Notes on the History of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the largest country in the Middle East by area and the fifth largest in the world. It is one of the most politically significant countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, owing to its large oil and gas reserves. It is an absolute monarchy ruled by a King.

Kings of Saudi Arabia

History of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has a fascinating history, some of which is discussed below.

1. From ancient times until the Medieval era, the Arabian Peninsula was fragmented into tribes and no unity existed between them. A large portion of the peninsula consisted of tribal settlements. However, there were a few urban centres including Makkah, Yathrib, and Ta’if. Makkah was a centre of pagan pilgrimage.
2. The Arabian Peninsula was first unified during the times of Prophet Muhammad and the succeeding Rashidun Caliphate, The Rashidun Caliphate and its succeeding Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates ruled over the entire Arabian Peninsula.
3. It is widely believed that Al-Saud Clan does not belong to any particular tribe. The claim that the Sauds belonged to the Banu Wa’il section of the ‘Aniza tribe has been contested by many historians. This lack of tribal origins later encouraged al-Sauds to tie up with Abdal Wahhab for expansion. The Saudis originally belonged to the region centred around Al-Diriyah in the landlocked Najd region of the Arabian Peninsula.
4. To date, there have been three Saudi States:

• First Saudi State(1744 – 1818)
• Second Saudi State(1824 – 1891)
• Third Saudi State(1902 – Present)

5. The history of modern Saudi Arabia begins with Muhammad ibn Saud, the ruler of the emirate of Diriyah (1744 – 1765) and his son Abdal Aziz bin Muhammad al Saud (1765 – 1803). Abdal Aziz, in typical tribal fashion, led raid campaigns to many regions, including Karbala(1802) and Hejaz(1802 – 1804).
6. In the Hejaz campaign, Abdal Aziz established temporary Saudi hegemony over Ta’if (1802), Makkah(1803) and Medina(1804). It was during the brief occupation of Medina when Abdal Aziz ordered the demolition of the tomb of Prophet Muhammad, which the Saudis regarded as idol worship. In the campaign of Karbala, Abdal Aziz sacked and plundered the holy shrine of Imam Hussein. As a result, he was assassinated by a Shi’ite in 1803 in a mosque in Ad-Diriyah.
7. The Saudi expansionism did not go well with the Ottomans who, along with Muhammad Ali of Egypt and his son Ibrahim Pasha, invaded the Saudi Emirate. The Saudis surrendered in 1818 and were captured by the Egyptians.
8. Abdal Aziz’s nephew, Turki ibn Abdullah al-Saud reconquered ad-Diriyah to build the Second Saudi State. The second state, however, was not expansionist, despite being preachers of Wahhabism. Turki was succeeded by his son Faisal bin Turki.
9. However, Muhammad Ali of Egypt again invaded Najd in 1936 and took Faisal captive. Egyptians installed Khalid bin Saud as the ruler of the emirate. However, after the 1840 Convention of London, the Egyptians were forced to relinquish control over the Arabian Peninsula, alienating Khalid in the process.
10. Faisal bin Turki returned to the emirate but soon, after he died in 1865, the emirate began to decline, partly because of infighting among his sons. Abdul Rahman bin Faisal was the last Imam (as they were known) to rule the Second Saudi State. In 1891, the vassal state of al-Rashid (Emirate of Ha’il) took over the Najd region for ten years and exiled Sauds to Kuwait.
11. Abdul Rahman’s son Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman al Saud returned to Najd to set up the third Saudi State. At the time, the Hejaz was ruled by the Ottoman Empire which was on a decline. Hejaz was a multicultural region with people having Turkish, African, Persian, and Indian lineages. Mecca was a Sharifate ruled by Sharif Hussein ibn Ali, a direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad. He was a follower of the Shafi’i School of Jurisprudence.
12. The rulers of Saudi Arabia began the expansion of their territory almost immediately, and as a result, changed their official name to incorporate conquered lands:

• Emirate of Riyadh (1902-1913)
• Emirate of Najd and al-Hasa (1913-1921) [after occupying al-Hasa region]
• Sultanate of Najd (1921-1927) [after occupying the Emirate of Ha’il]
• Kingdom of Hejaz and Najd (1927-32) [after occupying Hejaz]
• Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1932-Present)

