The House of Saud

The announce�ment by Saudi state TV, of the death of King Abdul�lah bin Abdu�laziz, aged 91, will bring to an end the sec�ond gen�er�a�tion princes who have ruled the King�dom for most of its 80 year his�tory. It now ush�ers in a third gen�er�a�tion of princes who num�ber in the thou�sands. We are repub�lish�ing this 2012 analy�sis which analysed the House of al-Saud

By Adnan Khan

Saudi Ara�bia, with the world�s largest oil reserves, is a crit�i�cal piece in the jig�saw of inter�na�tional order. With the pass�ing of King Abdul�lah, the sec�ond gen�er�a�tion princes who have ruled the coun�try for most of its 80 year his�tory is effec�tively at an end rais�ing the prospects of poten�tial insta�bil�ity due to a power strug�gle amongst the rul�ing family.

 

Mod�ern Saudi Ara�bia was a cre�ation of the Sykes-Picot Agree�ment in 1916,  a secret under�stand�ing between Britain and France defin�ing their respec�tive spheres of influ�ence after World War I. King Abdul-Aziz al-Saud (Ibn Saud) led a band of war�riors to cap�ture his ances�tral city of Riyadh from a rival fam�ily in 1902. Britain signed the �Treaty of Darin� with Ibn Saud that incor�po�rated the lands of the Saud Fam�ily as a British pro�tec�torate in Decem�ber of 1915.[1] The west�ern coastal region, Hijaz, was taken next by Ibn Saud along with Mecca and Med�ina in 1925. He then uti�lized his 22 mar�riages to shape and con�trol his vast king�dom. But it was his close alliance with the US that helped him ward off threats towards the nascent state. He signed a con�ces�sion agree�ment with Stan�dard Oil of Cal�i�for�nia (now Chevron) in 1935, which included hand�ing over sub�stan�tial author�ity over Saudi Oil fields. Stan�dard Oil later estab�lished a sub�sidiary in Saudi Ara�bia called the Ara�bian Amer�i�can Oil Com�pany (Aramco), now fully owned by the Saudi government.

 

There are three key pil�lars that the house of Saud rests upon, allow�ing it to play a major role in the region.The first of these is the dom�i�nance of the royal fam�ily in Saudi pol�i�tics. The Saudi royal fam�ily is effec�tively an oli�garchy that has crafted an absolute monar�chy, ruled by con�sen�sus. As a result the fam�ily con�tin�ues to dom�i�nate the polit�i�cal archi�tec�ture of the coun�try with no other cen�ters of power exist�ing. The throne of Saudi Ara�bia changes hands through a power trans�fer that remains firmly within the Saud clan. Ibn Saud is believed to have had at least 70 chil�dren, with at least 16 sons still alive. They and their off�spring form a core of about 200 princes who wield most of the power. Esti�mates of the total num�ber of princes range any�where from 7,000 upwards. The family�s vast num�bers allow it to con�trol most of the kingdom�s impor�tant posts and to have an involve�ment and pres�ence at all lev�els of gov�ern�ment. The key min�istries are reserved for the royal fam�ily, as are the thir�teen regional governorships.

 

The Sauds know their own gov�ern�ing elite is dete�ri�o�rat�ing. Saudi Ara�bia is a state that, as its name attests, is based on loy�alty not to a ter�rain or an idea but to a fam�ily. Abdu�laziz Ibn Saud, who estab�lished the coun�try along with his son Faisal bin Abdu�laziz (the third monarch), dom�i�nated the first gen�er�a�tion of Saudi rulers. The sec�ond gen�er�a�tion has been dom�i�nated by the �Sudeiri Seven� � the seven sons of Ibn Saud�s favorite wife, Hassa bint Ahmad al-Sudeiri � who over�saw polit�i�cal life, often as kings, giv�ing coher�ence to the fam�ily and thus to the rul�ing power struc�ture. But that group is dis�ap�pear�ing. The cur�rent crown prince, Salman, the sixth old�est Sudeiri, is 76. In the third gen�er�a�tion, 19 grand�sons will com�pete with 16 sur�viv�ing sons of Ibn Saud on the Alle�giance Coun�cil, appointed in 2006 to for�mal�ize the suc�ces�sion process. And there are many more grand�sons out�side the council.

 

The sec�ond pil�lar has been the numer�ous and com�plex patron�age net�works estab�lished to con�sol�i�date con�trol of the oil rich nation. The descen�dants of  Muham�mad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the 18th cen�tury founder of the Wah�habi school of thought is only sec�ond in pres�tige to the royal fam�ily with whom they formed a mutual sup�port pact and power-sharing arrange�ment nearly 300 years ago.[2] This pact main�tains Wah�habi sup�port for Saud rule and thus uses its author�ity to legit�imize the royal family�s rule.[3] The most impor�tant reli�gious posts are closely linked to the al Saud fam�ily by a high degree of inter�mar�riage. The reli�gious schol�ars have pro�moted the royal fam�ily as defend�ers of Islam through their inter�na�tional efforts in con�struct�ing mosques. In sit�u�a�tions in which the pub�lic deemed cer�tain poli�cies of the royal fam�ily ques�tion�able, the schol�ars would invoke fat�was to deflect any dis�sent. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Ara�bia issued a fatwa oppos�ing peti�tions and demon�stra�tions in the mid�dle of the Arab Spring; his fatwa included a �severe threat against inter�nal dis�sent.�[4]

 

The third and final pil�lar is the country�s min�eral wealth, which is con�cen�trated in the royal fam�ily and the hands of a few other well-positioned fam�i�lies. The roy�als receive stipends of vary�ing amounts, depend�ing on their posi�tion in the blood�line of King Abdul-Aziz.  Pos�sess�ing the world�s largest oil field has allowed the royal fam�ily the means to estab�lish and main�tain patron�age net�works that helped build tribal alliances.

 

Saudi Ara�bia has con�structed its for�eign rela�tions to pro�tect and enrich the monar�chy and in turn the fam�ily of Saud. Put within the con�text of its immense min�eral wealth and mil�i�tary riches, Saudi Arabia�s role in the world is largely lim�ited to a mere sym�bolic lead�er�ship due to hav�ing the two holy Islamic sites, Makkah and Mad�ina, within its bor�ders. Saudi Ara�bia has played a role in a hand�ful of regional issues such as host�ing nego�ti�a�tions for the two state solu�tion and being a host�ing ground for US bases. It is dom�i�nated by the royal fam�ily who have main�tained an inter�nal bal�ance, which keeps them in power. Saudi Ara�bia was a nation cre�ated by the Saud fam�ily for the Saud fam�ily and as another one of its kings comes to his end in all like�li�hood there will be a power strug�gle by var�i�ous groups of princes whose num�ber is anyone�s guess.

 

[1] Wilkin�son, John C. (1993). Arabia�s Fron�tiers: the Story of Britain�s Bound�ary Draw�ing in the Desert. pp. 133�39.
[2] http://www.meforum.org/482/the-power-of-saudi-arabias-islamic-leaders
[3] Al-Rasheed, Madawi (2010). A His�tory of Saudi Ara�bia. pp. 16.
[4] A fatwa from the Coun�cil of Senior Schol�ars in the King�dom of Saudi Ara�bia warn�ing against mass demon�stra�tions, Asharq al awsat News, Octo�ber 2011, retrieved 1 Octo�ber 2012,http://islamopediaonline.org/fatwa/fatwa-council-senior-scholars-kingdom-saudi-arabia-warning-against-mass-demonstrations

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