influence and inspiration of Wahhabi Islam, the Saudis had previously attempted to control much of the Arabian peninsula in the form of the Emirate of Diriyah, the "First Saudi State", until its destruction by an Ottoman army in the Ottoman–Wahhabi War in the early nineteenth century. Ibn Saud's mother was a member of the Sudairi family, Sarah Al Sudairi. She died in 1910.

In 1890, the House of Saud's long-term regional rivals, the Rashidis, conquered Riyadh. Ibn Saud was 15 at the time.  He and his family initially took refuge with the Al Murrah, a Bedouin tribe in the southern desert of Arabia. Later, the Al Sauds moved to Qatar and stayed there for two months. Their next stop was Bahrain, where they stayed briefly. Their final destination was Kuwait, where they lived for nearly a decade.

In the spring of 1901, Ibn Saud and some relatives, including a half-brother, Mohammad, and several cousins, set out on a raiding expedition into the Najd, targeting mainly tribes associated with the Rashidis. As the raid proved profitable, it attracted more participants. The raiders' numbers peaked at over 200, but numbers dwindled over the ensuing months. 

In the autumn, the group made camp in the Yabrin oasis. While observing Ramadan, he decided to attack Riyadh and retake it from the Al Rashid. On the night of 15 January 1902, he led 40 men over the walls of the city on tilted palm trees and took the city.  The Rashidi governor of the city, Ajlan, was killed in front of his own fortress. The Saudi recapture of the city marked the beginning of the Third Saudi State.

Rise to power

King Ibn Saud signature in a document to Eqab bin Muhaya

Following the capture of Riyadh, many former supporters of the House of Saud rallied to Ibn Saud's call to arms. He was a charismatic leader and kept his men supplied with arms. Over the next two years, he and his forces recaptured almost half of the Najd from the Rashidis.

In 1904, Abdulaziz of Al Rashid (a.k.a. Ibn Rashid) appealed to the Ottoman Empire for military protection and assistance. The Ottomans responded by sending troops into Arabia. On 15 June 1904, Ibn Saud's forces suffered a major defeat at the hands of the combined Ottoman and Rashidi forces. His forces regrouped and began to wage guerrilla warfare against the Ottomans. Over the next two years, he was able to disrupt their supply routes, forcing them to retreat. The victory of Ibn Saud in Rawdat Muhanna, in which Ibn Rashid died, ended the Ottoman presence in Najd and Qassim by the end of October 1906.

He completed his conquest of the Najd and the eastern coast of Arabia in 1912. He then founded the Ikhwan, a military-religious brotherhood, which was to assist in his later conquests, with the approval of local Salafi ulema. In the same year, he instituted an agrarian policy to settle the nomadic pastoralist Bedouins into colonies and to replace their tribal organizations with allegiance to the Ikhwan.

During World War I, the British government established diplomatic relations with Ibn Saud. The British agent, Captain William Shakespear, was well received by the Bedouin.  Similar diplomatic missions were established with any Arabian power who might have been able to unify and stabilize the region. The British entered into the Treaty of Darin in December 1915, which made the lands of the House of Saud a British protectorate and attempted to define the boundaries of the developing Saudi state. In exchange, Ibn Saud pledged to again make war against Ibn Rashid, who was an ally of the Ottomans.

The British Foreign Office had previously begun to support Sharif Hussein bin Ali, Emir of the Hejaz by sending T. E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia) to him in 1915. The Saudi Ikhwan began to conflict with Hussein, Sharif of Mecca also in 1917, just as his sons Abdullah and Faisal entered Damascus. The Treaty of Darin remained in effect until superseded by the Jeddah conference of 1927 and the Dammam conference of 1952, during both of which Ibn Saud extended his boundaries past the Anglo-Ottoman Blue Line. After Darin, he stockpiled the weapons and supplies which the British provided him, including a 'tribute' of £5,000 per month. After World War I, he received further support from the British, including a glut of surplus munitions. He launched his campaign against the Al Rashidi in 1920; by 1922 they had been all but destroyed.

The defeat of the Al Rashidi doubled the size of Saudi territory because, after the war of Ha'il, Ibn Saud sent his army to occupy Al-Jouf and the army led by Eqab bin Mohaya, the head of Talhah tribe. This allowed Ibn Saud the leverage to negotiate a new and more favorable treaty with the British. Their treaty, signed at Uqair in 1922, where he met Percy Cox, British High Commissioner in Iraq, to draw boundaries saw Britain recognize many of his territorial gains. In exchange, Ibn Saud agreed to recognize British territories in the area, particularly along the Persian Gulf coast and in Iraq. The former of these were vital to the British, as merchant traffic between British India and the United Kingdom depended upon coaling stations on the approach to the Suez Canal.

