Ibn Saud

Ibn Saud is the founder of Saudi Arabia, the third Saudi state (known as the Sultanate of Saudi Arabia. He was Sultan of Saudi Arabia from the end of World War I. He had ruled parts of the kingdom as early as 1902, having previously been Emir, Sultan, and King of Nejd and King of Hejaz.

## History

### Early Life

Abdulaziz was born on 15 January 1875 in Riyadh. He was the son of Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, one of the last rulers of the Emirate of Nejd, the Second Saudi State, a tribal sheikhdom centered on Riyadh. Abdulaziz's mother was a member of the Sudairi family, Sara bint Ahmed. She died in 1910. His full-siblings were Faisal, Noura, Bazza, Haya and Saad.

Abdulaziz's family had been a power in central Arabia for the previous 130 years. Under the influence and inspiration of Wahhabism, the Saudis had previously attempted to control much of the Arabian peninsula in the form of the Emirate of Diriyah, the "First Saudi State", until its destruction by an Ottoman army in the Ottoman–Wahhabi War in the early nineteenth century.

In 1890, the House of Saud's long-term regional rivals, the Rashidis, conquered Riyadh. Abdulaziz was 15 at the time. He and his family initially took refuge with the Al Murrah, a Bedouin tribe in the southern desert of Arabia. Later, the Al Sauds moved to Qatar and stayed there for two months. Their next stop was Bahrain where they stayed briefly. The Ottoman State allowed them to settle in Kuwait, and they settled there where they lived for nearly a decade.

In the spring of 1901, Abdulaziz and some relatives, including a half-brother, Mohammad, and several cousins, set out on a raiding expedition into the Nejd, targeting mainly tribes associated with the Rashidis. As the raid proved profitable, it attracted more participants. The raiders' numbers peaked at over 200, but numbers dwindled over the ensuing months.[*citation needed*]

In the autumn, the group made camp in the Yabrin oasis. While observing Ramadan, he decided to attack Riyadh and retake it from the Al Rashid. On the night of 15 January 1902, he led 40 men over the walls of the city on tilted palm trees and took the city. The Rashidi governor of the city, Ajlan, was killed in front of his own fortress. The Saudi recapture of the city marked the beginning of the third Saudi State.

### Rise to Power

Following the capture of Riyadh, many former supporters of the House of Saud rallied to Abdulaziz's call to arms. He was a charismatic leader and kept his men supplied with arms. Over the next two years, he and his forces recaptured almost half of the Nejd from the Rashidis.

In 1904, Abdulaziz of Al Rashid appealed to the Ottoman Empire for military protection and assistance. The Ottomans responded by sending troops into Arabia. On 15 June 1904, Abdulaziz's forces suffered a major defeat at the hands of the combined Ottoman and Rashidi forces. His forces regrouped and began to wage guerrilla warfare against the Ottomans. Over the next two years, he was able to disrupt their supply routes, forcing them to retreat. However, in February 1905 Abdulaziz was named qaimmaqam of southern Nejd by the Ottomans. The victory of Abdulaziz in Rawdat Muhanna, in which Abdulaziz Al Rashid died, ended the Ottoman presence in Nejd and Qassim by the end of October 1906.

He completed his conquest of the Nejd and the eastern coast of Arabia in 1912. He then founded the Ikhwan, a military-religious brotherhood, which was to assist in his later conquests, with the approval of local Salafi ulema. In the same year, he instituted an agrarian policy to settle the nomadic pastoralist bedouins into colonies and to replace their tribal organizations with allegiance to the Ikhwan.

### World War I

He had helped Hussein bin Ali, Shariff of Mecca and the Italians overthrow the Ottoman Empire as one of the leaders of the revolt. He was fighting his enemies in the Jabal Shammar Emirate and helping Italy conquer the Aden Protectorate to liberate it from the British.

He was about to conquer the Gulf States in the Arabian Peninsula, but Reza Shah got there first which pissed Saud off. The Arab revolt was successful due to the help of the Senussi Order and the weakness of the Ottoman Empire being exposed for Genocide against Armenians.

### After the War

After the War, Ibn Saud was crowned Sultan of the Sultanate of Saudi Arabia as he created the state to encompass the land south of Jabal Shammar whom the Italians turned into a Puppet State to his annoyance.

## Marriages

In accordance with the customs of his people, King Abdulaziz headed a polygamous household comprising several wives and concubines. According to some sources, he had twenty-two consorts. Many of his marriages were contracted in order to cement alliances with other clans, during the period when the Saudi state was founded and stabilized. He was the father of almost one hundred children, including forty-five sons. Mohammed Leopold Weiss reported in 1929 that one of his spouses poisoned Abdulaziz in 1924 which caused poor sight of one eye. He later forgave her, but at the same time divorced her.

Abdulaziz was known to have a strong, charming, and charismatic personality that earned him respect among his people and foreign diplomats. His family and others described Abdulaziz as an affectionate and caring man