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Saudi Arabia
The Ulama
The ulama, or Islamic religious leaders, served a unique role
by providing religious legitimacy for Saudi rule. Except for Iran,
where the ulama participated directly in government, Saudi Arabia
was the only Muslim country in which the ulama constituted such
an influential political force. The kingdom's ulama included religious
scholars, qadis (judges), lawyers, seminary teachers, and the
prayer leaders (imams) of the mosques. As a group, the ulama and
their families included an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 persons.
However, only the thirty to forty most senior scholars among them
exercised substantive political influence. These prominent clergy
constituted the members of the Council of Senior Ulama, an official
body created by Faisal in 1971 to serve as a forum for regular
consultation between the monarch and the religious establishment.
Fahd continued the precedent set by Faisal and Khalid of meeting
weekly with Council of Senior Ulama members who resided in Riyadh.
The Council of Senior Ulama had a symbiotic relationship with
the Saudi government. In return for official recognition of their
special religious authority, the leading ulama provided tacit
approval and, when requested, public sanction for potentially
controversial policies. Because Saudi kings esteemed their Islamic
credentials as custodians of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina,
they considered ulama support critical. For example, in 1979 members
of the Council of Senior Ulama signed the religious edict (fatwa)
that sanctioned the use of force to subdue armed dissidents who
had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest shrine.
In 1990 the decision to invite thousands of United States military
personnel to set up bases in the northeastern part of the country
alarmed some devout Muslims who believed that the presence of
so many non-Muslims on Saudi soil violated the sanctity of the
holy land. Fahd defused such concerns by obtaining ulama approval
for the United States military presence.
Historically, the royal family maintained close ties with the
ulama, especially with members of the Al ash Shaykh. The Al ash
Shaykh included the several hundred direct male descendants of
the eighteenth-century religious reformer Abd al Wahhab. The Al
Saud dynastic founder, Muhammad ibn Saud, had married a daughter
of Abd al Wahhab, and subsequent intermarriage between the two
families reinforced their political alliance. The mother of King
Faisal, for example, was the daughter of an Al ash Shaykh qadi
who was a direct descendant of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab. The
preeminence of the Al ash Shaykh thus derived not only from its
reputation for religious erudition but also from its position
as part of the country's ruling elite. In 1992 most of the Al
ash Shaykh men were not members of the clergy but held key positions
in government, education, the security services, the armed forces,
and private business. Nevertheless, the Al ash Shaykh ulama dominated
the kingdom's influential clerical institutions such as the Council
of Senior Ulama, the Higher Council of Qadis, and the Administration
of Scientific Study, Legal Opinions, Islamic Propagation, and
Guidance. In addition, the most senior religious office, the grand
mufti (chief judge), was traditionally filled by a member of Al
ash Shaykh.
Not all of the kingdom's ulama belonged to the Al ash Shaykh.
Ulama from less prominent families tended to criticize, usually
privately, the senior clergy, especially after 1975. The increase
in numbers of students in seminaries led to a larger number of
clergy willing to challenge the senior ulama's role and to criticize
their support of government policies. In December 1992, a group
of ulama associated with the conservative Salafi religious trend
signed a public letter criticizing King Fahd personally for failing
to understand that the clergy had a religious duty to advise all
believers--including the royal family--of their obligation to
abide by God's principles. This unprecedented action caused a
major stir in Saudi Arabia. The king rebuked the ulama establishment
and dismissed several senior clergy from their official positions.
Data as of December 1992
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