History of Saudi Arabia
[11] The modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, also known as Ibn Saud in Western countries.
Abdulaziz united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family.
[19][20] On 9 June 2020, the discovery of a 35-metre-long triangular megalithic monument in Dumat al-Jandal, dated back to the seventh millennium BC, presumably dedicated to ritual practices, was published in the journal Antiquity.
354 artefacts discovered by researchers, including hand axes, stone tools, and flakes, provide information about tool-making traditions of the earliest living humans inhabiting southwestern Asia.
From there, he and his companions united the tribes of Arabia under the banner of Islam and created a single Arab Muslim religious polity in the Arabian Peninsula.
[29] The Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque) in Mecca is the location of the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, and the Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's Mosque) in Medina is the location of Muhammad's tomb; as a result, from the 7th century, Mecca and Medina became pilgrimage destinations for large numbers of Muslims from across the Muslim world.
Their domain originally comprised only the holy cities of Mecca and Medina but in the 13th century, it was extended to include the rest of the Hejaz.
[38][39] Concerned at the growing power of the Saudis, the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa IV instructed his viceroy in Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha, to reconquer the area.
[31][43] However, with the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the British and French reneged on promises to Hussein to support a pan-Arab state.
Although Hussein was acknowledged as King of the Hejaz, Britain later shifted support to the Al Saud, leaving him diplomatically and militarily isolated.
The main weapon for achieving these conquests was the Ikhwan, the Wahhabist-Bedouin tribal army led by Sultan bin Bajad Al-Otaibi and Faisal al-Duwaish.
His next major acquisition was Al-Hasa, which he took from the Ottomans in 1913, bringing him control of the Persian Gulf coast and what would become Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves.
He avoided involvement in the Arab Revolt, having acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty in 1914, and instead continued his struggle with the Al Rashid in northern Arabia.
The use of the Ikhwan to effect the conquest had important consequences for the Hejaz: the old cosmopolitan society was uprooted, and a version of Wahhabi culture was imposed as a new compulsory social order.
[32][40] After the conquest of the Hejaz, Ikhwan leaders wanted to continue the expansion of the Wahhabist realm into the British protectorates of Transjordan, Mandatory Iraq, and Kuwait.
The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Ta'if, which ended a brief border war between the two states.
[49] Although Abdulaziz had military and political success, the country struggled economically until commercial volumes of oil were discovered in 1938 in the Al-Hasa region, along the Persian Gulf coast.
Oil provided Saudi Arabia with economic prosperity and a great deal of political leverage in the international community.
[32][52][53] However, by the early 1960s, an intense rivalry between the King and his half-brother, Prince Faisal, emerged, fueled by doubts in the royal family over Saud's competence.
[54] Meanwhile, Ahmad Shukeiri was relieved from his post as representative of Saudi Arabia at the UN after praising the fascist far-right organization Tacuara, as this embarrassed Arabs and caused Latin American objections.
Saudi forces did not participate in the Six-Day (Arab–Israeli) War of June 1967, but the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies.
[32][61] During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and other Western allies of Israel.
A founding member of OPEC, Saudi Arabia voted in favor of the group's decision to moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971.
In 1979, two events occurred that the Al Saud perceived as threatening the regime, and had a long-term influence on Saudi foreign and domestic policy.
Fahd maintained Saudi Arabia's foreign policy of close cooperation with the United States and increased purchases of sophisticated military equipment from the US and Britain.
[64] In 1995, Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke and his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, assumed day-to-day responsibility for the government.
[32] Terrorist activity within Saudi Arabia increased dramatically in 2003, with the Riyadh compound bombings and other attacks, which prompted the government to take more stringent action against terrorism.
In December 2005, following twelve years of talks, the World Trade Organization gave the green light to Saudi Arabia's membership.
For instance, Saudi women were given the right to drive in 2017[77] and in 2018, they were allowed to open their own business without the permission of a male guardian[78] and to maintain custody of their children following a divorce.
[79] But Mohammed has also gained criticism for, among other things, his involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi[80] and human rights violations under his rule.
