▲ Saudi family source / network
①
Saudi Arabia is a theocratic kingdom, and the name of the country is named after the House of Saud, which is formed by the descendants of Mohammed Ben Saud, the founder of the first Saudi state of Diriyah Emirate, and his brother.
But the current Saudi Arabia is not the same as the First Saudi State, it should be called the Third Saudi State, which was created by Ibn Saud and led by his descendants.
Saudi Arabia's royal family is now very populous, and everyone is rich. This is because the Saudi royal family receives subsidies or bonuses from the government every year. The most influential member of Saudi Arabia is the king of Saudi Arabia. The current king is the old King Salman, and the succession to the throne in Saudi Arabia is passed from the son of the first king to another son, and by the time of the old Salman, it has been changed to the death of the father and the son.
Many of the officials in the Kingdom cabinet are also members of the royal family, and although the throne is still hereditary, in 2006, the Saudi royal family introduced a royal decree in which a committee of princes decided who the future king would be.
Saudi Arabia's entire nation-building undertaking should be divided into three phases; The first was the First Saudi Kingdom, the Emirate of Diriyah, from 1744 to 1818. This also marked the expansion of the Wahhabi sect, a famous sect in Islam, and for more than 150 years, the power of the House of Saud was up and down, and there were internal conflicts, and there were constant conflicts with Egypt and the Ottoman Empire for control of the peninsula, and it lost power twice, and after several sinks, it was founded by the current Abdullah Aziz.
Third, in fact, during the whole process of the establishment of the kingdom, the Saudi family almost perished several times, but eventually rose again. This is enough to confirm a truth, that is, the once powerful family in history will never sink.
Under the leadership of Ibn Saud, the Saud family conquered Najd and Hejaz for thirteen years, from 1913 to 1926. In 1927, several major treaties were signed, which allowed Saudi Arabia to officially become an independent state from British rule. On September 22, 1932, Saudi Arabia officially declared its unification, and six years later Saudi Arabia discovered oil, which completely changed the country's fortunes.
②
According to historical data related to the Middle East, the Saud family is one of the two great ancestors of the Arabs, the descendants of Adan. His ancestors lived in the village of Diriyah, near Qatif, on the eastern shore of the Arabian Peninsula, and after several generations of hard work, they established themselves in Diriyah.
The Arabian Peninsula has been part of the political map of the Ottoman Empire since the 16th century, when the Turks occupied the Hejaz region on the Red Sea coast in 1517 and annexed it to the province of Egypt, which was separated from it in 1872.
▲Image source/network
In 1550 AD, the Ottoman Turkish Empire invaded the coast of the Persian Gulf and annexed it to Basra Province, so in addition to Khasa and the Hejaz, the inland deserts and plateaus of the Arabian Peninsula were still under the control of the nomadic Bedouin tribes, the nobles of the Middle East, who recognized the suzerainty of the Sultan of Istanbul and received the title and maintained a deep-rooted tribal rule. But in reality, they are all working in silos, and the influence of religion in the Middle East is very large.
We mentioned a sect called Wahhabis, but he was also named after one man, the scholar Ibn Wahhabi. Wahhabi was deeply influenced by the Tamiyah and Hanbali sects, and when he wrote his book and began his mission, he was determined to eradicate the phenomenon of polytheism and idolatry among Muslims, and to clear the way for Islam to be authentic and to restore its early development.
But Wahhabi was more radical, and he had many ideas that did not match the orthodox sects of the time, and there were great contradictions between them. His missionary travel was also more or less restricted, and even the sheikhs of some tribes did not look down on him at all. Wahhabi was a particularly devout Muslim, and in the course of his continuous missionary work, he formed what became Wahhabis.
In 1744, Ibn Wahhabi ran to the small city of Diriyyah in Najd, and by this time the Saud family had passed down to the eighth generation, that is, Muhammad bin Saud.
