Person1875 – 1953

Ibn Saud

Also called: Abdulaziz ibn Saud, King Abdulaziz

Leader of the House of Saud who conquered most of the Arabian Peninsula and founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 as its first king

Driven out by the Rashidis as a boy, he grew up in exile in Kuwait. In 1902 he retook Riyadh in a raid with a few dozen men, reviving the House of Saud. He expanded his realm with the Wahhabi Ikhwan, then crushed them in 1929–1930 when they rebelled and raided British-protected lands. After oil was found he allied with the United States, meeting President Roosevelt in 1945. He had many sons, who have succeeded him on the throne one after another.

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1 related event

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1932Founding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabialeader
Rising from Nejd, Ibn Saud drove Hussein’s family out of the Hejaz, unified most of the Arabian Peninsula and founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Themes this person appears in

National Movements in Asia and Africa1915 – 1948
From the Hussein–McMahon correspondence to the founding of Israel — three decades in which India, West Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, swept up in the tide of self-determination after the First World War, pressed toward independence and modernization