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Muqrin Ibn Abdulaziz with General Hmood. image by Dawihq-

Top 10 Surprising Facts about Ibn Saud

Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, known in the West as Ibn Saud, was a tribal and Muslim religious leader. He reigned as the first king of Saudi Arabia from 23 September 1932 till his death in 1953.

He was a devout Muslim and he laid the foundations of the country’s subsequent development. He did this by granting the first concession to oil exploration in 1933, and by creating the Arabia-American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in 1944.

The oil became the royal household’s fortune. He continued to maintain a good relationship with the USA and the UK, which he supported in World War II.

Before his death in 1953, King Abd al-Aziz designated his eldest son, Prince Saud, as the next king. He also appointed his second son, Prince Faisal, minister of foreign affairs. However, Prince Saud proved an ineffective ruler. His reign is known for inattention to governance and misuse of money.

1. He set out to conquer Saudi Arabia at 21 years old

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At the age of ten, Saud followed his family into exile in Kuwait. This was due to the conquering of the family’s lands by the Rashidi. He spent the remainder of his childhood in Kuwait as a “penniless exile.”

Ibn Saud succeeded his father, Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, to become the leader of the Saud dynasty with the title Sultan of Nejd. In 1901, a twenty-year-old Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud rode out of the desert with 60 of his brothers and cousins. Their mission was to restore the rule of Al Saud.

He recaptured Riyadh by assassinating the Rashidi governor of the city. Ibn Saud was considered a “magnetic” leader, and many former supporters of the House of Saud once again rallied to its call following the capture of Riyadh.

2. Ibn Saud named Saudi Arabia after himself

Ibn Saud continued to consolidate power throughout the Arabian Peninsula. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud.

In 1932, having conquered most of the Peninsula, Saud renamed the area from the lands of Nejd and Hejaz to Saudi Arabia after his family name Saud.

3. He used religion to trick people to follow his ideas

Ibn Saud was very shrewd. He decided, in the years before World War I, to revive his dynasty鈥檚 support for Wahh膩bism, an extremist Muslim puritan revival.

He deliberately founded a militantly religious tribal organization known as the Ikhw膩n (Brethren). This fanatical brotherhood encouraged his followers to fight and massacre their Arab rivals. It also helped him to bring many nomadic tribesmen under more immediate control.

He was able to persuade the religious leaders to declare it a religious duty of all Wahh膩b墨s to abandon nomadism and to build houses at the desert wells. Thus settled, they could more easily be levied into his army. But the scheme was unrealistic: nomads who sold their flocks were often unable to cultivate and were reduced to penury. The destitution of the more fanatical tribes, however, made them more eager to raid, and Ibn Saud then suggested that they plunder the subjects of Ibn Rash墨d.

4. Ibn Saud was a cunning politician

Farouk I of Egypt and Sudan alongside King Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. Photo by Unknown photographer –

Ibn Saud now ruled central Arabia except for the Hejaz region along the Red Sea. This was the territory of Shar墨f 岣�usayn of Mecca, who had become king of the Hejaz during the war and who declared himself caliph (head of the Muslim community) in 1924.

Ibn Saud, fearing encirclement by this rival dynasty, decided to invade the Hejaz. He was then at the height of his powers; his strong personality and extraordinary charm had won the devotion of all his subjects.

A skillful politician, he worked closely with religious leaders, who always supported him. Relying on the Ikhw膩n to eliminate his Arab rivals, he sent them to raid his neighbors, then cabled the British, whose imperial interests were involved, that the raid was against his orders. In 1924 the Ikhw膩n took Mecca, and the Hejaz was added to his dominions.

5. Ibn Saud’s treachery came back to bite him

The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Image by U.S. Army Signal Corps –

At this point, there were no more rivals whom Ibn Saud could conquer, for those remaining had treaties with Britain. But the Ikhw膩n had been taught that all non-Wahh膩b墨 Muslims were infidels.

When Ibn Saud forbade further raiding, they charged him with treachery, quoting his own words against him. In 1927 they invaded Iraq against his wishes.

They were repulsed by British aircraft, but Ibn Saud鈥檚 authority over them had vanished, and on March 29, 1929, the Ikhw膩n, the fanatics whom he had trained, were crushed by Ibn Saud himself at the Battle of Sibilla.

6. Ibn Saud initiated the exploitation of Saudi Arabia鈥檚 oil

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Saudi Arabia and the U.S. established diplomatic relations, and in 1933 the first foreign oil prospectors arrive in the kingdom. The Americans paid $170,000 in gold for land concessions that turned out to contain the biggest oil fields on earth.

Ignoring criticism that inviting foreigners into the kingdom was un-Islamic, and citing precedent in the Quran, King Abd al-Aziz invited U.S oil companies to develop Saudi oil resources. The oil companies and the Saudi government set up a joint enterprise that later became the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco). Its shareholders include America’s four largest oil corporations.

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.

7. He exchanged oil for security

By 1945, the U.S. urgently needs oil facilities to help supply forces fighting in the Second World War. Meanwhile, security is at the forefront of King Abd al-Aziz’s concerns. President Franklin Roosevelt invited the king to meet him aboard the U.S.S. Quincy, docked in the Suez Canal.

The two leaders cemented a secret oil-for-security pact: The king was to give the U.S. secure access to Saudi oil and in exchange, the U.S. would provide military assistance and training to Saudi Arabia and build the Dhahran military base.

8. Ibn Saud’s greed for money was the end of him

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Saudi Arabia took no part in the war, but toward its end, the exploitation of oil was resumed. By 1950 Ibn Saud had received a total of about $200,000. Three years later, he was getting some $2,500,000 a week.

The effect was disastrous on the country and Ibn Saud. He had no idea of what to do with all the money, and he watched helplessly the triumph of everything he hated.

His religious views were offended. The secluded, penurious, hard, but idealistic life of Arabia was vanishing. Such vast sums of money drew half the swindlers in the Middle East to this puritan religious sanctum.

Ibn Saud was unable to cope with financial adventurers. His last years were marked by severe physical and emotional deterioration. He died at Al-峁�膩示if in 1953.

9. Ibn Saud had 52 children with different women.

To keep his new kingdom united, he married a daughter from every tribe as well as from influential clerical families. He had more than twenty wives, although never more than four at one time, by the Quran.

These unions produced 45 legitimate sons and the rest daughters. Abd al-Aziz then began consolidating power away from the brothers and cousins who helped him conquer the peninsula in favor of his sons.

Every Saudi king since has been a son of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud. All of these carry the surname “bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud” for men and “bint Abdul Aziz Al Saud” for women.

10. He went to war with Muslim warriors

photo by 賲賷賳 丕賱乇賷丨丕賳賷 – 丿丕乇丞 丕賱賲賱賰 毓亘丿 丕賱毓夭賷夭-Wikimedia

With the Ikhwan by his side, Abd al-Aziz captured province after province of the vast desert. He captured Mecca in 1924 and Medina in 1925, becoming the ruler of the Two Holy Cities of Islam.

But the Ikhwan wanted to spread Wahhabism beyond Arabia and when Abd al-Aziz tried to restrain them, they rebelled. To survive, Abd al-Aziz realized he has to destroy the Ikhwan. Being a defender of Islam, it was hard to justify going to war against his Muslim warriors.

Abd al-Aziz sought the approval of the ulama, the religious authorities, regarded as the moral guardians of the realm. With the ulama’s endorsement, he crushed the Ikhwan.