Later, the system of theocratic integration between the Saud family and the bishops of the Wahhabi family appeared, which is regarded by many historians as the formal establishment of the Emir State of Diriyyah, that is, the first kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The political expansion of the Saudi state and the expansion of Wahhabism went hand in hand, and the cooperation of the two families helped Saudi Arabia to expand massively in the form of jihad in the second half of the eighteenth century.
In 1802, when the Sauds and Wahhabis invaded the Shiite shrine of Karbala, they killed civilians and Shiites, and plundered a lot of property in the shrine of Imam Hussein.
This was followed by the capture of the holy city of Mecca in 1803 and another city of Medina in 1804. In addition, the Wahhabis continued to attack the Ottoman caravans through military support provided by the Saudis, which greatly affected the Ottoman Empire's financial situation.
The doctrine of Wahhabi was very extreme, and after the occupation of Mecca and Medina, in addition to carrying out various bombardments against the infidels, they even wanted to push Muhammad away, and such political and economic interests caused a huge contradiction with the First Saudi Kingdom. At this time, the First Saudi Kingdom had become the largest country in the Arabian Peninsula since the Prophet, and the expansion of the Saudi family in the Hejaz and Najd regions alarmed the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, who was very troubled by the First Saudi Kingdom.
The Sultans of the Ottoman Empire were very unpleasant to the first Saudi kingdom, fearing that they would rise too quickly and be annexed by them sooner or later.
So, in 1811 A.D., he ordered the governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, to lead his troops to retake the two holy cities of Medina. Despite the loss of the two holy cities, the Saud family is still very tenacious.
From 1811 to 1818, seven years of guerrilla warfare were fought, and in the course of these seven years, the command of the troops in the entire Egyptian province also changed, that is, the son of Muhammad Ali, Ibra Himpasha, began to take over the military command from his father in 1817.
As soon as he came up, the whole strategy was completely different. His dealings with Arab tribes consisted mainly of diplomacy, long-distance friendships, and frequent gifts and money to gain their support. Many of these Arab tribes were Bedouins, and the Bedouins revered and trusted the tribe far more than the concept of state and religion, so they turned directly to Ibra Simpasha when he was confronted with his heavy bribes. For this reason, Ibra Himpasha entered the interior of the Arabian Peninsula so easily and encircled the Saud family.
This soon led to a military victory, and after Ibra Himpasha recaptured the inland towns of Onaizai and Buraidah, most of the Arab tribes had already pledged their attachment to Ibra Himpasha, and Ibra Himpasha began to march towards Diriyah, the capital of the First Saudi Kingdom. Although the Wahhabi Guardian forces harassed Ibra Simpasha's forces, they were unable to withstand the fierce front.
③
In April 1818, the Egyptian army arrived at Diriyah, due to the lack of training of the Egyptian army, this war lasted from April 1818 to September 1818, the entire Saudi family and the Wahhabi family formed the army completely surrendered, the first Saudi kingdom was completely destroyed, and Abdul, as the monarch of the Saudi kingdom, was later sent to Constantinople for execution.
Although Abdul was executed, the vast majority of members of the entire Saudi family were pardoned. Compared with the Saudi family, the Wahhabi family is really unlucky, their wave of priests are very religious to the faith, absolutely unyielding, and the Ottoman Empire also believes that their demagoguery is far more than the Saudi family, many Wahhabi priests have been slaughtered, and the first Saudi kingdom is completely wiped out.
▲Saudi Crown Prince Shahrman Jr. Source/Internet
However, the rest of the House of Saud, under the leadership of Ibn Saud, rose to prominence within a few years.
They expelled the Emir of Najd, appointed by the Egyptian Province, and re-established the Emir State of Riyadh in Riyadh in 1824. In order to repeat the mistakes of the Diriyah era, the emirs of Riyadh stopped expanding into the Hejaz, and the focus of their expansion shifted to the Persian Gulf coast.
Although there was no influence from external enemies, there were problems within the Second Saudi Kingdom, and the palace struggle was fierce. In 1834, the leader of Turkey was assassinated, and after that, the Saud family and the Wahhabi family were locked in internal disputes over their interests, and the Egyptian province felt that it had an opportunity to send troops to constantly harass Riyadh.
