Saud I ibn Abd al-Aziz

Saud I. ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad Al Saud ( Arabic سعود الكبير بن عبد العزيز بن محمد آل سعود, DMG Saʿūd al-kabīr ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad Āl Saʿūd ; * 1748 ; † May 1, 1814 ) was Imam of the Wahhabis (1803-1814).

At the age of 55, Saud I ibn Abd al-Aziz took over the leadership of the Wahhabi Empire from his father Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad (1765-1803). He was appointed heir to the throne as early as 1788 and since then has led the Wahhabi campaigns against al-Hasa , Mecca and Karbala , among others . After taking over the government, he occupied Medina in 1804 and built a fort in Janbu on the Red Sea. The Grand Sherif of Mecca Ghaleb was severely beaten by the Wahhabi vassal, the Emir of Asir . In the following years, Saud I forced the submission of Ghaleb and consolidated the rule of the Wahhabis in Bahrain , on the pirate coast and in Oman .

The unification of Arabia by the Al Saud and, above all, the occupation of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina led to counter-reactions from the Ottoman sultan , who regarded himself as the caliph of the Muslims . He therefore commissioned Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt with the expulsion of the Wahhabis from the holy places, whereupon the seven-year Ottoman-Saudi war began. In 1811 Egyptian troops landed in Janbu under Tussun Bey. In the following years alliances were concluded with the Bedouins in the area, as well as negotiations with the Grand Sherif Ghaleb in Mecca. Despite a few setbacks, the Egyptians occupied Medina in 1812 and Mecca in 1813, with which Ghaleb fell away from the Wahhabis.

Saud I. died of a fever on May 1, 1814. He was succeeded by his son Abdallah I ibn Saud to the throne (1814-1818), who had already led the fighting against the Egyptian troops.

See also

• Saud dynasty

literature

• Jörg-Dieter Brandes: … with saber and Koran, Saudi Arabia or the rise of the Saud royal family and the Wahabites. Thorbecke, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7995-0094-4 .