Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud

Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud , with full name Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Faisal Al Saud (probably born January 15, 1875 in Riyadh , † November 9, 1953 in Ta'if ; Arabic عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن بن فيصل آل سعود, DMG ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān b. Faiṣal Āl Saʿūd ) came from the Saud dynasty and was the first king of Saudi Arabia .

He subjugated and unified the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula and founded what is now the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932, which he ruled until his death in 1953.

Origin and youth

Ibn Saud was probably born in Riyadh in 1875 as the son of Abdul Rahman ibn Abdallah . There he grew up, received private schooling and was trained to take over the affairs of state. After his father was overthrown by the Raschids in 1891 , the ruling family of the Sauds had to flee into exile in Kuwait .

There the young Ibn Saud lived with his family in simple circumstances and from raids in the Najd region . At the same time he attended the Majlis , where he was instructed in the art of governance by Mubarak Al-Sabah , the Emir of Kuwait.

Unification of Saudi Arabia (1902 to 1932)

The climb to the king began on January 15, 1902 when he and 40 camel riders of the Ikhwan returned from Kuwait to Riyadh and the city in a surprise attack by the Raschiden recaptured. Ibn Saud's second uncle bin Jiluwi killed the governor Ajlan. Ibn Saud continued to recognize his father as the imam of the Wahhabis, for which he subsequently gave him a free hand. After the capture, the supporters of the House of Saud gathered around Ibn Saud, who was a charismatic leader and provided his followers with weapons. In the further submission of the najd , Ibn Saud could count on the support of the Ichwān. In the newly conquered areas, the Bedouins were asked to sell their cattle and to settle in permanent settlements, where they were instructed by Wahhabi preachers and adherence to religious duties was strictly monitored. The purpose of this forced settlement was also to have more easily recruited troops available for fighting against other tribes. As a result of this increase in power, from 1904 onwards there were more and more conflicts with the Ottoman Empire , the dominant power in the Middle East, which at that time formally exercised supremacy over the Arabian Peninsula. After a severe military defeat against the Ottomans and their allies, the Rashidi, Ibn Saud changed his tactics and started a successful partisan war . His troops operated from under the protection of the desert, and by cutting off the supply routes, the Ottomans had to withdraw again. Since the Ottoman Empire was in decline, Ibn Saud regained the upper hand and in 1913 was able to annex the province of al-Hasa to his rule.

After the outbreak of the First World War , the Ottoman Empire entered the fighting on the side of the Central Powers and was at war with the Triple Entente ( France , Great Britain , Russia ). As a result, the British in particular were looking for allies in the fight against the Ottomans; so it came to an unofficial alliance between Ibn Saud and Great Britain in December 1915 ( Treaty of Darin ). From then on the Arabs fought on the side of the Entente against the Ottomans. The House of Saud placed itself under British protection, was supplied with war material, and the limits of a possible independent Saudi empire after the end of the war were defined in advance. But after the end of the war and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Entente did not keep its word. In the Treaty of Ogair (1922), the Arabian Peninsula between France and Great Britain was divided into spheres of interest: the British claimed Iraq , Kuwait and the south coast of Aden (now Yemen ), France colonized Syria and Lebanon .

At the same time Ibn Saud and the Ikhwan took the combat operations against enemy tribes on again, especially against the fallen in Britain in favor Hashimites -King Hussein ibn Ali , king of the Hejaz (independent kingdom on the west coast of the peninsula). A decisive blow against its greatest competitor came in September 1924 when the Hashimites were defeated. This gave Ibn Saud the comparatively fertile area of ​​the Hejaz with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. This ended 700 years of Hashimite rule; on January 10, 1926, Ibn Saud proclaimed himself King of Hejaz and Najd in the Great Mosque of Mecca . Asir then submitted to his rule in the south of the peninsula. Ibn Saud had these agreements confirmed by the British in the Jeddah Agreement (May 20, 1927), who thereby recognized the independence of the kingdom.

The devout Ichwan did not agree. They wanted to expand the empire further north, turn against the British and incorporate the Trucial States into the empire. But Ibn Saud turned against the Ichwan and declared that a war against the British was militarily hopeless. In 1929 Ibn Saud successfully put down the Ichwan revolt, armed with British machine guns and armored vehicles . Despite this blow against the Wahhabis, Ibn Saud established his state as a Wahhabi state of God with an Islamic legal system . He was now the undisputed ruler of much of the Arabian Peninsula.

