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Saudi Arabia
NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARABIA
The modern history of Arabia is often broken into three periods
that follow the fortunes of the Al Saud. The first begins with
the alliance between Muhammad ibn Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al
Wahhab and ends with the capture of Abd Allah. The second period
extends from this point to the rise of the second Abd al Aziz
ibn Saud, the founder of the modern state; the third consists
of the establishment and present history of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.
In the Egyptians' attempt to establish control over the peninsula,
Muhammad Ali removed members of the Al Saud from the area. Following
orders from the Ottoman sultan, he sent Abd Allah to Istanbul--where
he was publicly beheaded--and forced other members of the family
to leave the country. A few prominent members of the Al Saud found
their way to Egypt.
The Egyptians turned next to the material monument of the Al
Saud rule, the city of Ad Diriyah. They razed its walls and buildings
and destroyed its palm groves so that the area could not support
any agricultural settlement for some time. The Egyptians then
sent troops to strategic parts of the peninsula to tighten their
grip on it. They garrisoned Al Qatif, a port on the Persian Gulf
that supplied some of the important centers in eastern Arabia
and maintained various forces along the Red Sea coast in the west.
In the Hijaz, Muhammad Ali restored the authority of the Sharifs,
who had ruled the area from Mecca since the tenth century. However,
Turki ibn Abd Allah, the uncle of the next-to- last ruler (Saud),
upset Egyptian efforts to exercise authority in the area. Turki
had fought at Ad Diriyah, but managed to escape the Egyptians
when the town fell in 1818. He hid for two years among loyal forces
to the south, and after a few unsuccessful attempts, recaptured
Ad Diriyah in 1821. From the ruins of Ad Diriyah, Turki proceeded
to Riyadh, another Najdi city. This eventually became the new
Al Saud base. Forces under Turki's control reclaimed the rest
of Najd in 1824.
Turki's relatively swift retaking of Najd showed the extent to
which the Al Saud-Wahhabi authority had been established in the
area over the previous fifty years. The successes of the Wahhabi
forces had done much to promote tribal loyalty to the Al Saud.
But the Wahhabi principles of the Al Saud rule were equally compelling.
After Muhammad ibn al Wahhab's death in 1792, the leader of Al
Saud assumed the title of imam. Thus, Al Saud leaders
were recognized not just as shaykhs or leaders, but as Wahhabi
imams, political and religious figures whose rule had an element
of religious authority.
Turki and his successors ruled from Riyadh over a wide area.
They controlled the region to the north and south of Najd and
exerted considerable influence along the western coast of the
Persian Gulf. This was no state but a large sphere of influence
that the Al Saud held together with a combination of treaties
and delegated authority. In the Shammar Mountains to the north,
for instance, the Al Saud supported the rule of Abd Allah ibn
Rashid with whom Turki maintained a close alliance. Later, Turki's
son Faisal cemented this alliance by marrying his son, Talal,
to Abd Allah's daughter, Nurah. Although this family-to-family
connection worked well, the Al Saud preferred to rely in the east
on appointed leaders to rule on their behalf. In other areas,
they were content to establish treaties under the terms of which
tribes agreed to defend the family's interests or to refrain from
attacking the Al Saud when the opportunity arose.
Within their sphere of influence, the Al Saud could levy troops
for military campaigns from the towns and tribes under their control.
Although these campaigns were mostly police actions against recalcitrant
tribes, the rulers described them as holy wars (jihad), which
they conducted according to religious principles. The tribute
that the Al Saud demanded from those under their control was also
based on Islamic principles. Towns, for instance, paid taxes at
a rate established by Muslim law, and the troops that accompanied
the Al Saud on raiding expeditions returned one-fifth of their
booty to the Al Saud treasury according to sharia (Muslim Law)
requirements.
The collection of tribute was another indication of the extensive
influence the Al Saud derived because of their Wahhabi connections.
Wahhabi religious ideas had spread through the central part of
the Arabian Peninsula; as a result, the Al Saud influenced decisions
even in areas not under their control, such as succession battles
and questions of tribute. Their influence in the Hijaz, however,
remained restricted. Not only were the Egyptians and Ottomans
careful that the region not slip away again, but Wahhabi ideas
had not found a receptive audience in western Arabia. Accordingly,
the family was unable to gain a foothold in the Hijaz during the
nineteenth century.
