Ibn Saud (1880–1953)

First king of Saudi Arabia from 1932. His personal hostility to Hussein ibn Ali, the British-supported political and religious leader of the Al Hijaz (Hejaz) region of western Arabia, meant that he stood back from the Arab Revolt of World War I, organized by T E Lawrence and in which Abdullah ibn Hussein and Faisal I, of Iraq, participated. However, after the war, supported by the Wahabi-inspired Ikhwan (Brethren), Ibn Saud extended his dominions to the Red Sea coast, capturing Jedda and the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina (with their lucrative pilgrimage revenue). By 1921, all central Arabia had been brought under his rule, and in 1924 he successfully invaded the Hejaz, defeating Hussein ibn Ali, who, in 1919, had proclaimed himself king of all the Arab countries. In January 1926, at Mecca, he was proclaimed King of Hejaz and Nejd and in 1932 the territories were unified, under the title ‘Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’. In 1934 Saudi forces attacked Yemen and captured further territories in the south, including the towns of Najran and Jizan.

Oil was discovered in 1938, with oil concessions being leased to US and British companies, and exports began in 1946. During the ‘first oil boom’ (1947–52), the country was transformed from a poor pastoral kingdom into an affluent modernizing state, as annual oil revenues increased from $10 million to $212 million. During World War II, Ibn Saud remained neutral, but sympathetic towards the UK and the USA. In 1945 he founded the Arab League to encourage Arab unity.

His father was the son of Faisal, the sultan of Nejd (Najd), in central Arabia, at whose capital, Riyadh, Ibn Saud was born. The al-Saud family had dominated central Arabian politics since the mid-18th century, when it had established itself as the standard bearer of the Wahabi fundamentalist Islamic sect. In 1891 a rival north Arabian dynasty, the Rashidis, seized Riyadh, and Ibn Saud went into exile with his father, who resigned his claim to the throne in favour of his son, who was brought up in Kuwait. In 1902, following a Bedouin (nomadic Arab tribe) revolt, Ibn Saud recaptured Riyadh and recovered the kingdom. By 1914 he controlled much of the former Turkish possessions along the Gulf, and in 1915 Britain recognised him as Emir of Hasa (eastern Arabia) and Nejd.

Ibn Saud was a Arab tribal warrior of the classic mould, matching his military prowess with a large number of wives and children. He ruled in a personal and idiosyncratic manner and ran the country as a family state, being assisted by some of his 43 sons. His eldest son, Saud, was made crown prince in 1933, and became king on Fahd's death in November 1953. Another of Ibn's elder sons, Faisal, served as his foreign minister.