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Before the modern day reign of the Saudi Royal family which declared its throne in 1932, a young prince  at age 20 wanted to eliminate the Ottoman empire and restore rule of Al Saud who once dominated the region from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf.  He didn’t second guess his designated birth-right in the area.  His name was Abd al-Azia Ibn Saud.  He crossed the desert with sixty brothers and cousins to reclaim the land.  He enlisted nomadic Bedouins, local warriors named the Ikhwan who also wanted their own version of a puritan Wahhabi Islamic state.  After the victory in 1902, Ibn Saud wanted to kill 1/3 of the army that helped him win, the Ikhwan.  He consulted the religious elite, the ulama, and got approval.  He killed part of the force that enabled him to win.   Since 1932, there has been no royal monarchy but the House of Saud and each subsequent ruler was a brother.  A few breaches of leadership have tipped the kingdom momentarily but only cost one real life in 80 plus years.  Clandestine deals with the U.S. have kept them interfacing East-West loyalty that may switch up generation to generation.
It is a pragmatic empire that weighs the actions of its neighbors with regional power-brokering beyond religious overtures.  The Saud family has also carefully balanced the initiative of typical geo-politics of defense realism protecting their interests while shepherding strong allies such as the United States to guard them and exonerate them but it has not always worked.   In 1973, President Nixon told King Faisal that an even handed approach would be used toward Israel at the breakout of the Yom Kippur War.  Saudi Arabia had helped financed the war against Israel and sent 3,000 soldiers.  Israel trounced their enemies and Richard Nixon betrayed the Saudis by sending a 2.2 billion in military aid and equipment to Israel.  That is what caused the oil embargo in 1973 which quadrupled oil prices for over a year.  Most of the time, the Saudis did not stand up to the U.S. as in the 1967 Israeli war when King Faisal wanted to punish the Americans by aligning to Israel but did not.

The most romantic union in history, a blind-sighted agreement that reaped unlimited bounty for the Saudi family was when the Americans were looking for the legendary lost Solomon mines and signed a 99 year land grand to look for gold which came to be the best gamble in history. The Quran states that one should not lease land or invite foreigners into a country.   Black gold or oil was found which would propel stability and wealth in the region that would last more than 80 years.   Ibn Saud, the partriach of the House of Saud, fathered over 45 sons in 25 marriages. . To keep his new kingdom united, he married a daughter from every tribe as well as from the influential clerical families.  In Quran rule, you can only marry 4 wives at a time so he ended up divorcing some to marry more.  This created a long term lineage and a kingdom that essentially would never end. King Abd-al Aziz Ibn Saud ruled from 1932-1953.  Unlike many European royal families, Saudi successions are not based on primogeniture; it does not pass from king to his eldest son, it passes to a brother. Due to the advancing age of the second generation of princes, this process is becoming increasingly problematic.  King Salman, the 7th brother to take over, replaced King Abdullah who died last month.  

The Saudis have always built a long lasting friendship with Americans.  The first land grant in which Americans were only searching for gold was met with an exchange of 500 horses to be provided to the Saudi kingdom.  The Americans did pay $170,000 for land concessions eventually.  The Saudis did not want money.  Later, when the Americans found black gold, Ibn Saud gave them the right to develop and manufacture oil.  The oil companies and the Saudi government set up a joint enterprise that later becomes the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco). Its shareholders include America's four largest oil corporations.   During WWII, the U.S. urgently needed oil facilities to help supply forces fighting in the Second World War.  Meanwhile, security is at the forefront of King Ibn Saud’s concerns. President Franklin Roosevelt invites the king to meet him aboard the U.S.S. Quincy, docked in the Suez Canal. The two leaders cement a secret oil-for-security pact: The king guarantees to give the U.S. secure access to Saudi oil and in exchange the U.S. will provide military assistance and training to Saudi Arabia and build the Dhahran military base.   Later, when President Roosevelt dies suddenly, President Truman does not offer inside deals and warm exchanges to the Saudi leader.
Another friendship formed with Ibn Saud was St. John Philby, who was a British diplomat in the Middle East.   Philby was sent to the interior of the Arabian peninsula to head a mission in 1917.  Ibn Saud was a strict enforcer of the Wahhabi sect of Islam and a cardinal enemy of Sherif Hussein.  Philby was impressed by the reputable “Lion of the desert”, a title he earned by conquering holy territories.  Philby started sabotaging raids against the Hashemite ruler of the Hejaz, leader of the Arab Revolt.  Philby secretly began to favour Ibn Saud over Sherif Hussein as "King of the Arabs", opposing British policy, which was promising support for the Hashemite dynasty in the post-Ottoman world. In 1916,  the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali, led a pan-Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire to create a united Arab state. Although the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918 failed in its objective, the Allied victory in World War I resulted in the end of Ottoman suzerainty and control in Arabia.  In January 1926,  Ibn Saud declared himself King of the Hejaz and later Nejad. For the next five years, he administered the two parts of his dual kingdom as separate units. On return Philby crossed from Riyadh to Jeddah by the "backdoor" route, proving Ibn Saud was in control of the Arabian highlands.  Philby enabled Ibn Saud to gain the prized Hejaz territory.  The Saudis had aligned themselves with Western allies such as Britain and the United States to overcome the Ottoman empire and the Central Powers of WWI.  When the Armistice was signed and a Balfour declaration agreed to make Israel a nation, Philby felt the Western allies deceived the Saudis.  Philby and Ibn Saud’s friendship lasted a lifetime in which they would go into the desert to practice the ways of the Bedouin nomads.  Philby argued that Ibn Saud was a "democrat" guiding his affairs "by mutual counsel" as laid out in the Quran (Surah 42:38).  Another interesting tidbit is that King Saud first rejected the idea of radio in his country that the Americans introduced.  He later allowed it because the radio could recited prayers and vigils during Ramadan and it was an effective communication.

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 Ibn Saud’s concerns. President Franklin Roosevelt invites the king to meet him aboard the U.S.S. Quincy, docked in the Suez Canal. The two leaders cement a secret oil-for-security pact: The king guarantees to give the U.S. secure access to Saudi oil and in exchange the U.S. will provide military assistance and training to Saudi Arabia and build the Dhahran military base.
Since WWII,  Saudi power has upchanged leadership within their own blood.  King Saud, the next in line, only ruled 11 years from 1953-64 because he was unable to effectively manage the finances of the kingdom.  The family inquires with the ulama, the religious authorities, and get a fatwa sanctioning Saud's abdication.  His brother, King Faisal took over in 1964.  He was educated at Western universities and very dedicated to modernizing his regime.  One time while attending a party at Berkeley, he put caviar on his hot dogs.  King Faisal begins a program of upgrading the kingdom, stressing economic development and educational improvements including the education of women beginning 1965. During his reign oil revenues increase by more than 1,600 percent, enabling Faisal to build a communications and transportation infrastructure and set up a generous system of welfare benefits for all citizens. Even today, Saudi citizens do not pay taxes.  He also introduces television which becomes his fate.  Protestors rushed into the streets to prevent television from being developed in the nation. When a nephew of the king is killed at the protest in clashes with the police, the king does nothing to punish the policemen.  In 1975, the brother of  nephew shoots King Faisal and he is assassinated.  

This is Part 1 of a two part series.  Next week I will discuss  division of profits of Aramco and new leadership that just took over as well as changes after Iran’s overtake of the Shah.