IBN SA'UD or 'ABDUL 'AZIZ IBN 'ABDULRAH MAN IBN FAISAL IBN SA'UD, was born at Riyadh, cap ital of Nejd, about 1880. His father, 'AbdulRahman (d. 1928), was the youngest of the four sons of the Amir Faisal, Sultan of Nejd from 1834 to 1867. The latter's death had plunged Cen tral Arabia into a state of anarchy and civil war owing to the contest of his two elder sons, 'Abdullah and Sa'ud, for the throne he had vacated. In the Turks occupied Hasa, while the rival dynasty of Ibn Rashid in northern Nejd gradually extended southwards until in 1891 the great Amir Muhammad put an end to the Wahhabi state by the occupation of Riyadh itself. 'Abdul 'Aziz went into exile with his family and, after a period of resi dence at Bahrain, arrived at Kuwait. Here he was influenced by Shaikh Mubarak ibn Sawah and to this Ibn Sa'ud owed much of his future greatness and his friendship for Great Britain. From his father he inherited steady purposefulness.
Though 'AbdulRahman was the cadet of the Wahhabi dynasty, it was he who made the first effort to recover his father's throne in 1900. His defeat at Sarif was followed by the formal abdica tion of his rights and obligations in favour of his eldest son, 'Abdul 'Aziz, who in 1901 launched out into the desert with a force of only 200 men. At some distance from the capital he selected 15 of these, including his cousin 'Abdullah ibn Jiluwi (afterwards governor of Hasa), for the final venture; entering Riyadh by night with his following he forced an entry into a house opposite the great fort where the Rashidian governor was lodged. A desperate struggle left Ibn Sa'ud the master of Riyadh, where he was at once proclaimed ruler of Nejd.
During the next few years Ibn Sa'ud consolidated the outlying provinces and resisted the Turks in their support of Ibn Rashid. A Wahhabi victory at Bukairiya (19o4) was followed by Ibn Rashid's death (1906) and left Ibn Sa'ud master in the house of his ancestors with no danger of interference from the north.
Free now to show his capacity for administration Ibn Sa'ud proceeded to lay the foundations of his future greatness in a scheme remarkable both for boldness and ingenuity. He boldly seized upon the latent fanaticism of his countrymen as an instru ment for the creation of a non-tribal or pan-tribal element out of tribal material to leaven the mass into the semblance of a homo geneous nation. The first Ikhwan colony in 1912 was the first step of a deliberate programme aiming at the abrogation of the patriarchal system in Arabia in favour of nationalism. At the time such an ambition was beyond the bounds of practical politics, but circumstances combined to bring it within the focus of Ibn Sa'ud's clear vision.
'Artawiya, now a flourishing town of io,000 inhabitants, rapidly became the prototype of a hundred colonies which sprang up in various parts of Nejd during the next 15 years. Agriculture dis placed pastoral activities as the binding force of the new organiza tion, while the S/iar' or religious law took the place of the cus tomary law of Badawin society. Each colony constituted a con tingent of the new Wahhabi standing army, for which circum stances have provided ample work at home and abroad. It was first put to the test in 1913 when Ibn Saud turned his attention to the Turks who had been in Hasa since 1875. With a mere handful of men he suddenly appeared before Hofuf, whose aston ished garrison surrendered without a blow. The garrisons at 'Uqair and Qatif followed suit and the Turks left Eastern Arabia.
