Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (14 April 1906 – 25 March 1975) was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until his assassination in 1975. Before his ascension, he served as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1964, and he was briefly regent to his half-brother King Saud in 1964. He was prime minister from 1954 to 1960 and from 1962 to 1975. Faisal was the third son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.
Faisal was born in Riyadh to Abdulaziz, then Emir of Nejd, and Tarfa bint Abdullah Al Sheikh. Faisal's mother was from the Al ash-Sheikh family, which has produced many prominent Saudi religious leaders. Faisal emerged as an influential political figure during his father's reign. He served as viceroy of Hejaz from 1926 to 1932. He was the Saudi foreign minister from 1930 and prime minister from 1954 until his death, except for a two-year break in both positions from 1960 to 1962. After his father died in 1953 and his half-brother Saud became king, Faisal became crown prince, and in that position he outlawed slavery in Saudi Arabia. He persuaded King Saud to abdicate in his favour in 1964 with the help of other members of the royal family and his maternal cousin Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia.
Faisal implemented a policy of modernization and reform. His main foreign policy themes were pan-Islamism, anti-communism, anti-Zionism and pro-Palestinianism. He attempted to limit the power of Islamic religious officials. Protesting against support that Israel received from the West, he led the oil embargo which caused the 1973 oil crisis. Faisal successfully stabilized the Kingdom's bureaucracy, and his reign had significant popularity among Saudi Arabians despite his reforms facing some controversy. Following his assassination by his nephew Faisal bin Musaid in 1975, he was succeeded by his half-brother Khalid.
Early life and education
Faisal bin Abdulaziz was born in Riyadh on 14 April 1906. He was the third son of Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman, then Emir of Nejd; Faisal was the first of his father's sons who was born in Riyadh. His mother was Tarfa bint Abdullah Al Sheikh, whom Abdulaziz had married in 1902 after capturing Riyadh. Tarfa was a descendant of the religious leader Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab. Faisal's maternal grandfather, Abdullah bin Abdullatif Al Sheikh, was one of Abdulaziz's principal religious teachers and advisers. Faisal had an older full sister, Noura, who married her cousin Khalid bin Muhammad, a son of Abdulaziz's half-brother Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman.
Tarfa bint Abdullah died in 1906, when Faisal was six months old. He then began to live with his maternal grandparents, Abdullah bin Abdullatif and Haya bint Abdul Rahman Al Muqbel, who educated their grandson. Under the mentorship of his grandfather, Prince Faisal completed his studies of reading the Qur'an and studying Islamic law and doctrines at the age of nine. He also learned horseback riding and politics from his father. His father influenced him militarily and politically, and at a young age, Faisal was chosen to represent his father in international forums.
According to Helen Chapin Metz, Faisal, and most of his generation, was raised in an atmosphere in which courage was extremely valued and reinforced. From 1916 he was tutored by Hafiz Wahba who later served in various governmental posts.
Early political experience
As one of Abdulaziz's eldest sons, Faisal was given numerous responsibilities. In 1919 the British government invited Abdulaziz to visit London. He could not go, but he assigned his eldest son, Turki, as his envoy. However, Prince Turki died due to Spanish flu before the visit. Therefore, Faisal was sent to London instead, making him the first ever Saudi Arabian royal to visit England. His visit lasted for five months, and he met with British officials. During the same period, he also visited France, again being the first Saudi Arabian royal to pay an official visit there.
Abdulaziz gave his son Faisal many military duties to consolidate authority over Arabia. After the capture of Hail and initial control over Asir in 1922, Faisal was sent to these provinces with nearly six thousand fighters. He achieved complete control over Asir at the end of the year.
Viceroy of Hejaz and foreign minister
Prince Faisal was appointed viceroy of Hejaz on 9 February 1926 following his father's takeover of the region. He often consulted with local leaders during his tenure. Faisal was the president of the Consultative Assembly and the minister of interior. In December 1931, following the announcement of the constitution of the Council of Deputies (Majlis al Wukala), he also became the president of the four-member council and minister of foreign affairs. He would continue to oversee Saudi foreign policy until his death—even as king, with only a two-year break between 1960 and 1962.
Faisal visited several countries in this period, including Iran in May 1932, Poland in 1932 and Russia in 1933. On 8 July 1932 he visited Turkey and met with President Kemal Atatürk. On 23 September 1932, the prince officially announced the establishment of Saudi Arabia on behalf of his father from Al Hamidiyah Palace in Mecca by reading out the royal decree that renamed the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Faisal commanded a campaign during the Saudi–Yemeni War in 1934, resulting in a Saudi victory. He and his half-brother Khalid visited the US in October 1943 following the invitation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is one of the early contacts between Saudi Arabia and the US.
As King Abdulaziz neared the end of his life, he favored Faisal as a possible successor over his eldest living son, Crown Prince Saud, due to Faisal's extensive knowledge, as well as his years of experience. Since Faisal was a child, Abdulaziz recognized him as the most brilliant of his sons and often tasked him with responsibilities in war and diplomacy. In addition, Faisal was known to embrace a simple Bedouin lifestyle. "I only wish I had three Faisals", Abdulaziz once said when discussing who would succeed him. However, Abdulaziz made the decision to keep Saud as crown prince in the fear that otherwise would lead to decreased stability.
Crown prince and prime minister
King Abdulaziz died on 9 November 1953, and Prince Faisal was at his side. Faisal's elder half-brother, Saud, became king. Faisal was then appointed crown prince. On 16 August 1954 he was made prime minister.
