Download The House of Saud

The House of Saud
Saudi Arabia’s Ruling Family
The Land
 Harsh
and arid
 Cities develop
around oases
 5,000 years
ago Dilmun
people
inhabited
 Many Tribes
The Rise of the Sauds
 1750,
Sheik,
Muhammad Bin
Saud allies with
radical Islamic
cleric, Muhammad
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab
 Religious & Political
power fused…
Wahhabism  Uses Koran PLUS
Wahhabi
Students at a
Madrassa
Wahhab’s book
Kitab al-Tawhib
 Literal interpretation
 Puritanical in Faith,
against change in
worship
 All non-Wahhabi’s
are ENEMIES OF
GOD
The Saud’s Power Grows
 Abdul
Aziz Al-Saud
(Ibn Saud) starts to
expand tribal lands
from interior
 1901-gets Riyadh
 1914 – WWI
breaks out, UK
needs allies
against Ottomans
Lawrence of Arabia
UK sends T.E.
Lawrence into
Arabia to
encourage sheiks
to fight against
Ottoman Turks.
 NATIONALISM
BORN!!! Unity???

Saudi Arabia
Created 1932
 After
the war, UK
recognizes Ibn Saud
as rightful ruler
 Saud continues to
1932, unites tribes intogather land, Mecca
SAUDI ARABIA
in 1925
 By 1932, all Arabian
Peninsula united by
Sauds
 Wahhabism Grows
Saudi Arabia Comes of
 King Faisal leads
Age
coup against ½
brother in 1964
 Begins
modernization of
the kingdom
 Social &
Economic
Reform
 Develop OIL!!!
On the International Stage
– Backs royal
family in Yemeni civil
War
 Uses oil money to
prop up royal
families who lost war
against Israel
 1973 – Helps create
OPEC, anti-USA
 1967
Chaos at the Helm…
& Friendship with the USA?
– Faisal killed by
nephew
 1975

½ brother Khalid rules
 King
Fahd (1982)
rethinks US position
to help stabilize
region from Iran-Iraq
War and Gulf War
The Cost of Friendship…
 Saudi’s let US keep
troops in the “Holy
Land” after wars for
stability
 Wahhabis & Bin Laden
angry over infidel
troops in land of
Mohammed
 Fahd has stroke, ’95
 King Abdullah today
Troubling Demographics
½
Why a Problem?
the 26.5 MM
Saudis in two cities
AND under 25!!!
 1/3 unemployed
 In last 20 years,
per Capita GDP
dropped from
$28.5K to $6.8K
 Movie
theaters,
dance and night
clubs banned
 Women can’t
drive
 Religious police
keep eye on
people
 Public
Executions
Social Rigidity
The Modern Wahhabi/Saudi Threat?
 Using Oil wealth,
Saudi’s have been
creating Wahhabi
schools globally…
 Bin Laden &
Taliban Wahhabis
 15 of the19 9/11
hijackers Saudi
Wahhabis
Saudi Arabia – Friend or Foe???