Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (14 April 1906 - 25 March 1975) was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until his assassination in March of 1975. Prior to his ascension, he served as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 to 2 November 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, and the second of Abdulaziz's six sons who were kings.
Biography[]
Rise to Power[]
Faisal was born in Riyadh in 1906, the third son of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, better known as Ibn Saud. At age 13 or 14, he became the first Saudi official to visit Britain after his father was unable to attend a meeting with British officials in 1919. He also commanded a campaign during the 1934 Saudi-Yemeni war following the invasion of Saudi territory by the Yemeni government, leading to a decisive Saudi victory.
Upon the accession of Prince Faisal's elder brother, King Saud, to the throne in 1953, Prince Faisal was appointed crown prince. 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, who defected to Egypt (see Free Princes). Fearing that King 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 King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal, and on 18 December 1960, Prince Faisal resigned as prime minister in protest, arguing that King Saud was frustrating his financial reforms. King 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, Prince Faisal rallied enough support within the royal family to install himself as prime minister for a second time.
In 1963 Prince Faisal established the country's first television station, though actual broadcasts would not begin for another two years. Crown Prince Faisal helped establish the Islamic University of Madinah in 1961. In 1962 Prince Faisal helped found the Muslim World League, a worldwide charity to which the Saudi royal family has reportedly since donated more than a billion dollars.
After King Saud left the country due to health reasons, Faisal took advantage of this by removing Saud's allies from their positions and replacing them with those who supported his policies of modernization and internationalism. Faisal later forced Saud to appoint him regent, and a fatwa issued by the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia forced him to abdicate, appointing Faisal as his successor.
As king[]
As previously mentioned, Faisal supported a policy of modernization, laying the foundation for a more modern welfare system and ordering all Saudi princes to educate their children in the country, thus meaning that the Saudi education system received more funding due to royal children being educated within. He also sent his forces to assist Hussein bin Talal and Qaboos bin Said defeat the communist Dhofar Liberation Front, an aim which was achieved in 1976, a year after Faisal's assassination, and cracked down on corruption in the Saudi royal family.
In addition, Faisal was a proponent of religious reform, supporting increased political representation of those of religions other than Islam, and was opposed to many of the more radical aspects of Islam (for example he supported education for women), and removed radical Islamists such as Shaykh bin Baz from positions of power. He also signed an edict in 1962 completely abolishing slavery in Saudi Arabia, and supported Palestinian independence.
Assassination[]
On 25 March 1975 King Faisal was shot point-blank and killed by his half-brother's son, Faisal bin Musaid, who had just come back from the United States.