King Saud embarked on a spending program that included the construction of a massive royal residence on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh. He also faced pressure from neighboring Egypt, where Gamal Abdel Nasser had overthrown the monarchy in 1952. Nasser was able to cultivate a group of dissident princes led by Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, who defected to Egypt. Fearing that Saud's financial policies were bringing the state to the brink of collapse, and that his handling of foreign affairs was inept, senior members of the royal family and the ulema (religious leadership) pressured Saud into appointing Faisal to the position of prime minister in 1958, giving Faisal wide executive powers.
A power struggle ensued between Saud and Faisal, and on 18 December 1960, Faisal resigned as prime minister in protest, arguing that Saud was frustrating his financial reforms. Saud took back his executive powers and, having induced Prince Talal to return from Egypt, appointed him as minister of finance in July 1958. In 1962, however, Faisal rallied enough support within the royal family to install himself as prime minister for a second time. Less than a month before this event Faisal held a secret meeting with US president John F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C., on 4 October 1962. The same year, Faisal announced the Ten Point Program, which outlined Saudi Arabia's path to becoming an industrialized nation by implementing economic, financial, political, and legal principles. Among the highlights were:
- Issuing a basic system of governance derived from Islamic Sharia and developing the system of governance and the Saudi Arabian Council of Ministers.
- Establishing a system for the provinces, clarifying the method of local government, in the various regions of the Kingdom.
- Establishing a system for the independence of the judiciary, under the control of a Supreme Judicial Council, and establishing the Ministry of Justice.
- Establishing a Supreme Council for issuing fatwas, comprising twenty jurists.
- Improving the social level of the Saudi people, through free medical treatment, free education, and the exemption of many foodstuffs from customs duties. In addition, a social security system and a system to protect workers from unemployment were established.
- Establishing a program for economic recovery, strengthening the financial position of the Kingdom, developing a program to raise the standard of living of citizens, establishing a road network linking parts of the Kingdom and its cities, providing water sources for drinking and agriculture, and ensuring the protection of light and heavy national industries. This includes allocating all the additional sums that the government would receive from Aramco for its rights claimed by the companies for the past years, and harnessing them to serve development projects.
- Continuing to develop girls' education as well as the advancement of women.
- The liberation of slaves and the abolition of slavery, once and for all in Saudi Arabia.
Faisal founded the Economic Development Committee in 1958. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Islamic University of Madinah in 1961. In 1962 he helped found the Muslim World League, a worldwide charity to which the Saudi royal family has reportedly since donated more than a billion dollars. In 1963 he established the country's first television station, though actual broadcasts would not begin for another two years.
Struggle with King Saud
During this period, the struggle with King Saud continued in the background, with the royal princes meeting and asking Faisal to take over effective control from Saud. Saud had driven the country into serious debt and embarrassed the royal family by becoming embroiled in a plan to assassinate United Arab Republic president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Faisal took advantage of Saud's absence from the country for medical reasons in early 1963 to amass greater power for himself as Saudi Arabia's political and economic circumstances worsened. He removed many of Saud's loyalists from their posts and appointed like-minded princes in key military and security positions, such as his half-brother Prince Abdullah, to whom he gave command of the National Guard in 1962. Upon his return, Saud rejected Faisal's new arrangement and requested that all of his powers be restored.
In response, Faisal called a meeting of all senior members of the royal family, excluding Saud, as well as ulema and tribal elders. Faisal had convened the tribe chiefs in response to Saud's demand that his full powers be restored. As a result, the assembly supported Faisal and proposed that Saud be deposed from the throne and Faisal be proclaimed monarch. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh, a maternal cousin of Faisal, issued a fatwa (edict) calling on the King to accede to his brother's demands. Faisal, on the other hand, urged that Saud keep the royal title. He was said to have felt bound by his oath to his father that he would recognize Saud as king. All that mattered, he maintained, was that Saud leave power in Faisal's hands and stay out of public life.
As a last-ditch attempt to reclaim executive powers, Saud ordered the deployment of the Royal Guard at Nasriyah Palace, prompting Faisal to order the National Guard to surround Saud's palace. His loyalists outnumbered and outgunned, Saud relented, and on 4 March 1964, Faisal was appointed regent. A meeting of the elders of the royal family and the ulema was convened later that year, and the grand mufti decreed a second fatwa, calling on Saud to abdicate the throne in favor of his brother. Faisal believed that Saud's continued ill health compelled him to take the throne, thus absolving him of the oath. The royal family supported the fatwa and immediately informed Saud of their decision. Saud, by now shorn of all his powers, agreed, and Faisal was proclaimed king on 2 November 1964. Saud then went into exile, finding refuge in Egypt before eventually settling in Greece.
Abolition of slavery
Slavery did not vanish in Saudi Arabia until Faisal issued a decree for its total abolition in 1962. BBC presenter Peter Hobday stated that about 1,682 slaves were freed at that time, at a cost to the government of $2,000 each. The political analyst Bruce Riedel argued that the US began to raise the issue of slavery after the meeting between King Abdulaziz and US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, and that John F. Kennedy finally persuaded the House of Saud to abolish slavery in 1962.
King of Saudi Arabia
In a speech shortly after becoming king, Faisal said:
I beg of you, brothers, to look upon me as both brother and servant. 'Majesty' is reserved to God alone and 'the throne' is the throne of the Heavens and Earth.
One of the earliest actions Faisal took as king was to establish a council to deal with future succession issues. The members were his uncles Abdullah and Musaid and his half-brothers Khalid, Fahd, Abdullah, Sultan, and Nawwaf. In 1967 Faisal established the post of second prime minister and appointed Prince Fahd to this post. The reason for this newly established body was Prince Khalid's request and suggestion. The use of Saudi Arabia's flag was made by him official on 15 March 1973, although it had been in use since 1902.