König (1932 to 1953)

On September 23, 1932 Ibn Saud proclaimed the new unitary state of Saudi Arabia and declared himself king. The absolute monarchy , without a constitution and parliament , was chosen as the form of government . The king is head of state and head of government in personal union; almost all important positions in the state are occupied by princes from the house of Saud. Sharia became the rule of law . Since Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places of Islam, are located in Saudi Arabia, the country enjoys a special status with other Islamic states. As a result, many nomadic tribes were forced to settle down and tribal feuds and blood revenge were banned. Ibn Saud fought crime in his kingdom with the aim of protecting the pilgrims of the holy places.

William Daniel Leahy , Ibn Saud, and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board the USS Quincy on February 14, 1945, when the President and King signed the so-called Quincy Agreement or Quincy Alliance. This treaty guaranteed, on the one hand, the supply of oil to the USA by the Al Saud family, and on the other, Roosevelt guaranteed the Al Saud military support and thus the retention of power to the royal family.

With the start of oil production in 1938, Ibn Saud rose to become one of the richest rulers in the Islamic world. The kingdom's rich oil reserves made it prosperous and of enormous importance for the economies of the western industrialized nations (from seven million US dollars in government revenue in 1939 to over 200 million US dollars in 1953). Through the mediation of the Englishman St. John Philby and the Lebanese Amin al-Rihani , Ibn Saud granted US companies the extraction of the raw material, the first being Aramco , which was the beginning of a close dependency between the two states. Since then, good relations with the United States have been a central element of Saudi foreign policy. On February 14, 1945 there was a historic meeting between Ibn Saud and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board the USS Quincy . There they signed a treaty on an American military base in the Persian Gulf , on the Palestine question, and a military alliance . During the Second World War , Saudi Arabia declared itself neutral, but actively supported the Allies .

Saudi Arabia has been officially at war since the state of Israel was founded in 1948. Israel is still not recognized, political contacts between the two states have not existed. For example, at a meeting with US diplomats, the king refused to receive citizens of the Jewish faith . Ibn Saud stayed out of military action against Israel, but he supported Palestinian organizations with massive financial aid.

Ibn Saud died on November 9, 1953 at the age of 78. In 1933, he had appointed his second eldest son, Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz, as heir to the throne .

The international airport and King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah as well as the King Abdul Aziz Stadium in Mecca are named after him.

family

The number of children of Ibn Saud is unknown, probably there are 50 to 60. The process of succession mostly excluded older members of the Al Saud . The most successful candidates are male descendants who previously held senior government positions and whose mothers were the wives of Abd al-Aziz. In addition, they must be able to unite the different branches of the family.