13. There were two important actors in the final revival of the Saudis: The Mutawwa’a (the religious specialists), formally known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, and the Ikhwan (tribal military forces), formally known as Ikhwan man ata’a Allah. The former were active agents of state-building while the latter were a military force created as a result of efforts by Mutawwa’a. The Ikhwan were famous for enforcing their strict version of Wahhabi Islam across Saudi Arabia.
14. The Mutawwa’a were a Najdi phenomenon. They differed from the Ulama – religious scholars in the Islamic World. They are best described as “religious ritual specialists”. Their job was to enforce Saudi rituals, which later turned out to be a significant factor in Saudi state-building. The Mutawwa’a, through this enforcement, were instrumental in domesticating the Arab population into accepting Abdul Aziz’s political authority.
15. The Mutawwa’a promulgated and believed in the doctrine that power is legitimate by whatever means and it is incumbent upon all the subjects to be obedient to the person who wields power.
16. The Mutawwa’a are remembered as wielding long sticks which they used to punish the Saudis who displayed any reluctance to perform the prescribed rituals.
17. The Confirmation of all acts, treaties and proclamations by the Mutawwa’a was necessary for its legitimacy.
18. The Wahhabi Ulama looked down upon the region of al-Hasa as it was inhabited by Saudi Arabia’s Shia population and therefore, as an abode of innovations in the religion. Similarly, they considered the Hejaz region as a breeding ground of Hanafi Ottoman Islam, which they disliked.
19. Anglo-Saudi Treaty (1915): The Saudis got their first European recognition from the British in which they recognised Najd, al-Hasa, Qatif, Jubail and other dependencies as Saudi Territory. In return, Abdul Aziz al Saud agreed not to invade Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the Trucial States (modern-day UAE).
20. Bahra Agreement (1925): The border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia was settled and remains the same to date.
21. Hadda Agreement (1925): The Hadda Agreement settled the border between Jordan (then known as Trans-Jordan) and Saudi Arabia. Jordan got the city of Aqaba through this agreement.
22. Treaty of Mecca (1926): This Treaty incorporated the Idrisid Emirate of Asir in Saudi Arabia
23. Treaty of Jeddah (1927): Recognized Saudi sovereignty over Najd and Hejaz in return for not attacking British Protectorates in the region.
24. Ikhwan Revolt(1927-1930): The Third Saudi State faced its first major challenge in the revolt which was done by the people who were its most formidable allies. The Ikhwan (lit. Brethren) had played a major role in suppressing minor rebellions throughout the 25-year history of the state. However, being from a Bedouin tribe, they were keen on further expansion into Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait. This went against the treaties signed by the Saudi Government with the British. The Ikhwan proved to be efficient and incredible in expansion but problematic when it came to consolidation.
25. The leaders of Ikhwan, Faisal al-Duwaysh and Sultan al-Bajid also eyed political power in Medina and Taif respectively. They started to criticise the treaties with the British before surfacing religious criticism of the government.
26. The Ikhwan conducted raids with Saudi approval on the neighbouring states in the 1920s, including raids on Transjordan and Kuwait. However, after a series of treaties with British Protectorates in the region and being well aware of the power RAF possessed, Ibn Saud was bound to stop such raids. The Ikhwan were, however, not bound. An Ikhwan raid in the Iraqi town of Busayya in 1927 heated things and the RAF was called to bomb the raiders. In January 1928, the Ikhwan raided yet another town, this time in Kuwait. Both these raids were done without intimating Ibn Saud.
27. Ibn Saud refused to sanction the raids in a meeting with Ikhwan in Riyadh in November 1928. In late 1928, the Ikhwan openly revolted.
28. Overwhelming the Ikhwan was not a problem for the Saudi forces who had begun to modernize (they were equipped with machine guns), whereas the Ikhwan still fought on camels and swords. Nonetheless, both sides suffered casualties at the Battle of Shabilla and the Battle of Jabal Shammar. On 10th January 1930, the rebellion was finally suppressed. Much of the Ikhwan was brutally killed and the remaining were incorporated into regular Saudi forces. Both Faisal al-Duwaysh and Sultan al-Bajid died in 1930.
