35
Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s Spouse
famous. All these are records of important
landmarks that
reflect the stages of evolution of the country during the
past years, which are estimated to represent at least five
hundred years of the history of this country.
The reader can see in this book the first snapshots
of the future king, his entourage and retinue (all of
whom are, obviously, men, and none are women).Their
faces look grim and cautious, semi- covered with the
traditional head-cover (kufiyya) and (iqaal). These were
the faces of men who had encountered something new
and incomprehensible in 1911. At that time, the country
included just the central part of the Arabian Peninsula and
the Governorate of Jeddah. Tribal life and the pastoral type
of economy prevailed; the roaming nomads controlled the
largest part of the territory and the water resources; they
owned great numbers of camels and sheep; the standard
of living of the majority of the population was very
low. Diseases were rampant, specially malaria, syphilis,
tuberculosis and leprosy. The average life expectancy
was 33 years; slavery had not been totally abolished yet
and contact with the outside world took place once a year
during the season of Pilgrimage to the Holy Kaabah.
There were isolated towns and no asphalted routes; the
conventional means of transport were the camels, which
were also the source of food and clothing and a guarantee
of survival in a rigorous climate.
There is also a historical photograph representing
the meeting of King Abdulaziz with King Faisal of Iraq
on board the British cruiser Lubin. This was no casual
occasion; it followed the disintegration and fall of the
36
Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s
Spouse
Ottoman Empire. At the end of the First World War,
Britain played a crucial role in this region, and instaled two
reliable rulers on the thrones of Transjordan and Iraq.
In 1930, nearly thirty years after the occupation of
Riyadh, during which, and as a result of hard struggle,
Abdulaziz was able to subdue the sheikhs of the
neighboring emirates, and a result of his struggle against
the Turks, he cooperated with the British, who, obviously,
were seeking their own ends, for converting to urban
life a number of bedouin clans and established special
settlements for them. There
the group of the Ikhwan were
trained to perform agricultural work, which was new to
them. After they had lost contact with their previous way
of life, they became not only urban farmers but also first
class and unimaginably loyal warriors at the disposal of
the Saudi State. With their help, and as a result of the
successful moves made by Abdulaziz, extensive and wide
expanses of the territory of the Arabian Peninsula were
unified, including the Hijaz, which includes the holiest of
Islamic places: Holy Mecca and the Medina Munawwarah.
In 1933, Abdulaziz issued a decree providing for the
unification of the various parts of the country, under which
decree the country came to be known as the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. Since then, Abdulaziz became king of a vast
state which occupied twelfth position in terms of areas
among the states of the world. This secured for him a high
and prestigious position. The King’s foreign policy had a
peaceful character in view of the fact that he realized that
only under peaceful conditions could the most difficult
and complex political, internal and religious problems be