7 Ibn Sa‘ūd 7

iBn sa‘u ̄ d

(b. c. 1880, Riyadh, Arabia—d. Nov. 9, 1953, Al-T·ā’if, Saudi Arabia)

I

bn Sa‘ūd was the tribal and Muslim religious leader who

formed the modern state of Saudi Arabia and initiated

the exploitation of its oil.

The Sa‘ūds ruled much of Arabia from 1780 to 1880;

but, while Ibn Sa‘ūd was still an infant, his family was

driven out by their rivals, the Rashīds, and became penni-

less exiles in Kuwait. In 1901 Ibn Sa‘ūd, then 21, set out

from Kuwait with 40 camelmen in a bold attempt to regain

his family’s lands. A daring raid into Riyadh in January

1902 succeeded in rousing the former supporters of his

dynasty, and within two years Ibn Sa‘ūd had won over

much of central Arabia. Turkish forces summoned by the

Rashīds opposed him until 1912 with little success and

then withdrew for lack of supplies.

Ibn Sa‘ūd decided, in the years before World War I, to

revive his dynasty’s support for Wahhābism, an extremist

Muslim puritan revival. Ibn Sa‘ūd was in fact a devoted

puritan Muslim, yet he was also aware that religious fanat-

icism could serve his ambition, and he deliberately fostered

it, founding a militantly religious tribal organization

known as the Ikhwān (brethren). This fanatical brother-

hood encouraged his followers to fight and to massacre

their Arab rivals, and it helped him to bring many nomadic

tribesmen under more immediate control.

During World War I, Ibn Sa‘ūd entered into a treaty

with the British (December 1915), accepting protectorate

status and agreeing to make war against Ibn Rashīd, who

was being supported by the Turks. But despite British

arms and a subsidy of £5,000 a month from the British

government (which continued until 1924), he was inactive

until 1920, arguing that his subsidy was insufficient. During