Fahd

King of Saudi Arabia (r. 1982-2005)

• Born: 1922 or 1923
• Birthplace: Riyadh, Arabia (now Saudi Arabia)
• Died: August 1, 2005
• Place of death: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Continuing the reign of the al-Saud family, Fahd led Saudi Arabia through two decades of development and became a major force in the political and economic affairs of the Arab and Western worlds.

Early Life

King Fahd (fawd) was born Fahd ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Saud (“Fahd son of Abd al-Aziz of the House of Saud”). Sources vary as to his date of birth. His father was Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Rahman (known as King Saud or Ibn Saud in the West), the first king of the modern-day state of Saudi Arabia. His mother was Hassa bint Ahmad al-Sudayri. Fahd was the eldest of seven sons by Saud and this wife.

Fahd belonged to the al-Saud family, one of the country’s families of royal lineage. His six full brothers were Sultan, who became minister of defense; Nayif (minister of the interior); Ahmad (vice minister of the interior); Salman (governor of Riyadh); Turki (vice minister of defense); and Abd al-Rahman. The seven brothers were known collectively as the Sudayri Seven in the West and as al-Fahd (“the house of Fahd”) in Saudi Arabia. Fahd’s father had forty-five sons, about half of whom are still alive, by various wives. Fahd was nine years old when his father unified the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by signing the treaty of Jedda.

Fahd received the traditional schooling for princes at the Princes’ School in Riyadh. In 1945, he accompanied his half brother Faisal (later King Faisal) to San Francisco, California, for the convening of the United Nations, and the following year he was appointed governor of the northern province of Jauf. In 1953 he headed the Saudi delegation to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in England and in the same year became the country’s first minister of education. The post involved much controversy because conservative Islamic clerics were hostile to the secular Western technical education that Fahd promoted. In 1962, under newly appointed King Faisal, Fahd was appointed minister of the interior. He also became second deputy prime minister and second in line for the kingship. In 1975 half brother Khālid became king and appointed Fahd first deputy prime minister and crown prince (next in line for kingship). As Khālid’s health deteriorated, Fahd gradually assumed more activity and became the major spokesperson for the country, gaining more experience in national and international affairs. He gained a reputation as an effective leader though he was also known as a playboy who enjoyed gambling and other such pursuits. When Khālid died in 1982, Fahd was named king and prime minister. His half brother Abdullah was named first deputy prime minister and crown prince.

Life’s Work

After becoming prime minister, Fahd strengthened ties with allied countries inside and outside the Arab world and became one of the most important figures in Arab affairs. He began courting the United States to build close economic and strategic relations. Saudi Arabia became a leading supplier of oil for the United States, and the United States provided Saudi Arabia with military training and equipment. Under a mutual defense assistance agreement, the United States also had a military training mission in the country. Relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States, and between Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, have at times been strained because of the United States’ support of Israel. Fahd wielded great influence in the Arab world, however, and became a key player in mediating conflicts.

A well-known idea proposed by Fahd was the Fez Plan, also known as the Fahd Plan. This was a Middle East peace plan devised by then-crown prince Fahd in 1981. Its goal was the peaceful coexistence of all nations in the region and resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The eight-point plan called for Arab recognition of Israel’s legitimacy as a state and, in turn, Israel’s withdrawal from the Arab areas it occupied in 1967. It also endorsed the founding of a Palestinian state. The plan was presented at the Arab Summit in Fez, Morocco, in November, 1981, and was accepted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) but rejected by other Arab groups and countries, some of whom refused to accept Israel’s status as a state. Though not accepted, the Fahd Plan helped further Fahd’s position as a mediator in Arab affairs. He reestablished various diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and other nations: Egypt in 1989 and Iran in 1991.