29. In 1930, Asir was annexed by the Saudis. Its ruler, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Idrisi was allowed to remain the nominal head of the new Province of Asir. However, the incorporation of Asir brought Imam Yahya of Yemen and Ibn Saud to a confrontation.
30. In 1932, Ibn Saud declared the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the same year, oil wells were discovered in nearby Bahrain.
31. In 1938, oil was discovered by Standard Oil in the al-Hasa region of Saudi Arabia. By the next year, it was exporting it. In a few years, the absolute monarchy started to rely upon oil income almost entirely. Earlier, it relied on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
32. During the Second World War, the relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States took off. Italy bombed an oil installation in Dhahran, a city where the headquarters of California-Arabian Standard Oil were located.
33. By 1943, President F.D. Roosevelt had declared that the defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was vital to the defence of the USA. In 1945, after the Yalta Conference had concluded, Roosevelt and King Abdul Aziz met on board the USS Quincy to discuss security relations.
34. In 1953, King Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah ibn Saud died. Before his death, in 1933, he had chosen his eldest son Saud bin Abdul Aziz as his successor. Saud became King immediately after Abdul Aziz’s death; Faisal bin Abdul Aziz was made the Crown Prince. However, Saud was deemed incompetent and profligate, especially when it came to dealing with the most pressing problem of the Saudis at the time: Nasserism.
35. President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt unleashed a wave of Pan-Arabism and anti-monarchism throughout the Middle East. Saudi Arabia could not remain aloof from the wave. Nasser, in fact, openly called for the overthrow of the Saudi Monarchy.
36. In Saudi Arabia, the movement took shape mainly in the form of the Free Princes Movement. The Free Princes or Al-Umara’ al-Ahrar was a royal opposition group led by Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, half-brother of King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal. Commonly addressed as Young Najdis, the Free Princes demanded a National Assembly and wanted to turn the kingdom into a Constitutional Monarchy. It received some support from the Saudi middle class and even the incumbent Oil Minister Abdullah Turayqi and some other princes. The Free Princes even drafted a Constitution with help from Egyptian lawyers and presented it to the King in the early 1960s.
37. The movement, however, did not gain momentum and many members of the group, including Abdullah Turayqi, were exiled by Prime Minister Faisal. Some others went into self-exile in Egypt. The movement ended after the Free Princes were alienated by the Free Officers in Egypt.  By 1963, the movement was practically dead. Prince Talal returned to the Kingdom.
38. During the same period, Saudi Arabia’s debt kept on mounting. Coupled with an unsuccessful attempt by Saud to assassinate Nasser, Saudi Arabia was deeply embarrassed. The Grand Mufti of Makkah issued a Fatwa asking Saud to abdicate and make way for Faisal. After much infighting, Saud abdicated and Faisal became the King in 1975.
39. Faisal proved to be a mordeniser and his reign from 1965 to 1975 saw many overreaching reforms. He began cutting costs, issued edicts for controlling profligacy, and started the nation’s first Five Year Plan. Television broadcasts also started during his reign. His reign also witnessed improved transportation, expansion of Mecca’s Masjid al-Haram, Improvement in education (especially for girls), improved access to healthcare, religious inclusiveness, modernisation of the military etc.
40. Internationally, King Faisal is mostly remembered for initiating the 1973 Oil Crisis after the 1973 Yom Kippur War (a.k.a. Ramadan War). Faisal imposed an oil embargo on the Western nations, including the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Portugal and the Netherlands for supporting Israel in the war. The embargo lasted from October 1973 to March 1974.
41. Nasserism remained a potent threat to the Kingdom and King Faisal as the North Yemeni Civil War, which began with a coup that overthrew its Muttawakkilite King, raged from 1962 to 1970. The Egyptian troops were stationed in an area where there was a plurality of the Shia population and where there had been decades of conflict with the Saudis. Furthermore, Yemeni forces stationed at higher altitudes had an edge over Saudi Arabia’s largely flat and desolate terrain. Additionally, a revolution in the Shia-majority part of the peninsula could energise the Shias of Saudi Arabia, especially those living in the al-Hasa region.