At the end of 1914 Captain W. H. I. Shakespear was deputed by Sir Percy Cox to visit Ibn Saud with a view to enlisting his active assistance against the Turks, with whom his dynastic rival, Ibn Rashid, had thrown in his lot. Ibn Saud immediately under took military operations and in January, 1915, a battle took place at Jarrab. The result was indecisive but Captain Shakespear was killed and the British authorities were discouraged from further activity in Arabia. In December Ibn Saud concluded a treaty of friendship with Great Britain but remained quiescent though he grew increasingly anxious as he watched King Husain in the Hejaz building up a strong position for himself with the help of Lawrence. In 1917 the Philby Mission visited him at Riyadh to take stock of the situation and in the autumn of 1918 Ibn Sa'ud resumed activities against Ibn Rashid. He reached the walls of Hail without being able to press home the attack, and the sudden termination of the Great War found him still within the same frontiers as at its outbreak and with two powerful enemies to reckon with, Ibn Rashid and King Husain. Relations with the latter were already strained to breaking point. In March, 1919, Lord Curzon on behalf of the British Government decided in favour of King Husain and authorised him to occupy Khurma which Ibn Sa'ud was warned to relinquish. The latter disregarded the warning and two months later the Wahhabi army surprised and annihilated the Hashimite forces at Turaba. Having vin dicated his rights by might Ibn Saud retired to Riyadh. In 192o a Wahhabi expedition added the highland districts of 'Asir to Ibn Sa'ud's dominions, and in August of the following year the capture of Hail placed all central Arabia under a single rule. Meanwhile Bisha and Tathlith in the south were occupied, as also Khaibar and Taima northwards, while in 1922 Jauf came within the Wahhabi sphere.
The British Government made a belated effort to mediate at the Conference of Kuwait, convened in Nov. 1923. The dis cussions ended without result in April, 1924, and in September the Wahhabi invasion of the Hejaz began with the sudden cap ture of Taif and a massacre of its inhabitants. King Husain was forced to abdicate in favour of his eldest son, 'Ali, who evacuated Mecca which was quietly occupied by the Wahhabis in October. The outlying districts of the Hejaz were rapidly occupied and only Jedda and Medina remained in the hands of the Hashimites, both being subjected to a desultory siege by Ibn Sa'ud who entered Mecca for the first time in December, 1924. During the following November Sir Gilbert Clayton concluded the treaties of Bahra and Hadda with him, by which certain questions relating to 'Iraq and Trans-Jordan were satisfactorily disposed of. The following month Medina surrendered, while Jedda followed suit a fortnight later. On January 8, 1926, Ibn Saud was proclaimed King of the Hejaz in the great mosque of Mecca; and a year later his title of Sultan of Nejd and its Dependencies was converted to King.
Security has been established where it was never known before; motor-transport has added enormously to the comfort of pil grims; the state revenues have increased substantially; corrup tion in the public service has been greatly reduced if not entirely eliminated. Relations with Great Britain were placed on a new and friendly footing by the Treaty of Jedda negotiated with Sir Gilbert Clayton in May, 1927. Unfortunately these relations were marred by a regrettable incident in November 1927. The 'Iraq government in contravention of the provisions of a protocol signed at 'Uqair (1922), had built a fort at the desert wells of Busaiya near the frontier. A party of Ikhwan, visiting the spot, resented the innovation and slew the builders. And the spring months of 1928 were spent in a series of futile and unnecessary raids and counter-raids, to which an end was at length put by the agreement of Ibn Sa'ud and the British Government to meet in conference. In May Sir Gilbert Clayton, since nominated to the High Commissionership of 'Iraq, again visited Jidda and the discussions, interrupted by the pilgrimage, ended in August in failure to achieve agreement on the points at issue. Ibn Sa'ud maintained unswervingly his contention that the 'Iraq Govern ment had been at fault in building the forts in the frontier dis trict, while the British representative was unable to agree to their demolition.
In 1932 Ibn Sa'ud's kingdom and its dependencies was renamed "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Ibn Sa'ud's eldest surviving son and heir to his throne, Sa'd Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud (b. 1905), is viceroy of Nejd. The second son, the Amir Faisal, is minister for foreign affairs and acts as viceroy of Hejaz in his father's absence. Besides these two Ibn Sa'ud has II other sons ranging from the age of 17 down to two. For political and other reasons the Wahhabi king has always taken the fullest advantage of Islamic laxity in the matter of marriage and divorce, and he is reputed to have been married about 15o times in the course of his career. His father. who died in June 1928, lived to see him achieve a position, perhaps unparalleled in the annals of Arabian history since the immediate successors of Mohammed himself.