Fahd was a key player in the Iraq-Kuwait skirmish in 1990. In August of that year, tensions were high between Iraq and Kuwait. Iraq was angry because Kuwait refused to limit its oil production to Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) standards, the oil was being taken from an area whose border had been disputed for centuries, and Kuwait was pressing Iraq for immediate debt repayments from the Iran-Iraq War. After several unproductive attempts at mediation, Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2. King Fahd, along with other rich oil countries who saw Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as a threat, supported Kuwait. Because of Fahd’s economic and political power in the Arab and Western worlds, the fate of the Kuwaiti invasion rested heavily on the king. However, he remained relatively quiet until the invasion. A few days after the attack, Fahd met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, and it was decided that Fahd would invite U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia to demand Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait. At the same time, Fahd tried to dispel the view of Saudi Arabia as an instrument of U.S. strategy by involving other countries in the defensive force against Iraq. About thirty countries offered aircraft, ships, and troops, led by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Attempts at United Nations (U.N.) mediation during this time were unsuccessful, and in January, 1991, a military plan called Operation Desert Storm began, with the goal of liberating Kuwait from Iraq. Fighting continued for more than one month, resulting in casualties and much environmental damage, mostly from oil released by Iraqi bombers into the gulf. During the war, Fahd provided temporary headquarters for the Kuwaiti government.

After the liberation, Kuwait’s leaders returned home, and foreign troops gradually withdrew from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia returned thousands of Iraqi political prisoners of war and gave refuge to Iraqi political dissidents who had recently attempted an unsuccessful coup against Hussein. Fahd and seven other Arab leaders joined forces to create a peacekeeping coalition in the area.

The war was very costly for Saudi Arabia: The expense of hosting troops and having to replace military supplies was very great. Although a leading supplier of oil, the country had run a budget deficit for almost two decades and faced a mounting external debt. Apart from war debt and great dependence on oil income, the country’s treasury supported the royal family, which numbered in the tens of thousands, by means of salaries and benefits. These benefits might take the form of quantities of oil to sell on the open market or large commissions from telecommunications deals. Critics also pointed to Fahd’s personal spending habits as a drain on the economy: He was the second richest person in the world, with personal wealth variously estimated to be from twenty-five billion dollars to fifty-six billion dollars. These critics believed that Fahd and the royal family saw the country’s wealth as synonymous with their own pocketbook. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia had at times offered aid and oil to needy countries in return for political alliance. Finally, Fahd had tried to keep standards of living high for Saudis, continuing the tradition begun in the 1970’s of providing Saudi citizens with highly subsidized social services.

Fahd also faced continuing fluctuation of oil prices. In the early 1980’s, changes in OPEC’s policy led to declining prices. Fahd’s oil policy made Saudi Arabia the “swing producer,” or the producer that decreased production when there was less demand for oil and increased production when demand was high. The policy resulted in economic troubles and was abandoned in 1986. The Asian crisis of early 1998 affected world oil prices, as did the recession in Japan, one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil customers. In addition, it had to compete in the oil market against Mexico and Venezuela, two other large oil producers. Finally, the reintroduction of Iraq into OPEC in the late 1990’s proved difficult for Saudi Arabia, as it had accounted for much of the oil needed when Iraq was under an oil embargo.

Though Fahd was commonly known as a king, his official title was “custodian of the two holy mosques.” This title bears great religious significance within the Arab world because it deems the Saudi leader to be the spiritual custodian of Mecca, the largest Muslim pilgrimage site. Furthermore, Fahd donated money generously to Islamic causes and institutions in his kingdom and throughout Muslim countries; he especially provided funds to build mosques, establish madrasas (religious schools for young people), and increase services for pilgrims to the holy city of Mecca. Fahd played a crucial role in all governmental decisions, and although Islamic law dictates that decisions must be made by consensus, Fahd ultimately maintained power over all branches of Saudi government and made all final decisions. In 1992 Fahd introduced a new Basic Law system of governing based on sharia law of the Wahhābī branch of Islam. The king and council of ministers held executive power, while a consultative council (shoura) of 60 members and a chairman, all appointed by Fahd, could make recommendations, although they had no legislative power; their number was later increased to 120.

Fahd’s council was seen by some as a move toward democracy, though others maintain that anyone proposing ideas contrary to Fahd’s risked severe repercussions. Fahd drew criticism from human rights groups such as Amnesty International for repressive policies limiting freedom of speech and religion; political prisoners and common law criminals were tortured and forced to confess to crimes, resulting in flogging, amputation, imprisonment, beheading, or death by firing squad. Although a 1975 judicial law in Saudi Arabia guarantees a free and public hearing by an impartial and independent tribunal, Fahd was the ultimate authority for deciding individual cases as well as appointing and firing judges.

