King Faisal modernised Saudi Arabia after decades as its chief diplomat
At thirteen, Faisal was sent to London in place of an older brother who had died of Spanish flu, becoming the first Saudi royal to visit England. He went on to run his country's foreign policy for most of four decades, abolish slavery, and eventually push his own half-brother off the throne.
Born in Riyadh in 1906, Faisal was the third son of Abdulaziz, the ruler who would found modern Saudi Arabia. His mother, descended from the religious reformer Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, died when he was six months old, and her parents raised him, grounding him in the Quran and Islamic law. His father trained him in riding and politics and soon sent him on missions abroad, including that 1919 journey to Britain and France.
Responsibility came early. By 1922 he was leading around six thousand fighters to secure the province of Asir, and from 1926 he governed the Hejaz as viceroy. He became foreign minister in 1930 and in September 1932 read out the decree renaming his father's realm the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz reportedly wished he had three Faisals, yet kept the elder son Saud as heir for the sake of stability.
That choice produced a long rivalry. Saud became king in 1953 with Faisal as crown prince, but lavish spending and clumsy diplomacy pushed senior princes and clerics to hand Faisal wide powers. In 1962, as prime minister again, he announced a ten-point reform programme promising free healthcare and schooling, an independent judiciary, girls' education and the final abolition of slavery. He also helped launch the Muslim World League and set up the country's first television station. In 1964, backed by the royal family and a supporting edict from the grand mufti, his maternal cousin, he replaced Saud as king.
As monarch Faisal stabilised the government bureaucracy and tried to rein in the power of religious officials. His foreign policy combined pan-Islamism with firm anti-communism, and in 1973, protesting Western support for Israel, he led the oil embargo that set off a global oil crisis. In 1975 he was assassinated by a nephew, and his half-brother Khalid took the throne.
Source: Faisal of Saudi Arabia