The Al Saud maintained authority in Arabia by controlling several
factors. First, they could resist, or at least accommodate, Egyptian
interference. After 1824 when the Egyptians could no longer maintain
outright military control over Arabia, they turned to political
intrigues. Turki, for instance, was assassinated in 1834 by a
member of the Al Saud who had recently returned from Cairo. When
Turki's son, Faisal, succeeded his father, the Egyptians supported
a rival member of the family, Khalid ibn Saud, and with Egyptian
assistance Khalid controlled Najd for the next four years.
Muhammad Ali and the Egyptians were severely weakened after the
British and French defeated their fleet off the coast of Greece
in 1827. This prevented the Egyptians from exerting much influence
in Arabia, but it left the Al Saud with the problem of the Ottomans,
whose ultimate authority Turki eventually acknowledged. The challenge
to the sultan had helped end the first Al Saud empire in 1818,
so later rulers chose to accommodate the Ottomans as much as they
could. The Al Saud eventually became of considerable financial
importance to the Ottomans because they collected tribute from
the rich trading state of Oman and forwarded much of this to the
Sharifs in Mecca, who relayed it to the sultan. In return the
Ottomans recognized the Al Saud authority and left them alone
for the most part.
The Ottomans, however, sometimes tried to expand their influence
by supporting renegade members of the Al Saud. When Faisal's two
sons, Abd Allah and Saud, vied to take over the empire from their
father, Abd Allah enlisted the aid of the Ottoman governor in
Iraq, who used the opportunity to take Al Qatif and Al Hufuf in
eastern Arabia. The Ottomans were eventually driven out, but until
the time of Abd al Aziz they continued to look for a relationship
with the Al Saud that they could exploit.
One of the reasons the Ottomans were unsuccessful was the growing
British interest in Arabia. The British government in India considered
the Persian Gulf to be its western flank and so became increasingly
involved with the piracy of the Arab tribes on the eastern coast.
The British were also anxious about potentially hostile Ottoman
influence in an area so close to India and the Suez Canal. As
a result, the British came into increasing contact with the Al
Saud. As Wahhabi leaders, the Al Saud could exert some control
over the tribes on the gulf coast, and they were simultaneously
involved with the Ottomans. During this period, the Al Saud leaders
began to play off the Ottomans and British against each other.
Whereas the Al Saud were largely successful in handling the two
great powers in the Persian Gulf, they did not do so well in managing
their family affairs. The killing of Turki in 1834 touched off
a long period of fighting. Turki's son, Faisal, held power until
he was expelled from Riyadh by Khalid and his Egyptian supporters.
Then, Abd Allah ibn Thunayan (from yet another branch of the Al
Saud) seized Riyadh. He could maintain power only briefly, however,
because Faisal, who had been taken to Cairo and then escaped,
retook the city in 1845.
Faisal ruled until 1865, lending some stability to Arabia. Upon
his death, however, fighting started again, and his three sons,
Abd Allah, Abd ar Rahman, and Saud--as well as some of Saud's
sons--each held Riyadh on separate occasions . The political structure
of Arabia was such that each leader had to win the support of
various tribes and towns to conduct a campaign. In this way, alliances
were constantly formed and reformed, and the more often this occurred,
the more unstable the situation became.
This instability accelerated the decline of the Al Saud after
the death of Faisal. While the Al Saud was bickering, however,
the family of Muhammad ibn Rashid, who controlled the area around
the Shammar Mountains, had been gaining strength and expanding
its influence in northern Najd. In 1890 Muhammad ibn Rashid, the
grandson of the leader with whom Turki had first made an alliance,
was in a position to enhance his own power. He removed the sons
of Saud ibn Faisal from Riyadh and returned it to the nominal
control of their uncle, Abd ar Rahman. Muhammad put effective
control of the city, however, into the hands of his own garrison
commander, Salim ibn Subhan. When Abd ar Rahman attempted to exert
real authority, he was driven out of Riyadh. Thus, the Al Saud,
along with the young Abd al Aziz, were obliged to take refuge
with the amir of Kuwait.
Data as of December 1992
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