  1. by Wadha bint Muhammad bin Burghush al-Hazzam
    1. Turki (I) (1900-1919)
    2. Saud (1902-1969); King 1953–1964
    3. Muneera
  2. by Tarfah bint Abdullah bin Abdullatif al-Shaikh
    1. Khaled (I) (* 1903, infant death)
    2. Faisal (1906-1975); King 1964–1975
    3. Saad (I) (1914-1919)
    4. Anud (* 1917)
  3. by Jawhara Bint Musaid Bin Jiluwi al-Saud
    1. Mohammed (1910–1988)
    2. Chalid (II) (1913-1982); King 1975–1982
  4. by Bazza
    1. Nasser (1919-1984)
  5. by Jawhara bint Sa'ad bin Abd al-Muhsin al-Sudairi
    1. Saad (II) (1920-1993)
    2. Musa'id (1923-19 August 2013)
    3. Abdul Mohsin (1925–1985)
    4. Al-Bandari bint Abd al-Aziz (1928–8 March 2008)
  6. by Hasa bint Sudairi (1910–8 May 2003)
    (sons known as the " Sudairi-Seven ")
    1. Fahd (II) (1923-2005); King 1982-2005
    2. Sultan (1922 (according to other information 1924 or 1928) - October 22, 2011)
    3. Abd ar-Rahman (1931–13 July 2017)
    4. Naif (1933-2012)
    5. Turki (II) (1934-2016)
    6. Salman (* 1935); King since 2015
    7. Ahmed (* 1940)
    8. Loulwa
    9. Jawaher
    10. Lateefa
    11. Al-Jawhara
    12. Moudhi (died young)
    13. Felwa (died young)
  7. by Shahida
    1. Mansur (1922–2 May 1951)
    2. Mischal (1926 - May 3, 2017)
    3. Qumasha (* 1927)
    4. Mutaib (1931 - December 2, 2019)
  8. by Fahda bint al-Asi bin Shuraim († 1934)
    1. Abdullah (1924-2015); King from 2005 to 2015
    2. Nuf
    3. Sita († April 13, 2011)
  9. by Bazza (second wife named Bazza and Moroccan woman)
    1. Bandar (1923-2019)
    2. Fawwaz (1934-2008)
  10. by Haya bint Sa'ad al-Sudairi (1913-18 April 2003)
    1. Badr (I) (1931-1932)
    2. Badr (II) (1932-2013)
    3. Hussa († 2000)
    4. Abdulillah (* 1939)
    5. Abdul Majeed (1943-2007)
    6. Nura
    7. Mishail
  11. from Munaiyir
    1. Talal (II) (1931-2018)
    2. Mishari (1932-23 May 2000)
    3. Nawwaf (1932-2015)
  12. of Mudhi
    1. Majed (II) (October 19, 1938– April 12, 2003)
    2. Sattam (January 21, 1941– February 12, 2013)
    3. Haya
    4. Sultana
  13. by Nouf bint Nawwaf Bin Nouri al-Shalan
    1. Thamir (1937-27 June 1959)
    2. Mamdouh (* 1940)
    3. Mashhur (* 1942)
  14. from Saida (a Yemeni woman)
    1. Hazloul (1942-29 September 2012)
  15. from Baraka (a Yemeni woman)
    1. Muqrin (born September 15, 1945)
  16. by Futayma
    1. Hamad (1947-1994)
  17. from ??
    1. Fahd (I) (1905-1919)
    2. Sara (1916-June 2000)
    3. Shaikha (* 1922)
    4. Majeed (I) (1934-1940)
    5. Talal (I) (1930-1931)
    6. Jiluwi (I) (1942–1944)
    7. Abdul Salem (1941-1942)
    8. Jiluwi (II) (1952–1952), the youngest son of Ibn Saud, died as a child.

All males have the surname "ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saud", all women "bint Abdul Aziz Al Saud". Ibn Saud is the father of all subsequent kings of Saudi Arabia. Saud succeeded his father in 1953 after having appointed him Prime Minister three months earlier. In 1964 he was deposed by the Saudi Council of Ministers and replaced by Faisal , another son of Ibn Saud. He was followed by four more of his sons. According to the Saudi constitution of 1992, the king of Saudi Arabia must be a son or grandson of Ibn Saud.

literature

  • Uwe Pfullmann: Ibn Saud - King between tradition and progress. Edition Ost / Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-929161-99-0 / ISBN 3-89626-404-4 .
  • Mordechai Abir: Government, Society and the Gulf Crisis. London 1993, ISBN 0415093252 .
  • Sharaf Sabri: The house of Saud in commerce a study of royal entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. IS Publications, New Delhi 2001.
  • Said K. Aburish: The Fairytale Rise and Fall of the House of Saud. Is Saudi Arabia still acceptable as a partner of the West? Knesebeck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-926901-66-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "There were 40 of us" . In: Aramco Services Company (Ed.): Aramco World January / February 1999 . 1999, ISSN  1044-1891 , pp. 12–15 (English, aramcoworld.com [PDF]).
  2. ↑ Kenneth Pollack: Arabs at War. Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991. Lincoln 2004, pp. 425f.
  3. ^ Albert Hourani: The History of the Arab Peoples. 3rd edition, Frankfurt am Main 2001 p. 425.
  4. ↑ Counterrevolution in the Middle East on voltairenet.org, accessed May 9, 2014.
  5. ^ Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War; New Haven, 2008; P. 493
  6. ^ Albert Hourani: The history of the Arab peoples , 3rd edition, Frankfurt am Main, 2001 p. 443

Web links

Commons : Ibn Saud  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Saud, Abd al-Aziz ibn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Riad
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1953
Place of death Ta'if