In 1843, the Turkish son Faisal re-established his rule, and at this time, Egypt and Istanbul were locked in conflict, and the Saudi state was stabilized and its territory expanded to the Persian Gulf coast. The Wahhabi family, which had a conflict with the Saudi family before, also made a truce and reconciled, and further spread to the outside world, gradually becoming the mainstream belief in the Najd region.
After Faisal's death, Saudi Arabia went from prosperity to decline. In the mountains of Shermar in the Najd region, a family called Rashid arose, and the Rashid family established the Emir State of Mount Shermail, which was based on nomadic tribes and expanded rapidly.
In 1891, the Rashid family invaded Riyadh, and Rashid's forces were victorious, and the Second Saudi Kingdom was destroyed.
The entire House of Saud was expelled from Riyadh, and the entire territory was annexed by the House of Rashid. The Saud family fled to Kuwait, and it was the rise and expansion of the Rashid family that planted the seeds for the future unification movement of Saudi Arabia.
The Rashid family, who ousted the House of Saud, became the overlord of Najd and grew into the most powerful political force in the Arabian Peninsula at the time. On the one hand, they were attached to the sultan of Istanbul and maintained the ancient tribal politics of the interior of the Arabian Peninsula. On the other hand, they also actively sought to expand abroad, and they set their sights on the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina.
These two holy cities belong to the Hejaz region and have been under the rule of the Hashemite family of Mecca for generations. The Ottoman Empire also had troops stationed here, and the Persian Gulf coast was under British protection. In such a situation, in fact, the Saudi family has not sunk, and has been thinking about how to regain everything that belongs to them.
④
In 1901, the head of the House of Saud, known to Westerners as Ibn Saud, was already headed by Abdullah Aziz, who sought the House of Al-Shah Sabah in Kuwait in order to regain Riyadh.
In January 1902, Ibn Saud led his army from Kuwait to Riyadh, attacked the fortress of Al Mamak in Riyadh, killed the defender Ibn Ajlan, and beheaded Ibn Ajran after capturing the city in the middle of the night. After Ibn Saud captured Riyadh, he established himself as his emir and rebuilt Riyadh. The Emir Kingdom later became known as the Third Kingdom of Najd, also known as the Third Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
▲Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, Source/Internet
This battle, known as the Battle of the Old Capital of the House of Saud, opened the prelude to the unification of Saudi Arabia.
For four years, from 1903 to 1907, the House of Saud and their arch-rivals, the Rashid family, fought a series of military victories around the Sim region.
At the beginning of 1903, Ibn Saud left 1,000 soldiers in Riyadh and led 3,500 men south to attack and occupy the small town of Dirham, which resulted in the loss of 160 men by the Saudi troops and a complete victory over the Rashid family.
In 1904, the two sides fought again at Onaizai, and the Saudi army captured the city with only two losses. At this time, the Saudi troops were already becoming more and more courageous.
This once again alarmed the Ottoman Sultan, and then the Ottoman Sultan decided to send troops to support Rashid's army, after which Rashid's army fought with the Saudi army in Bikliya and Shinana, but was defeated, and the Saudi troops who fought even the battle also captured a large amount of Ottoman resources.
In April 1906, an even larger battle broke out between the two sides at Muhanna Park.
After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Shinana, Rashid's army formed an alliance with the emir of the Qasim region, and the Rashid family felt that if they did not ally at this time, they would be destroyed by the Saudis sooner or later. However, Ibn Saud sent 10,000 troops to Qaseems to meet Rashid's coalition forces in this war, which can be said to be a decisive battle, and the Saudi army lost 35 men and won again.
In this battle, both the Rashid family and the leader of Qazim were killed, and the political situation in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula was largely settled after the battle. Even later, the heirs of the Qassim tribe once again united with the Rashid family to seek revenge against the Saudi family, and the two sides fought again, and the result was the final victory of the Saudi army.
After this, the first phase of the fighting in the Arabian Peninsula came to an end, and the House of Saud was able to take control of the Qassim region.
End of this article.