ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The unification of Saudi Arabia was a political and military campaign by the House of Saud against several sheiks, emirates, kingdoms and tribes of the Arabian peninsula, who were conquered between 1902 and 1932, the date when the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed under the leadership of Abdelaziz ibn Saud. He sometimes refers to this modern Saudi state as the Third Saudi State, to distinguish it from the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State and the Emirate of Néyed, the Second Saudi State, also states of the House of Saud.

The Al-Saud had been exiled in Iraq since 1893, following the disintegration of the Néyed emirate and the growth of the Emirate of Jabal Shammar under the Al Rashid clan. In 1902, bin Saud again captured Riad, the former capital of the Saud dynasty. He conquered the rest of Néyed, Al-Hasa, Yebel Shammar, Air Province and Hiyaz (where the sacred cities of Islam: Mecca and Medina are located) between 1913 and 1926. The resulting form of government was called the Nejd and Hiyaz Kingdom from 1927, until the territories of Al-Hasa and Qatif were consolidated and became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

Background

Muhammad Ibn Saud, emir of Diriyah, and Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, preacher of a strict and austere version of Islam, forged a covenant in 1744. In this way Ibn Saud agreed to support the jihad called by Ibn Abdul Wahhab against non-Muslims and Muslims who did not accept his doctrine, while the latter would recognize him as the political leader of the Muslim community.

Thus the so-called First Saudi State began its expansion through the intention to purge Arabia from impurities of Islam, as Ibn Abdul Wahhab understood. By 1793 the alliance had consolidated its power in most of the Arabian peninsula. In 1803 they conquered Mecca, which provoked the wrath of the Ottomans who commissioned Muhammad Ali, the governor of Egypt, who launched an offensive against the Saudis that culminated in the taking of Diriyah in 1818.

The Second Saudi State (1824-1891), also called the Najd Emirates, was revived by Turki ibn Abdullah, the son of the last emir who was beheaded in Constantinople. Turki made Riad his capital. He was killed by his cousin Mishari. His son Faysal, supported by Abdullah ibn Rashid, emir del Ha'il; managed to reestablish himself as emir de Riyadh. In 1837, however, he was taken prisoner by the Egyptians, who left in his place a relative of Faysal, Khalid, who was in turn dethroned by Abdullah ibn Thuniyyan. Faysal managed to escape Egypt and return to Riyadh in 1843. His son Abdullah ibn Faysal took over the emirate, however he and his brother Saud began a war, a fact that was taken advantage of by the emir of Ha'il, Abdullah ibn Rashid, to increase his power, extending his influence over Riyadh until the expulsion of the last Saudi emir, Abdarrachman ibn Faysal, who took refuge in Kuwait.

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