Saud wanted to empower his 53 sons by placing them in government positions. Saud was also seen to use large sums of state funds for his own family and palaces at a time when Saudi Arabia was struggling to rise economically. King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal continued their power struggle when, in , Prince Faisal formed a cabinet in the absence of King Saud, who had gone abroad for medical treatment.
The new government excluded any sons of King Saud. In response, Faisal demanded King Saud make him regent and turn over all royal powers to him. Faisal had the support of the ulema, the elite Islamic scholars. In March , Saud finally agreed to name Faisal regent with full executive powers, reducing himself to a figurehead. In November , the ulema , the cabinet, and senior members of the Saudi royal family forced Saud to abdicate and Faisal became king in his own right. Saud was forced into exile but lived quite comfortably with a retinue of forty people.
Saud then settled in Egypt in a magnificent palace in Heliopolis, and then in Greece at a large estate in Athens. On February 23, , former King Saud died in Athens at the age of 67 after suffering a heart attack in his sleep.
His body was taken back to Saudi Arabia where the funeral ceremony took place at the Great Mosque in Mecca. He was quietly buried next to his father at Al Oud cemetery in Riyadh. Support from the clerics would be vital for any change of monarch, since in the Saudi system only they have the power to confer religious and therefore political legitimacy on the leadership. The revelation suggests there is increasing pressure within the normally secretive Saudi royal family to bring to a head the internal power struggle that has erupted since King Salman inherited the throne at the beginning of this year.
The prince, who cannot be named for security reasons, is the author of two recently published letters calling for the royal family to replace the current Saudi leadership. The prince says something similar is going to happen again soon.
Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund warned that Saudi Arabia may run out of financial assets within five years unless the government sharply curbs its spending, because of a combination of low oil prices and the economic impact of regional wars. He is said to have assumed too much power and wealth since being elevated to this position. He was deputy interior minister for 37 years and spent four years responsible for the religious sites in Mecca before being appointed Interior Minister in However, the newly joined Ottoman-Rashidi alliance was not enough for the brave leader and only postponed the inevitable.
Ibn Saud began to wage guerrilla warfare against the Ottomans. With this strategy he was able to disrupt their supply routes and force a retreat.
He accomplished his conquest of Najd and the eastern coast of Arabia in He then founded the Ikhwan, a military-religious brotherhood which assisted later in his conquests.
In the same year, he instituted an agrarian policy to settle the nomadic pastoralist bedouins into colonies, and disband their tribal organizations in favour of allegiance to the Ikhwan. During World War I, the British government established diplomatic relations.
Similar diplomatic missions were established with any Arabian power capable of unifying the region. The British entered into the Treaty of Darin, which made the lands of the House of Saud a British protectorate thus defining the boundaries of the developing Saudi state.
With this support he launched a campaign against the Al Rashidi; by they had been all but destroyed. This empowered Ibn Saud, giving him the leverage to negotiate a new more favorable treaty with the British. This treaty saw Britain recognize many of his territorial gains.
In exchange, Ibn Saud agreed to recognize British territories in the area. In , Ibn Saud captured the holy city of Mecca ending the years of Hashemite rule. The British government then signed the Treaty of Jeddah abolishing the Darin protection agreement and recognized the independence of the Hejaz and Najd with Ibn Saud as its ruler.
With recognition and support from many powerful nations, Ibn Saud continued to consolidate his power. By , his forces had conquered most of the Arabian Peninsula. Petroleum was discovered in Saudi Arabia in His newfound oil wealth brought with it a great deal of power and influence.
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