biography
| name: |
Ibn Saud, Abdul Aziz
|
| |
in full Abdul Aziz ibn Abd al-Rahman Al Saud
|
pronunciation:
[ibin saood]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1880–1953)
|
| biography:
| The first king of Saudi Arabia (1932–53), born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He followed his family into exile in 1890 and was brought up in Kuwait. A leader of the Wahabis, a fundamentalist Muslim sect, he succeeded his father in 1901, and set out to reconquer former Saudi territory from the Rashidi rulers, an aim which he achieved with British recognition in 1927. He changed his title from Sultan of Nejd to King of Hejaz and Nejd in 1927, and in 1932 to King of Saudi Arabia. After the discovery of oil (1938), he granted substantial concessions to British and US oil companies. A series of treaties with neighbouring Arab countries led to the formation in 1945 of the Arab League, of which Ibn Saud was a founder. His son, Saud (1902–69) had been prime minister for three months when he succeeded his father (1953). In 1964 he was peacefully deposed by the council of ministers, and his brother Faisal became king and absolute ruler of Saudi Arabia until his assassination in 1975. |
|
|
