King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and his family

On January 23, 2015, Riyadh, the world's oldest active monarch in the world, the king of Saudi Arabia, who ruled since 2005, Abdullah ibn Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, died of a lung infection. The approximate age of the king was 91, he had three dozen wives and more than forty children.

A single state

The very name of this largest state in the Arabian Peninsula comes from the ruling dynasty in the country. The ancestors of the Saudis are known since the 15th century, and from the middle of the 18th they began to fight for the creation of a unified state. In this struggle, they relied on various trends of Islam, including Wahhabism. The Saudis entered into agreements with other countries to achieve victory, including with the United Kingdom and the United States, as it was already in the 20th century.

Before Saudi Arabia acquired the current state and political structure, there were two unsuccessful attempts to form the kingdom of the Saudis: in 1744 under the leadership of Mohammad ibn Saud and in 1818, when the ruler in the Arabian lands became Turki ibn Adallah ibn Mohammed ibn Saud, and later - his Son of Faisal. But by the end of the 19th century, the Saudis were expelled from Riyadh to Kuwait by members of another powerful race, Rashidi.

The founder of the royal dynasty

At the beginning of the new - twentieth - century among the Saudis, who wanted to create a single Arabian state under their rule, a young man appeared who was more attracted to arms and military science than religious treatises or subtleties of Eastern philosophy. His name was Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdu-Rahman ibn Faisal Al Saud or simply Ibn-Saud, the first King of Saudi Arabia.

Starting with one of the provinces, Najd, relying on the teachings of "pure" Islam, making the Bedouin base his army settled, at the right time, relying on English support, using the technical and scientific achievements of the new century - radio, cars, aviation, Telephone connection - Abdul Aziz in 1932 became the head of the powerful Islamic state he founded. Since then, at the head of Saudi Arabia, there were alternately representatives of the same family: Ibn Saud and his six sons.

Center of the Islamic World

Among the magnificent epithets, which are awarded to the autocratic ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there is one of the most significant names in the Muslim world - "The Guardian of the Two Shrouds". The King of Saudi Arabia owns two main cities for the faithful Muslims - Mecca and Medina, which are the main shrines of Islam. It is in the direction of Mecca that Muslims turn their eyes to daily prayers. In the center of Mecca is the Main, the Protected, the Great Mosque-Al-Haram, in the inner courtyard of which is located the Kaaba - the "sacred house" - a cubic building with its black stone embedded in one corner, which was sent by Allah to the prophet Adam, and touched by the Prophet Mohammed. These shrines are the main goal, to which the pilgrim who performs Hajj aspires.

Medina - the city where the mosque is the second most important Muslim mosque - Masjid al-Nabawi - the Prophet's Mosque, under the green dome of which is the burial place of Mohammed.

The King of Saudi Arabia, among other things, is the person responsible for the safety of Muslim shrines, for the life and safety of the vast masses of people - those who perform the Hajj.

Son of the Eighth Wife

Founder of Saudi Arabia - Abdel Aziz ibn Saud - was a true eastern ruler: numerous wives, who numbered a few dozen, gave birth to his 45 sons-heirs. The eighth wife of Ibn Saud was Fahd Bint Aziz Ashura, whom he took as his wife after the Saudis killed her first husband, the worst enemy of Abdulaziz, the ruler of one of the Arabian emirates named Saud Rashidi. It was she who was born the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah, who died in January 2015 and left a notable mark in the history of the monarchy.

When in 1982 Abdullah was to be declared crown prince by right of seniority, his stepbrother Fahd entered the throne for a long time thinking: all al-Sauds, who were on the throne, were born to one, Ibn-Saud's beloved wife - Khusa from the Sudeyri clan. Yet Abdallah, who is related to his mother by another family - Shamar - became king, and he became de facto ruler long before the official coronation (2005): he became prime minister in 1995, when Fahd retired after becoming an invalid after a stroke.

If I were a sultan ...

Life in an Islamic state at all levels looks unusual for a European. It is difficult to imagine a leader of a European country who would be married 30 times, like King Abdullah.

Saudi Arabia is a country that lives according to Sharia law, and more than 4 wives can not live in a man's house, that is how the family life of the king of the Saudis was organized. Abdullah is a large father, he has about four dozen children, of whom 15 are sons.

Abdallah's childhood passed among the Bedouins, which influenced the monarch's enthusiasm - he until recently spent a lot of time in Morocco, where he was engaged in falconry, and his stable of racehorses was known to the whole world.

The basis of welfare

Anyone who sees the capital of CA-Riyadh today - or at least shows a photo of the King of Saudi Arabia's photo from inside, it will be difficult to imagine that at the time of its formation in 1932, Saudi Arabia was among the poorest countries in the world. In the late 1930s, colossal oil and gas reserves were discovered on the Arabian Peninsula. Development and development of deposits were given to American oil companies, who first took most of the profits. Gradually, control over oil production passed to the state, that is, the royal family, and petrodollars became the basis of the wealth of the Saudi kingdom.

The Saudis play a major role in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls about two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. The influence of Saudi monarchs on the formation of prices for hydrocarbons determines their importance in world politics. It changed throughout the 20th century, but it invariably increased.

The King is a Reformer

It is impossible to imagine the possibility of sharp changes in the foreign policy and internal structure of the country where the autocratic monarch is in power, where for criticism of the government's decisions one can pay a head where there is no legislative authority: the laws are royal decrees. The more curious is the glory of the reform king, to whom King Abdullah was awarded. Saudi Arabia under him experienced some indulgences - both in the rigor of oriental etiquette, and in the traditional for Islam severe attitude towards women.

One of the first decrees, the 6th King of the Saudis abolished the ceremonial kissing of the royal hand, replacing it with a more democratic handshake. The most important decision for Abdullah was the prohibition of members of the royal family to use the means of treasury for personal needs.

The real revolution was the establishment of the University of Science and Technology of King Abdullah near the city of Jeddah, where joint education of girls and boys is permitted. No less sensational was the appointment of a woman to a state post: Nora Bint (bint - analogy of male bin - "son") Abdallah bin Musaid Al-Faiz became deputy to the minister for the affairs of girls. The admission of women to certain types of municipal elections made the image of the Saudi king even more attractive for supporters of democratic reforms. The allocation of funds for the study abroad of considerable funds made it possible to make the CA even more open to the world.

The daughter of King Abdullah - Princess Adilla - became the face of a conservative system of government. The wife of the Minister of Education, a beautiful, self-assured woman, is perceived by many as a symbol of renewal, although there is no talk of a radical revision of the female role in Islam.

Traditions are unshakable

Still, the main thing for the ruling family in the kingdom is the sanctity and invariability of traditions based on the observance of the norms of the Sharia.

Corporal punishment of women for "improper behavior" or light-mindedness in clothing, cutting off hands for theft, strict punishment for guessing as "sorcery", etc. - this is common practice in the life of Saudi society.

Such traditions include the ostentatious luxury surrounding the royal throne of the Saudis. The Saudi Arabian personal plane is technically a reliable aircraft of the late 20th century, but looks like a fairy palace of the Sultan from the fairy tale "Thousand and One Nights".

And this applies to the numerous villas, yachts and cars belonging to the royal family.

One of the wealthiest monarchs

It is almost impossible to calculate the monarch's personal state accurately, especially in such a country closed to strangers, like Saudi Arabia. The figures are from $ 30 to $ 65 billion. In any case, this is not a poor man, even if we take into account the number of members of the royal family. There is someone to spend petrodollars - the wives of the King of Saudi Arabia make up an impressive harem, although formally the Koran forbids having more than four. It is necessary to actively use the institution of divorce, which in the east is deprived of unnecessary formalism.

Family affairs

Today's world is a continuous process of information exchange, conducted at various levels. At the end of 2013, an interview appeared in British newspapers, with the daughter of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Princess Sahara. It stated that she and her three sisters for 13 years are under house arrest, which was imposed on them by the father.

The newspapers and news portals published stories about the customs of the royal harems. They also involved the mother of the Sahara - the ex-wife of the King of Saudi Arabia. Photo Al-Anud Daham Al-Bakhit Al-Faiz, who at the age of 15 became Abdullah's wife, and ten years later was deprived of her daughters and expelled after the divorce, added drama.

This scandal forced to pay special attention to the problem of discrimination against women in the Muslim world. Articles about the terrible inequality between a man and a woman in Saudi society are flooded with print and electronic media. Especially popular were photographs where the King of Saudi Arabia aircraft was removed - a symbol of a medieval style of government based on rampant luxury.

But it was not so simple, the world is still multifaceted. Another wave rose. Activists of Islamic organizations, including many women, blamed journalists and politicians with equal passion for trying to impose their morality on a society they do not deserve of self-sufficiency. The protest against the aggressive planting of Western views on the style of life seemed just as sincere and justified.

The King is dead, long live the King

Today on the throne in Riyadh, Salman ibn Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is the seventh king of Saudi Arabia. The photos on which the new ruler was shot differ little from the view of the Europeans from those that were taken during the lifetime of King Abdullah. The history of the state of Saudis continues.