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The Arabian Peninsula was occupied by the Abyssinians before the sixth century AD. Around AD 576 they were driven out of the
southern regions by the Persians, who made it a province of their empire. The year AD 622, which has been adopted as the beginning
of the Muslim era, was significant for the flight of the Prophet Muhammad from his home town of Mecca to nearby Medina, where
he organised his followers before launching a successful campaign to recapture Mecca. Many Arab tribes joined Muhammad before
his death in 632 and afterwards the Muslims continued their expansion across the Arabian peninsula and into Syria, Mesopotamia
(Iraq), Persia and westwards into Egypt and North Africa.
The towns of Mecca and Medina, both of which were thriving cultural and commercial centres before and after Muhammad, are
the holiest cities of Islam and the Saudis take the responsibility for protecting their integrity with the utmost seriousness.
Arabia was absorbed into the Turkish Ottoman Empire during the 16th century, after the capture of Mecca by the Turks in 1517,
but subsequent local rulers were allowed a great deal of autonomy. Under Turkish supervision, successive Sherifs of Mecca
governed the territory of Hijaz, which covered the western part of the peninsula including the Red Sea coast as far south
as Yemen, until the onset of World War I.
In 1914 the British armed forces chief Lord Kitchener offered the Sherif of Mecca a deal under which Hijaz would acquire independence,
guaranteed by the UK, on condition that the Sherif supported the military campaign against the Turks. The Sherif accepted,
and after the Turkish defeat, the Kingdom of Hijaz was recognised as independent at the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. On the other
side of the peninsula, the leading potentate was Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdar-Rahman, better known as ‘Ibn Saud’, ruler of the province
of Najd. In 1915, the government of India, then under British rule, recognised Najd and some other territories along the Persian
Gulf as possessions of Ibn Saud. Throughout the 1920s, military clashes between Ibn Saud’s troops and forces loyal to the
Hashemite King of Hijaz, Hussein, grew more frequent as the decisive struggle for control of the peninsula took place.
The British and other Western powers switched their support between the two sides as it suited them. Eventually, Ibn Saud
pushed out the Hashemites, and in 1926 was recognised as ruler of the Kingdom of Hijaz and Najd. In 1932 this became the United
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Hashemites were consoled with the thrones of Iraq and Transjordan (later Jordan). In 1933 the
first explorations began for oil, vast deposits of which were discovered in the eastern part of the country. This set Saudi
Arabia on the road to its current prosperity. Ibn Saud, who ruled as King until his death in 1953, used the accumulating revenues
to develop a national infrastructure and basic state services. Political and social development in the kingdom, by Western
standards at any rate, lagged somewhat behind economic developments: slavery, for example, was not abolished until 1962.
Ibn Saud’s descendants comprise the dynasty which has since ruled Saudi Arabia. They are, like most Saudis, adherents to the
Wahhabi sect, which subscribes to an orthodox variant of Sunni Muslim doctrine expounded by the 18th century religious scholar
Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab. Islamic laws are strictly enforced by the mutawwa (religious police). The oil search of the 1930s brought the USA into contact with Saudi Arabia for the first time and they
quickly became the country’s principal Western ally. Nonetheless, there was one issue on which Saudi and US policies were
implacably opposed – Israel. Washington’s consistent support for the Jewish state has been a constant source of friction.
This became spectacularly clear in 1973 when Saudi Arabia and Iran, two of the USA’s staunchest allies in the region, led
the OPEC cartel in trebling the price of oil overnight in response to the West’s support for Israel during the Yom Kippur
War.
The period of cool relations with the USA that followed came to an end with the revolution in Iran in 1979. Iran was perceived
to pose a threat to Saudi Arabia for a number of reasons: the Shia branch of Islam followed by the Iranian mullahs is fundamentally
opposed to the Sunni Wahhabi interpretation which prevails in Saudi Arabia; moreover, Iran is an important strategic force
in the Gulf in its own right. For those reasons, as well as Arab solidarity, Saudi Arabia provided massive financial support
– to the tune of over US$100 million – to Saddam Hussein’s regime during the Iran–Iraq war, which lasted most of the 1980s.
The Saudis were thus astonished in 1991 when, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Saddam’s forces seemed to be poised
to strike south and occupy parts of Saudi Arabia. After initial doubts and furious debates within the royal family, the US-led
UN coalition was cleared to base its huge forces in the country prior to the ‘Desert Storm’ military operation which drove
the Iraqis out of Kuwait. In the aftermath, the Saudis backed the US policy of ‘dual containment’ designed to keep both Iran
and Iraq in check.
Nonetheless, the presence of American forces in the country remained an exceptionally sensitive political issue resented by
much of the population. In 2002, as the American government geared up to launch operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Saudis
made it clear that they would prefer the Americans to move elsewhere. They did, and Qatar became the main command and control
centre for the recent US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The change in the Saudi position followed from a major shift in the country’s domestic politics. Several factors were at work
but the most important is the effective replacement of King Fahd, who after prolonged illness is effectively an invalid, by
Crown Prince Abdullah. The Crown Prince is generally less pro-American than Fahd and takes a harder line on oil pricing. There
has also been considerable friction between the two governments in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, not least because
the bulk of the hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Abdullah belongs to the generation of leaders who have governed Saudi Arabia since the death of Abdul Aziz, all of whom are
now in their 70s: there is no clear line of succession and there may be a debilitating power struggle among the 6000 male
descendants who now make up the House of Saud. The most likely victors are the branch of the family descended from one of
Ibn Saud’s wives, bint Sudairi, who form a powerful clan within the group (commonly known as the ‘Sudairi Seven’). Abdullah
is not among them but all – and a number of their immediate relatives – occupy key ministerial, administrative and diplomatic
posts.
Abdullah has also taken some tentative steps towards relaxing the royal family’s political stranglehold, mainly to appease
international opinion and increasingly vocal domestic reformers. Plans for municipal council elections were announced in October
2003. These elections were the first elections to a Government body in Saudi Arabia. Polling took place between February and
April 2005.
King Fahd died on 1 August 2005. Crown Prince Abdullah was confirmed as King and Prince Sultan as Crown Prince.
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Overview 