The cost of the Gulf War and lowered oil prices, as well as Fahd’s own military buildup, brought the Saudi kingdom financial difficulties. Fahd sought to reduce government spending on social services and to decentralize his country’s economy. Additionally, in 1995 he replaced many of his ministers with young technocrats. He gradually allowed government services to become privatized. These changes, coupled with increased prices for crude oil, eventually produced the country’s first fiscal surplus in 2004. However, it was Crown Prince Abdullah, rather than Fahd, who oversaw the implementation of the fiscal reform.

In 1995 a stroke put Fahd into semiretirement, and Abdullah assumed much of the daily governance. Fahd remained active enough to give audiences to visiting dignitaries and advise Abdullah about important issues. Among these was the Saudi reaction to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers in were chosen on September 11, 2001. The attack was a blow to Saudi relations with the United States, since most of the terrorists responsible for the attack came from Saudi Arabia. To reassure his ally, Fahd personally issued a vow to quell the terrorists “with an iron fist” in 2003. However, by then Fahd’s engagement in affairs was declining swiftly as he grew increasingly sickly. He suffered from arthritis, diabetes, and gall bladder and eye problems, and he was largely wheelchair bound because of his weight and weak knees. His health having worsened alarmingly, on May 27, 2005, he was admitted to the King Faisal Specialist hospital in the Saudi capital for medical tests. He died from pneumonia there a little more than two months later.

Fahd was survived by four wives (although the exact number of his marriages remains unknown outside the royal family) and six sons and several daughters. A large funeral service was held for him, attended by royalty and world leaders, but he was buried in a plain grave in a public cemetery in accordance with the beliefs of Wahhābī Islam. Abdullah succeeded him as king.

Significance

Fahd attempted to continue the process of modernization while retaining the strict Wahhābī laws of Saudi Arabia. His major influences were Islam, Arab nationalism, and the security of Saudi Arabia and surrounding countries. These influences often conflicted with each other: Fahd’s alliance with the United States, for example, made anti-Israel Arab countries unhappy. Internally, conservative religious leaders and their followers disliked the influence of foreign business on Saudi culture and also complained of not having enough control of the moral and religious conduct of Saudi citizens. To balance these forces, Fahd tried to grant concessions to each group, keep social services high, and strike some sort of balance between forces to keep his brand of economic progress in motion. In keeping with the al-Saud leaders before him, Fahd created an international presence for himself, becoming a leader with strong economic and political power in the Arab and outside worlds.

Criticisms of Fahd’s reign centered primarily around his personal wealth and lavish life, his insistence on maintaining his family in power at great financial and political expense, and his friendship with Western countries. That the growing middle class received little role in government clouded the issue of his government’s legitimacy. His defense of the sometimes rakish behavior of the thousands of princes disaffected many Saudis. Permitting American military bases to remain following the Gulf War angered many more, including Osama bin Laden. Consequently, even those national and international commentators who praised him for supporting such Arab causes as Palestinian autonomy blamed him for the rise of international Islamic terrorism.

Bibliography

Abir, Mordechai. Saudi Arabia in the Oil Era. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1988. Discusses in detail the power struggles between Fahd and within the family, Fahd’s relationship to Saudi Arabia’s Wahhābī sect of Islam, issues of militant opposition, and the changing power of the middle-class elites.

Aburish, Said K. The Rise, Corruption, and Coming Fall of the House of Saud. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996. A well-researched, critical account of the state of Fahd and his reign in the mid-1990’s, with emphasis on economic and foreign affairs. Contains many insider details about Fahd.

Bradley, John R. Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Written shortly before Fahd died, this book discusses the forces threatening his family’s hold on power: incommensurate wealth, unfulfilled political promises, and regional rivalries.

Fandy, Mamoun. Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Based on numerous interviews with Saudi Islamic activists, Fandy reconstructs the reasons for the burgeoning dissent, especially the Gulf War, royal family corruption, and religious reform. Fahd is portrayed as an obstacle to reformers.

Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee. Shame in the House of Saud: Contempt for Human Rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia A Report by the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee. Minneapolis, Minn.: The Committee, 1992. Details human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and Fahd’s role in judicial matters. Excellent source for understanding how the judicial system works and the king’s power over the system.

Murawiec, