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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
The modern history of Arabia is often broken into three
periods that follow the fortunes of the Al Saud. The first begins
with the alliance between Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd
al Wahhab and ends with the capture of Abd Allah. The second
period extends from this point to the rise of the second Abd al
Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of the modern state; the third
consists of the establishment and present history of the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia.
In the Egyptians' attempt to establish control over the
peninsula, Muhammad Ali removed members of the Al Saud from the
area. Following orders from the Ottoman sultan, he sent Abd Allah
to Istanbul--where he was publicly beheaded--and forced other
members of the family to leave the country. A few prominent
members of the Al Saud found their way to Egypt.
The Egyptians turned next to the material monument of the Al
Saud rule, the city of Ad Diriyah. They razed its walls and
buildings and destroyed its palm groves so that the area could
not support any agricultural settlement for some time. The
Egyptians then sent troops to strategic parts of the peninsula to
tighten their grip on it. They garrisoned Al Qatif, a port on the
Persian Gulf that supplied some of the important centers in
eastern Arabia and maintained various forces along the Red Sea
coast in the west
(see
fig. 2).
Figure 2. Nineteenth-Century Arabia
In the Hijaz, Muhammad Ali restored the authority of the
Sharifs, who had ruled the area from Mecca since the tenth
century. However, Turki ibn Abd Allah, the uncle of the next-to-
last ruler (Saud), upset Egyptian efforts to exercise authority
in the area. Turki had fought at Ad Diriyah, but managed to
escape the Egyptians when the town fell in 1818. He hid for two
years among loyal forces to the south, and after a few
unsuccessful attempts, recaptured Ad Diriyah in 1821. From the
ruins of Ad Diriyah, Turki proceeded to Riyadh, another Najdi
city. This eventually became the new Al Saud base. Forces under
Turki's control reclaimed the rest of Najd in 1824.
Turki's relatively swift retaking of Najd showed the extent
to which the Al Saud-Wahhabi authority had been established in
the area over the previous fifty years. The successes of the
Wahhabi forces had done much to promote tribal loyalty to the Al
Saud. But the Wahhabi principles of the Al Saud rule were equally
compelling. After Muhammad ibn al Wahhab's death in 1792, the
leader of Al Saud assumed the title of imam. Thus, Al Saud
leaders were recognized not just as shaykhs or leaders, but as
Wahhabi imams, political and religious figures whose rule had an
element of religious authority.
Turki and his successors ruled from Riyadh over a wide area.
They controlled the region to the north and south of Najd and
exerted considerable influence along the western coast of the
Persian Gulf. This was no state but a large sphere of influence
that the Al Saud held together with a combination of treaties and
delegated authority. In the Shammar Mountains to the north, for
instance, the Al Saud supported the rule of Abd Allah ibn Rashid
with whom Turki maintained a close alliance. Later, Turki's son
Faisal cemented this alliance by marrying his son, Talal, to Abd
Allah's daughter, Nurah. Although this family-to-family
connection worked well, the Al Saud preferred to rely in the east
on appointed leaders to rule on their behalf. In other areas,
they were content to establish treaties under the terms of which
tribes agreed to defend the family's interests or to refrain from
attacking the Al Saud when the opportunity arose.
Within their sphere of influence, the Al Saud could levy
troops for military campaigns from the towns and tribes under
their control. Although these campaigns were mostly police
actions against recalcitrant tribes, the rulers described them as
holy wars (jihad), which they conducted according to religious
principles. The tribute that the Al Saud demanded from those
under their control was also based on Islamic principles. Towns,
for instance, paid taxes at a rate established by Muslim law, and
the troops that accompanied the Al Saud on raiding expeditions
returned one-fifth of their booty to the Al Saud treasury
according to sharia (Muslim Law) requirements.
The collection of tribute was another indication of the
extensive influence the Al Saud derived because of their Wahhabi
connections. Wahhabi religious ideas had spread through the
central part of the Arabian Peninsula; as a result, the Al Saud
influenced decisions even in areas not under their control, such
as succession battles and questions of tribute. Their influence
in the Hijaz, however, remained restricted. Not only were the
Egyptians and Ottomans careful that the region not slip away
again, but Wahhabi ideas had not found a receptive audience in
western Arabia. Accordingly, the family was unable to gain a
foothold in the Hijaz during the nineteenth century.
