Dahham ibn Dawwas ibn Abdullah al-Shalaan (Arabic: دهام بن دواس بن عبد الله الشعلان, romanized: Dahām bin Dawwās bin ʿAbd Allāh āl-Šaʿlān) was an 18th-century Arab tribal and political leader from Manfuhah who reigned as the first ruler of the walled town of Riyadh, initially as a regent for the House of Zara’ah between 1740 and 1745 and later as an independent chieftain from 1745 until he was deposed in 1773.
A member of the clan that belonged to the Mutayr tribe,[1] he was the son of Dawwas ibn Abdullah, the ruler of Manfuhah and is widely credited with laying the foundations of Riyadh, the-present day capital of Saudi Arabia, by constructing a mudbrick palace and erecting a defensive wall to ward-off invaders and intruders.
[6] His overall strategic failure and miscalculated decisions throughout the course of the conflict led to his eventual overthrow at the hands of the First Saudi State, making his name synonymous with acts of foolishness and ineptitude in the Najd.
Like his predecessor, he also vowed transfer of power to Ibn Zaid once he reaches the age of maturity, however in 1745, Dahham banished the underaged son from the town and assumed absolute authority of the settlement.
His rule was marked with aggression and tyranny by Arab historians and chroniclers from Najd, such as Ibn Ghannam,[18] a thought also seconded by Arabists such as William Facey and John Philby.
He has been described as a sadist and a peerless brute, who would sew the mouths of women, chop off the tongues of innocent inhabitants, break their teeth and slash flesh from their bodies and force them to eat it after being roasted.