He also learned archery and horse-riding amongst other things under the supervision of his father, as well as tribal lineages, and how to conduct peace agreements, and the art of wars, politics, diplomacy, and administration in the traditional Arabian ways.

During his tenure as viceroy of Najd Prince Saud criticized his father due to the limitations on the Ikhwan through the newspaper Umm Al Qura.

[12] His uncle Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman did not pledge his allegiance to Saud as crown prince and before the gathering he left Riyadh for Mecca.

[12] Upon his appointment as crown prince, Abdulaziz told his son that he should be devoted to spreading Islam, take good care of his subjects, and pay attention to the advice of religious scholars.

[13] The following year, King Abdulaziz sent two military expeditions; one of them was led by Crown Prince Saud, who regained Najran and advanced secretly through the rugged mountains in the northwest part of Yemen.

After the war, when the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine appeared to be imminent, and leaders of the various Arab States met at Inshas in Egypt during 1946 in order to review the situation under the Chairmanship of King Farouk of Egypt, Saud was again selected by his father to represent him and his country, and participated in the adoption of the famous resolution that declared that: "The Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and not merely the Palestinians".

Following Saud's visits, he concentrated on the first areas to be deemed in sore need of modernization and reform in view of increasing revenues and expenditures, these were the governance and handling the country's finances.

During this period, technical co-operation, primarily in the guise of the arrival of 35 experts during 1952 and aimed at generating planned economic growth within the Kingdom also received a major boost.

Apart from financial and administrative reforms, the report presented to Abdulaziz by Prince Saud, had commended the implementation of a whole range of vital infrastructure projects relating to the improvement of facilities for the Pilgrims, so important to the Kingdom from a religious and economic point of view, water supply, roads, broadcasting service, health, municipal affairs, port improvements, customs reorganization, and higher education.

The Saudi Arabian Airlines fleet was also expanded by the purchase of four new 'Sky Masters' to primarily facilitate the transport of Pilgrims from their homes to the sites of pilgrimage and back, and also within the Kingdom.

[17] In order to cope adequately with the responsibilities of this challenge, and facilitate realistically the implementation of his programme he initially doubled the number of ministries to ten by adding the portfolios of education, agriculture, health, commerce, and industry, plus two directorates: Labour and broadcasting and the bureau of public inspection in 1955, to the existing ministries of foreign affairs, finance, interior, defence, and communications.

[19] In January 1954 King Saud signed an agreement with Greek businessman Aristotle Socrates Onassis to establish a state-owned maritime tanker company.

[22] He declared in 1960 that schools would be established to educate girls in religious matters, including Quran, creed, and fiqh as well as in other sciences which were acceptable in Islamic tradition such as house management, and raising and disciplining children.

King Saud believed in a non-alignment policy between the United States and the Soviet Union, which he discussed thoroughly with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during an official visit to India.

Imam Ahmad bin Yahya of Yemen joined the Arab endeavors to unify their ranks when he signed the joint defense agreement with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Maintaining his support to the Arab countries after the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956, although the Egyptian Government did not consult him as it did with Syria in taking that decision contrary to his expectations as a military ally.

When Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt on 29 October 1956 as a result of the nationalization of the canal, King Saud declared a general mobilization and ordered the opening of enlistment offices.

Despite traditionally intimate ties of his country with the United States of America, and the ingrained alienation of communism and Islamic beliefs, he refused to join the American sponsored the Baghdad Pact of 1955, (later on the Central Treaty Organisation – CENTO), – aimed at opposing the expansion of Communist influence in the region, despite the involvement of the fellow Arab State of Iraq in it, along with Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Britain.

The three leaders agreed to try to convince Eisenhower to pressure the Israeli government to evacuate occupied Sharm El Sheikh that overlooks the Gulf of Aqaba and to withdraw to the borders of the previous truce on all frontiers.

He also discussed with the American President his dispute with Britain over the Al Buraymi Oasis, an oil zone between the frontiers of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Abu Dhabi which was under British protection.

[25] King Saud delivered an important speech during the banquet held by Dag Hammarskjöld, the Swedish UN Secretary-General in which he addressed the different aspects of the Arab complaints, in accordance with the UN charter and its powers.

During his negotiations with the American president in Washington on 2 February 1957, the American President explained the principles and objectives of his doctrine, known as the Eisenhower Doctrine, and the effective role that he expected of him as a powerful friend of the United States of America and as an eminent Arab and Muslim leader in fighting the communist movement invading the Middle East and the Islamic countries.

King Saud asked Dwight D. Eisenhower to exert pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories of Palestine and settle the Palestinian cause, and to convince France to reach a settlement regarding the independence of Algeria.

King Saud explained to the American President that a large bulk of his country's budget was allocated to development projects and to the five-year plan and that he needed military aid before being able to play any role expected from him in fighting Communism.

The American government agreed to give him a 250 million dollar loan and all kinds of land, sea, and air weaponry, and to train the Saudi army on how to use them.

Saud was often associated among other things with the plundering of oil revenues, luxurious palaces, and conspiracy inside and outside of Saudi Arabia while Faisal was associated with sobriety, piety, puritanism, thriftiness, and modernization.

In this, he had the crucial backing of the ulema (elite Islamic scholars), including a fatwa (edict) issued by the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, a relative of Prince Faisal on his mother's side, calling on King Saud to accede to his brother's demands.

In March 1964 Saud finally relented and named Faisal regent with full executive powers, effectively reducing himself to a figurehead.

In November, the ulema, cabinet and senior members of the ruling family forced Saud to abdicate altogether, and Faisal became king in his own right.

[48] After the death of his elder brother Turki, Saud married his wife, Muneera bint Obaid; their daughter, Al Anoud, died in January 2006 aged 83 and was buried in Mecca.