The Al Saud maintained authority in Arabia by controlling
several factors. First, they could resist, or at least
accommodate, Egyptian interference. After 1824 when the Egyptians
could no longer maintain outright military control over Arabia,
they turned to political intrigues. Turki, for instance, was
assassinated in 1834 by a member of the Al Saud who had recently
returned from Cairo. When Turki's son, Faisal, succeeded his
father, the Egyptians supported a rival member of the family,
Khalid ibn Saud, and with Egyptian assistance Khalid controlled
Najd for the next four years.
Muhammad Ali and the Egyptians were severely weakened after
the British and French defeated their fleet off the coast of
Greece in 1827. This prevented the Egyptians from exerting much
influence in Arabia, but it left the Al Saud with the problem of
the Ottomans, whose ultimate authority Turki eventually
acknowledged. The challenge to the sultan had helped end the
first Al Saud empire in 1818, so later rulers chose to
accommodate the Ottomans as much as they could. The Al Saud
eventually became of considerable financial importance to the
Ottomans because they collected tribute from the rich trading
state of Oman and forwarded much of this to the Sharifs in Mecca,
who relayed it to the sultan. In return the Ottomans recognized
the Al Saud authority and left them alone for the most part.
The Ottomans, however, sometimes tried to expand their
influence by supporting renegade members of the Al Saud. When
Faisal's two sons, Abd Allah and Saud, vied to take over the
empire from their father, Abd Allah enlisted the aid of the
Ottoman governor in Iraq, who used the opportunity to take Al
Qatif and Al Hufuf in eastern Arabia. The Ottomans were
eventually driven out, but until the time of Abd al Aziz they
continued to look for a relationship with the Al Saud that they
could exploit.
One of the reasons the Ottomans were unsuccessful was the
growing British interest in Arabia. The British government in
India considered the Persian Gulf to be its western flank and so
became increasingly involved with the piracy of the Arab tribes
on the eastern coast. The British were also anxious about
potentially hostile Ottoman influence in an area so close to
India and the Suez Canal. As a result, the British came into
increasing contact with the Al Saud. As Wahhabi leaders, the Al
Saud could exert some control over the tribes on the gulf coast,
and they were simultaneously involved with the Ottomans. During
this period, the Al Saud leaders began to play off the Ottomans
and British against each other.
Whereas the Al Saud were largely successful in handling the
two great powers in the Persian Gulf, they did not do so well in
managing their family affairs. The killing of Turki in 1834
touched off a long period of fighting. Turki's son, Faisal, held
power until he was expelled from Riyadh by Khalid and his
Egyptian supporters. Then, Abd Allah ibn Thunayan (from yet
another branch of the Al Saud) seized Riyadh. He could maintain
power only briefly, however, because Faisal, who had been taken
to Cairo and then escaped, retook the city in 1845.
Faisal ruled until 1865, lending some stability to Arabia.
Upon his death, however, fighting started again, and his three
sons, Abd Allah, Abd ar Rahman, and Saud--as well as some of
Saud's sons--each held Riyadh on separate occasions
(see
fig. 3).
The political structure of Arabia was such that each leader had
to win the support of various tribes and towns to conduct a
campaign. In this way, alliances were constantly formed and
reformed, and the more often this occurred, the more unstable the
situation became.
Figure 3. Abbreviated Genealogy of the House of Saud with
Order and Duration of Rule, 1992
This instability accelerated the decline of the Al Saud after
the death of Faisal. While the Al Saud was bickering, however,
the family of Muhammad ibn Rashid, who controlled the area around
the Shammar Mountains, had been gaining strength and expanding
its influence in northern Najd. In 1890 Muhammad ibn Rashid, the
grandson of the leader with whom Turki had first made an
alliance, was in a position to enhance his own power. He removed
the sons of Saud ibn Faisal from Riyadh and returned it to the
nominal control of their uncle, Abd ar Rahman. Muhammad put
effective control of the city, however, into the hands of his own
garrison commander, Salim ibn Subhan. When Abd ar Rahman
attempted to exert real authority, he was driven out of Riyadh.
Thus, the Al Saud, along with the young Abd al Aziz, were obliged
to take refuge with the amir of Kuwait.
Data as of December 1992
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