1921 -
King of Saudi Arabia, in power since 1982 but unable to rule since the late 1990s because of failing health.
Fahd ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saʿud was born in 1921 in Riyadh, the eleventh son of Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd alRahman Al Saʿud, the founder of Saudi Arabia. Like other Saudi princes, he received an education in the royal court, where the emphasis was on Islam, but also included a grounding in history and political affairs. As the eldest of seven sons of Abd al-Aziz's favorite wife, Hassa bint Ahmad al Sudayri, Fahd and his full brothers form the largest and most cohesive grouping within the Al Saʿud (House of Saʿud), the Al Fahd or, in popular Western (not Saudi) usage, the Sudayri Seven. They are thus the dominant faction in a system of government in which political power is held mainly by the Al Saʿud ruling family. Fahd is the first Saudi king to attain power after rising through the bureaucracy. In 1953 he became the country's first minister of education, and he has been instrumental since then in developing the country's education system. In 1958 he helped lead the attempt to force the abdication of his half brother, King Saʿud. When the older half-brother Faisal assumed executive powers as prime minister in 1962, he named Fahd interior minister, confirming a close partnership that would continue until King Faisal's death. Fahd was effective in implementing Faisal's reforms and by the early 1970s had emerged as the most influential prince, already a key voice in foreign-policy issues.
In 1965 the royal family had agreed on Fahd's designation as second deputy prime minister, shortly after it had prevailed on the reluctant Prince Khalid ibn Abd al-Aziz to become crown prince. (Thus a smooth succession was assured when an unbalanced nephew assassinated King Faisal on 25 March 1975.) Khalid and Fahd had formed an effective partnership, with contrasting personalities and qualities. Fahd was, in the Saudi context, a progressive and had made his mark as an able administrator. He enjoyed the exercise of power and worked effectively with bureaucrats and technocrats.
Though King Khalid suffered from heart disease, undergoing open-heart surgery both before and after his accession, he played an active role in all major decisions, and Fahd was always careful to defer to the king in his presence. Together they guided the kingdom through a period of great perils - the U.S.-brokered Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, which estranged Saudi Arabia from its principal Arab ally; the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that fomented Shiʿite unrest in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province (al-Hasa) and helped to trigger a profoundly unsettling attempt at a neoconservative Islamic uprising when militants seized the Great Mosque at Mecca; and the outbreak of the Iran - Iraq War, which threatened to spill over into Saudi Arabia. In 1981 he put forward a proposal for settling the Arab - Israeli dispute, which came to be known as the Fahd Plan.
When Khalid succumbed to a heart attack on 13 June 1982, Fahd's accession was smooth, with his next eldest half-brother Abdullah immediately confirmed as crown prince and Sultan ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saʿud, his next eldest full brother, designated as second deputy prime minister and effectively the next in succession.
Serious challenges have marked Fahd's rule. He became king just as petroleum prices were beginning a downward plunge that reduced the kingdom's oil revenues more than fivefold. This forced the king to cut back on implementing development plans and increased pressure to wean the country from its overreliance on foreign labor. The country's economic woes made it easier for voices of dissent to gain credibility among segments of the population. Fahd responded to some expressions of dissent with arrests and suppression. However, by the early 1990s he had put together a series of government reforms meant to signal his willingness to open up new channels of consultation. On the regional stage, Fahd was successful in asserting the kingdom's role as an important actor, mediating political conflict in Lebanon, nurturing Egypt's return to the Arab League, and laying the groundwork for greater cooperation among the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in the form of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Fahd's attempts to expand his country's good relations with the United States in the area of military cooperation ran into difficulties when a planned sale of advanced warning and air control aircraft (AWACS) ran afoul of congressional opposition in 1986, and the revelation of the purchase of Chinese missiles brought similar criticism from some U.S. quarters two years later. Finally, the Iran - Iraq War presented Saudi Arabia with a constant menace.
In 1986, in order to make a statement about his importance in the Islamic world, he adopted the title custodian of the two holy mosques. He personally supervised an aggressive Saudi oil policy to protect the kingdom's long-term interests. In the Gulf Crisis, his decision to invite U.S. and other non-Muslim forces to enter Saudi Arabia in August 1990, over Crown Prince Abdullah's objections, to defend the kingdom against possible invasion by Iraq and then to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation fatally upset the calculations of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein that Fahd would remain passive. The decision also has been one of the principal points of contention between the ruler and segments of the Islamist opposition, some of whom sent petitions, others engaged in protests, and still others carried out violent attacks against Saudi and U.S. targets. On 1 March 1992 Fahd issued a new basic law that included provision for a long-discussed consultative council (Majlis al-Shura) but going beyond what had been anticipated in the scope of proposed governmental changes, including the opening of the royal succession to the grandsons of Ibn Saʿud. Reforms of this period also included a restructuring of the regional government system. One of the last significant accomplishments of Fahd was a reshuffling of the Council of Ministers, the most extensive in twenty years. In 1995 Fahd suffered a stroke, and his deteriorating medical condition prevented him from carrying out his responsibilities as ruler. As a result, during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Abdullah gradually has taken over leadership of the country, acting as de facto ruler.
Bibliography
Al-Farsy, Fouad. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz. Guernsey, Channel Islands: Knight Communications, 2001.
Kechichian, Joseph A. Succession in Saudi Arabia. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Al Kilani, Kamal. Progress of a Nation: A Biography of King Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz. London: Namara, 1985.
Long, David E. "Fahd bin Abd al-Aziz Saʿud." In PoliticalLeaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Bernard Reich. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Metz, Helen Chapin, ed. Saudi Arabia: A Country Study. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1993.
Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A History of Saudi Arabia. New York; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
— MALCOLM C. PECK
UPDATED BY ANTHONY B. TOTH