42. King Faisal was killed in 1975 by his half-brother Faisal bin Musa’id. Faisal bin Musa’id’s brother Khaled was shot by Saudi Police in 1965.
43. Faisal was succeeded by King Khalid. He inherited the prosperity and process of modernization of the Kingdom from Faisal. However, his reign is primarily remembered for three events: the Iranian Revolution, the Qatif Uprising and the Seizure of Masjid al-Haram.
44. Though initially anti-monarchical, the Iranian Revolution turned into a Shi’ite Theocratic Revolution whose leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, openly called for an overthrow of all monarchies in the Islamic World on the pretence that monarchies are anti-Islamic. Thus the Saudis feared both the overthrow of their monarchy and tensions in the oil-rich Shia-dominated region of al-Hasa. Both of them came true in a week.
45. Though Ikhwan had mostly been suppressed, people of a few tribes still stuck to its beliefs. Among them was Juhayman al-Otaybi from the ‘Utaibah tribe in Najd. On 20th November 1979, al-Otaybi and his 500 militants stormed the Masjid al-Haram and called for an uprising against the Saudis for forging alliances with Christian infidels and secularizing Saudi Arabia, introducing televisions, allowing foreigners on the land etc.
46. On 26th September 1979, after months of simmering tensions, the Shia regions of the Kingdom erupted in protests. Known as the Qatif Uprising, the Shias protested against the lack of freedom of expression and freedom of the press, Saudi opposition to the Iranian Revolution, long-time discrimination against Shias and corruption. The incident marked the beginning of the Qatif Conflict between the Saudi Government and Saudi Shias.
47. As a direct result of the seizure of Masjid al-Haram, the Saudi leadership quickly backtracked several reforms. Cinemas and music shops were shut down, photos of women in newspapers and magazines were banned, religious teachings were encouraged in schools, moral policing became the norm, and gender segregation became widespread.
48. King Khalid died in 1982 of natural causes. He was succeeded by King Fahd. The Islamization inherited from King Khalid continued, along with industrialization. He adopted the title of “Custodian of the two holy Mosques” in a bid to Islamize. He brought the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia which makes the Quran the Constitution of Saudi Arabia and established the Supreme Court of Islamic Affairs.
49. King Fahd also played an important role in the Gulf War, allowing the US to launch operations from its territory into Kuwait and Iraq. Saudi troops also took part in the war.
50. King Fahd’s reign saw two of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. The first happened in 1996 in a Building in Khobar near Saudi Aramco headquarters where US Air Force personnel were residing with their families. In all, 19 US Air Force personnel were killed and about 500 injured. The attack was conducted by Hezbollah al-Hijaz, a Shi’ite terror group.
51. The second attack took place in Riyadh in 2003 and was conducted by Al-Qaeda. It was a response to the continuing Westernization of Saudi Arabia.
52. His reign also saw the first municipal elections in Saudi Arabia since the 1960s. Only males were allowed to participate and vote.
53. King Fahd died in 2005 due to natural causes. King Abdullah came to power after his death.  He had already acted as regent since 1995 as King Fahd was frequently ill. One of his first major acts was the creation of the Allegiance Council to facilitate the appointment of the crown prince as soon as a King takes oath.
54. King Abdullah heavily focused on education. He created a new department for female students in the Ministry of Education and brought US-educated Nora al-Fayez to head it. twenty-five per cent of the 2010 budget went to education alone.
55. The sparking off of Arab Sprinh in 2010 compelled him to announce a package of $37 billion for youth, unemployed, housing, debt write-offs etc.
56. The king also allowed females to participate in the municipal elections. In 2012, he allowed female Saudi citizens to participate in the Olympics. Additionally, he reserved 20 per cent of seats in the 150-membered Shura. In 20-13, domestic violence was made a criminal offence.
57. He appointed his full brother Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as the Crown Prince in 2011. However, Nayed died a year later making way for Salman bin Abdul Aziz to become the Crown Prince. He died in 2015.
58. King Salman was already 80 years old when he assumed the throne. He appointed Muhamad bin Nayef as the Crown Prince in 2015. In 2017, MbN was removed and Muhammad bin Salman was made the Crown Prince. He is widely regarded as the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.