Ibn Saʿūd summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Ibn Saud.

Ibn Saʿūd , in full ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Fayṣal Āl Saʿūd, (born c. 1880, Riyadh, Arabian Peninsula—died Nov. 9, 1953, Al-Ṭāʾif, Saud.Ar.), Founder of modern-day Saudi Arabia. Though the Saʿūd dynasty had ruled much of Arabia from 1780 to 1880, in Ibn Saʿūd’s infancy the family was forced out by its rivals, the Rashīds. At age 21 Ibn Saʿūd led a daring raid against the Rashīds and recaptured the family capital, Riyadh. He was driven out two years later but reconstituted his forces and fought on, using puritanical Wahhābī Islam to rally nomadic tribesmen to his cause, thereby forming the Ikhwān. In 1920–22 he defeated the Rashīds and doubled his own territory. In 1924 he conquered the Hejaz (see Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī). In 1932 he formally created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which he ruled as an absolute monarch. He signed his first oil deal in 1933 but remained virtually penniless until the 1950s, when oil revenues began pouring in. His sons succeeded him.

Islam Summary

Islam, major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century ce. The Arabic term islām, literally “surrender,” illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer (called a Muslim, from the active particle of islām) accepts surrender to the will of

Ikhwān Summary

Ikhwān, in Arabia, members of a religious and military brotherhood that figured prominently in the unification of the Arabian Peninsula under Ibn Saud (1912–30); in modern Saudi Arabia they constitute the National Guard. Ibn Saud began organizing the Ikhwān in 1912 with hopes of making them a

history of Arabia Summary

History of Arabia, history of the region from prehistoric times to the present. Sometime after the rise of Islam in the first quarter of the 7th century ce and the emergence of the Arabian Muslims as the founders of one of the great empires of history, the name ʿArab came to be used by these

Arabia Summary

Arabia, peninsular region, together with offshore islands, located in the extreme southwestern corner of Asia. The Arabian Peninsula is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and southwest, the Gulf of Aden on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south and southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian