King Faisal of Saudi Arabia

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2019

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia; Credit – Wikipedia

Arabic Naming Conventions

  • Al – family/clan of…
  • bin or ibn – son of…
  • bint – daughter of…

Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until his assassination in 1975. He was born on April 14, 1906, in Riyadh, then in the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa, now the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His father was Abdulaziz ibn Abdul Rahman Al Saud, also known as Ibn Saud, the founder and the first king of Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz had a polygamous household comprising several wives at a time and numerous concubines. It is thought he had a total of 22-24 wives. Abdul Aziz was the father of almost a hundred children, including forty-five sons of whom 36 survived to adulthood. Faisal’s mother was Tarfa bint Abdullah bin Abdullatif Al ash-Sheikh. She was from Al ash-Sheikh clan and her father was Abdullah bin Abdullatif Al ash-Sheikh.  Tarfa married Abdulaziz in 1902 and had at least three children with him:

  • Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1903 – 1904), son, died in infancy
  • Noura bint Abdulaziz Al Saud  (1904 – 1938), daughter, married her half first cousin Khalid bin Muhammad, son of Abdulaziz’s half-brother Muhammad Al Abd al-Rahman
  • Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia (1906 – 1975)
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King Abdulaziz with some of his sons in 1930

Faisal had many half-siblings, too numerous to list here. See Wikipedia: Descendants of Ibn Saud (Abdulaziz).  The six Kings of Saudi Arabia who followed King Abdulaziz were all his sons and so five of them were the half-brothers of Faisal. King Faisal succeeded his half-brother, King Saud, who he had deposed, and was succeeded by his half-brother King Khalid.

Faisal was introduced to politics at an early age. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, Faisal was sent to meetings in the United Kingdom and France as the head of the Saudi delegation. After Abdulaziz’s eldest son Turki, Faisal’s half-brother, died in 1919 during the influenza pandemic, Faisal became the second eldest of Abdulaziz’s sons after his half-brother Saud. Besides speaking Arabic, Faisal was fluent in English and French.

Faisal married his first wife Sultana bint Ahmad bin Muhammad Al Sudayri while he was quite young. His eldest son Prince Abdullah Bin Faisal Al Saud was born when he was only sixteen years old. Faisal had four wives and a total of seventeen children. Unusual at the time, most of Faisal’s sons attended university abroad, either at Cambridge or Oxford in the United Kingdom or at Ivy League universities in the United States. Faisal’s daughters were taught by European tutors and received additional education in Switzerland. By contrast, only six of the 108 children of Faisal’s half-brother and predecessor King Saud finished high school.

First wife: Sultana bint Ahmad bin Muhammad Al Sudayri: Faisal and Sultana’s marriage was prearranged while Faisal was traveling abroad. They never met until the marriage ceremony. They had one son and three daughters and later divorced.

Second wife: Iffat Al-Thunayan (1916 – 2000) was born and raised in Turkey. Her ancestors were from the Al Thunayan branch of the Al Saud family but were taken to Istanbul or Cairo by Egyptian forces in 1818. Faisal met Iffat in Istanbul while he was in Turkey for an official visit and they married in 1932. Iffat was given the title Queen because of her beloved status in Saudi Arabia. Faisal and Iffat had five sons and four daughters.

Third wife: Al Jawhara bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Al Kabir was Faisal’s first cousin, the daughter of Noura bint Abdul Rahman Al Saud who was the sister of King Abdulaziz. Faisal and Al Jawhara had one daughter,

  • Princess Munira bint Faisal Al Saud

Fourth wife: Haya bint Turki bin Abdulaziz Al Turki was a member of the Al Turki clan. Faisal and Haya had two sons and one daughter

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Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia arrives in New York with his 9-year-old son Mohammed in 1946

Faisal served as his father’s Foreign Minister beginning in 1930. Upon the death of his father King Abdulaziz and the accession of his half-brother King Saud in 1953, Faisal was appointed Crown Prince. At the same time, the position of Prime Minister was created and King Saud held that position with Faisal being the Deputy Prime Minister as well as continuing as Foreign Minister. However, unrest within the royal family over King Saud’s rule forced him to appoint Faisal as Prime Minister. An ongoing power struggle between the two half-brothers led to Faisal’s resignation as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in 1960. The continued discontent with King Saud’s reign allowed Faisal to become Prime Minister and Foreign Minister again in 1962.

King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal continued their power struggle when Prince Faisal formed a cabinet in the absence of King Saud, who had gone abroad for medical treatment. Faisal allied himself with his half-brothers Prince Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Interior Minister and the future King of Saudi Arabia, and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Minister of Defense (from 1963 until his death) and the Crown Prince from 2005 until his death in 2011. The new government excluded any sons of King Saud.

When King Saud returned to Saudi Arabia, he threatened to mobilize the Royal Guard against his half-brother. In response, Faisal demanded King Saud make him regent and turn over all royal powers to him. Faisal had the support of the ulema, the elite Islamic scholars. Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, a relative of Faisal on his mother’s side, issued a fatwa saying King Saud should accede to Faisal’s demands. When King Saud refused, Faisal ordered the National Guard to surround Saud’s palace. In March 1964, Saud finally agreed to name Faisal regent with full executive powers, reducing himself to a figurehead. In November 1964, the ulema, the cabinet and senior members of the Saudi royal family forced Saud to abdicate and Faisal became king in his own right. Saud was forced into exile, first in Egypt and then in Greece where he lived until his death in 1969.

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King Faisal and Queen Elizabeth II in 1967

King Faisal implemented a policy of modernization and reform and he was popular with the Saudi people. On March 25, 1975, 68-year-old King Faisal was shot and killed by his nephew Prince Faisal bin Musaid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The assassination occurred at a majlis, an event where the king opens up his residence to the citizens to enter and petition the king. King Faisal was buried in Al Oud cemetery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 26, 1975. A Sharia court found Prince Faisal guilty of King Faisal’s murder on June 18, 1975, and he was publicly beheaded hours later.

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Many heads of state attended King Faisal’s funeral

Works Cited

  • Ar.wikipedia.org. (2019). فيصل بن عبد العزيز آل سعود. [online] Available at: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%81%D9%8A%D8%B5%D9%84_%D8%A8%D9%86_%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B2_%D8%A2%D9%84_%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Faisal of Saudi Arabia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_of_Saudi_Arabia [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
  • Lacey, Robert. (1981). The Kingdom: Arabia & The House of Sa’ud. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

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