In 1925, Ibn Saud's forces captured the holy city of Mecca from Sharif Hussein, ending 700 years of Hashemite rule. On 8 January 1926, the leading figures in Mecca, Madina and Jeddah proclaimed Ibn Saud the King of Hejaz. He raised Najd to a kingdom as well on 29 January 1927.  On 20 May 1927, the British government signed the Treaty of Jeddah, which abolished the Darin protection agreement and recognized the independence of the Hejaz and Najd, with Ibn Saud as their ruler. For the next five years, Ibn Saud administered the two parts of his dual kingdom as separate units.

With international recognition and support, Ibn Saud continued to consolidate his power. By 1927, his forces had overrun most of the central Arabian Peninsula, but the alliance between the Ikhwan and the Al Saud collapsed when Ibn Saud forbade further raiding. The few portions of central Arabia that had not been overrun by the Saudi-Ikhwan forces had treaties with London, and Ibn Saud was sober enough to see the folly of provoking the British by pushing into these areas. This did not sit well with the Ikhwan, who had been taught that all non-Wahhabis were infidels. Tensions finally boiled over when the Ikhwan rebelled. After two years of fighting, they were suppressed by Ibn Saud in the Battle of Sabilla in March 1929.

On 23 September 1932, Ibn Saud formally united his realm into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with himself as its king. He transferred his court to Murabba Palace from the Masmak Fort in 1938  and the palace remained his residence and the seat of government until his death in 1953.

Ibn Saud had to first eliminate the right of his own father in order to rule, and then distance and contain the ambitions of his five brothers, particularly his oldest brother, Muhammad, who had fought with him during the battles and conquests that gave birth to the state.

Personal life

Further information: House of Saud, Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne, and Descendants of Ibn Saud

Ibn Saud in 1934

Ibn Saud (right) and Iraqi King Faisal I (left) in 1922

In accordance with the customs of his people, Abdul Aziz headed a polygamous household comprising several wives and concubines. According to some sources, he had twenty-two consorts. Many of his marriages were contracted in order to cement alliances with other clans, during the period when the Saudi state was founded and stabilized. Abdul Aziz was the father of almost a hundred children, including forty-five sons.

He was a heavy man standing between 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)  and 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in).

Relations with family members

Ibn Saud was said to be very close to his paternal aunt, Jawhara bint Faisal. From a young age, she ingrained in him a strong sense of family destiny and motivated him to regain the lost glory of the House of Saud. During the years when the Saud family were living almost as refugees in Kuwait, Jawhara bint Faisal frequently recounted the deeds of his ancestors to Abdulaziz and exhorted him not to be content with the existing situation. She was instrumental in making him decide to return to Najd from Kuwait and regain the territories of his family. She was well educated in Islam, in Arab custom and in tribal and clan relationships. She remained among the king's most trusted and influential advisors all her life. Ibn Saud asked her about the experiences of past rulers and the historical allegiance and the roles of tribes and individuals. Jawhara was also deeply respected by the king's children. Ibn Saud visited her daily until she died around 1930.

Ibn Saud was also very close to his sister Noura, who was one year older than him. On several occasions, he identified himself in public with the words: "I am the brother of Noura." Noura died a few years before Ibn Saud. 

Assassination attempt

On 15 March 1935, armed men attacked and tried to assassinate Ibn Saud during his performance of Hajj.  He survived the attack unhurt.

Successor

He appointed his second son Prince Saud heir to the Saudi throne in 1933. He had many quarrels with his elder brother Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman as to who should be appointed heir. Muhammad wanted his son Khalid to be designated the heir. His eldest son was Turki Al Awwal, who was the Crown Prince of the Kingdoms of Nejd and Hejaz, but Turki died at age 18, predeceasing his father, and his younger full-brother was appointed Crown Prince. Had Turki not died, he would have been the Crown Prince. Ibn Saud had 45 sons, of whom 36 survived to adulthood. Ten of his sons were capable enough to be candidates for the succession. They were Saud, Faisal, Muhammad, Khalid, Fahd, Abdullah, Sultan, Nayef, Salman and Muqrin. Of these ten, six became king. Muhammad, Sultan, Nayef and Muqrin were crown prince but never succeeded to the throne. Muhammad resigned from the post, Sultan and Nayef predeceased King Abdullah, and Muqrin was removed from the post.

Honors

In 1935, Ibn Saud was awarded the British Order of the Bath,  in 1947 the U.S. Legion of Merit and in 1952 the Spanish Order of Military Merit (with White Decoration).