On January 23, 2015, in Riyadh, the oldest working monarch in the world, the king of Saudi Arabia, who ruled since 2005, Abdullah ibn Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, died of a pulmonary infection.
The approximate age of the king was 91 years old, he had three dozen wives and more than forty children.
United state
The very name of this largest state on the Arabian Peninsula comes from the ruling dynasty in the country. The ancestors of the Saudis have been known since the 15th century, and from the middle of the 18th they began the struggle to create a single state. In this struggle, they relied on various currents of Islam, including Wahhabism. To achieve victory, the Saudis entered into agreements with foreign states, including Great Britain and the USA, as it was already in the 20th century.
Before Saudi Arabia acquired the current state and political system, there were two unsuccessful attempts to form a kingdom of Saudis: in 1744 under the leadership of Mohammad ibn Saud and in 1818, when Turks ibn Adallah ibn Muhammad ibn Saud became the ruler in Arabian lands, and later his son Faisal. But by the end of the 19th century, the Saudis were expelled from Riyadh to Kuwait by representatives of another powerful family - Rashidi.
Founder of the royal dynasty
At the beginning of the new — twentieth — century, among the Saudis who wanted to create a single Arabian state under their rule, a young man appeared who was attracted to weapons and military sciences more than religious treatises or subtleties of Eastern philosophy. His name was Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdu-Rahman ibn Faisal Al Saud or simply Ibn Saud - the first king of Saudi Arabia.
Starting from one of the provinces, Nedzh, relying on the teachings of “pure” Islam, making the basis of his army the Bedouins, whom he accustomed to sedentary, relying on English support at the right time, using the technical and scientific achievements of the new century - radio, cars, aviation, telephone communications - in 1932, Abdul Aziz became the head of the powerful Islamic state he founded. Since then, the heads of Saudi Arabia were alternately representatives of one family: Ibn Saud and his six sons.
Islamic World Center
Among the magnificent epithets awarded to the autocratic ruler of the Saudi kingdom, there is one of the most significant names in the Muslim world - “The Guardian of Two Shrines”. The King of Saudi Arabia owns the two main cities for the faithful Muslims - Mecca and Medina, in which the main shrines of Islam are located.
It is towards Mecca that Muslims turn their eyes to daily prayers. In the center of Mecca is the Main, Preserve, Great Mosque - Al-Haram, in the courtyard of which is located the Kaaba - the “sacred house” - a cubic structure with a Black stone mounted in one of the corners, which was sent by Allah to the Prophet Adam, and which the Prophet touched Mohammed These shrines are the main goal that the pilgrim who performs the hajj aspires to.
Medina - the city in which the second most important mosque for Muslims is located - Masjid al-Nabawi - the Prophet's Mosque, under the green dome of which is the site of the burial of Mohammed.
The King of Saudi Arabia, among other things, is the person who bears responsibility for the safety of Muslim shrines, for the life and security of the vast masses of people - those who perform the hajj.
Son of the eighth wife
The founder of Saudi Arabia - Abdel Aziz ibn Saud - was a true eastern ruler: numerous wives, who numbered several dozen, gave birth to 45 heir sons. Ibn Saud's eighth wife was Fahda Bint Aziz Ashura, whom he took as his wife after her first husband was killed by the Saudis - the worst enemy Abdel Aziz - the ruler of one of the Arabian emirates named Saud Rashidi. It was she who was born the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah, who died in January 2015 and left a noticeable mark on the history of the monarchy.
When Abdullah was to be declared crown prince by seniority, in 1982, his stepbrother Fahd pondered for a long time: all Al-Saudis who had ascended the throne were born by one, Ibn Saud's beloved wife, Husa of the Sudeyri clan. Nevertheless, Abdullah, who is related by mother to a different genus - Shamar - became the king, and he became the de facto ruler long before the official coronation (2005): he became prime minister in 1995, when Fahd retired, becoming disabled after a stroke.
If I were a sultan ...
Life in an Islamic state at all levels looks unusual for a European. It is difficult to imagine the leader of a European country who would be married 30 times, like King Abdullah.
Saudi Arabia is a country that lives according to Sharia law, and no more than 4 wives can live in a man’s house, this is how the family life of the King of the Saudis was organized. Abdullah is a father of many children, all in all, about four dozen children were born to him, of which 15 were sons.
Abdullah's childhood passed among the Bedouins, which influenced the monarch's hobbies - until recently he spent a lot of time in Morocco, where he was engaged in falconry, and his stable of racehorses was known throughout the world.
Foundation of welfare
It will be difficult for anyone who sees today the capital of the SA - Riyadh - or at least showing a photo of the king of Saudi Arabia inside the plane, that at the time of its formation in 1932, Saudi Arabia was one of the poorest countries in the world. In the late 1930s, vast reserves of oil and gas were discovered on the Arabian Peninsula. The development and development of the fields was given to American oil companies, which at first took most of the profit. Gradually, control of oil production passed to the state, that is, the royal family, and petrodollars became the basis of the wealth of the Saudi kingdom.
The Saudis play a major role in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls about two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. The influence of the Saudi monarchs on the formation of hydrocarbon prices determines their importance in world politics. It has changed throughout the 20th century, but has steadily increased.
The Reformer King
It is impossible to imagine the possibility of drastic changes in the foreign policy and internal structure of a country where the autocratic monarch is in power, where you can pay the price for criticizing government decisions, where there is no legislative authority: laws are royal decrees. All the more curious is the glory of the reformer king, whom King Abdullah was awarded. Under him, Saudi Arabia experienced some indulgences, both in the rigor of Eastern etiquette and in the harsh treatment of women traditional for Islam.
One of the first decrees, the 6th Saudi king, canceled the royal hand kissing ceremony, replacing it with a more democratic handshake. The most important decision for Abdullah was the prohibition of members of the royal family to use state funds for personal needs.
The real revolution was the establishment of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology near the city of Jeddah, where co-education of girls and boys is allowed. No less sensational was the appointment of a woman to a state post: Nora bandage (bandage - the analogy of male bin - “son”) Abdullah bin Musaid Al-Faiz became deputy minister for girls' affairs. The admission of women to certain types of municipal elections made the image of the Saudi king even more attractive for proponents of democratic reforms. The allocation of significant funds to study abroad made the CA even more open to the world.
The daughter of King Abdullah - Princess Adilla - became the face of a conservative system of government. The wife of the Minister of Education, a beautiful, confident woman, is perceived by many as a symbol of renewal, although there is no talk of a radical revision of the female role in Islam.
Traditions are unshakable
Still, the main thing for the ruling family in the kingdom is the holiness and immutability of traditions based on observance of Sharia.
Corporal punishment of women for “inappropriate behavior” or frivolity in clothing, cutting off their hands for theft, strict punishment for divination as “witchcraft”, etc., is a common practice in Saudi society.
The ostentation surrounding the royal throne of the Saudis also belongs to such traditions. The personal plane of the King of Saudi Arabia from a technical point of view is the most reliable aircraft of the late 20th century, but its interior decoration looks like a fabulous palace of the Sultan from the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights”.
And this applies to the numerous royal villas, yachts and cars.
One of the wealthiest monarchs
It is almost impossible to accurately calculate the personal condition of the monarch, especially in a country closed to strangers like Saudi Arabia. Called figures from $ 30 to $ 65 billion. In any case, this is not a poor person, even if you take into account the number of members of the royal family. There is someone to spend petrodollars on - the wives of the king of Saudi Arabia make up an impressive harem, although formally the Koran forbids having more than four. We have to actively use the institution of divorce, which in the east is devoid of unnecessary formalism.
Family matters
Today's world is a continuous process of information exchange, conducted at various levels. At the end of 2013, an interview appeared in British newspapers with the speech of Princess Sahara, the daughter of King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah. It stated that she and her three sisters had been under house arrest for 13 years, which their father imposed on them.
Newspapers and news portals published stories about the morals of the royal harems. The mother of the Sahara, the former wife of the King of Saudi Arabia, was also involved in them. The photo of Al-Anud Daham Al-Bakhit Al-Fahiz, who at the age of 15 became the wife of Abdullah, and ten years later was deprived of her daughters and expelled after the divorce, added drama.
This scandal made us pay special attention to the problem of discrimination against women in the Muslim world. Articles about the terrible inequality between men and women in Saudi society have flooded the print and electronic media. The photographs were especially popular, where the plane of the king of Saudi Arabia was shot - a symbol of the medieval style of government based on unrestrained luxury.
But it turned out to be not so simple, the world is still multifaceted. Another wave rose. Activists of Islamic organizations, among whom there were many women, accused journalists and politicians with no less passion of striving to impose their morality on a society that they did not deign self-sufficiency. The protest against the aggressive imposition of Western views on lifestyle seemed just as sincere and justified.
The king is dead, long live the king
Today, on the throne in Riyadh, Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is the seventh king of Saudi Arabia. The photos in which the new ruler was shot do not differ much from the view of the European from those that were taken during the life of King Abdullah.
The history of the Saudi state continues.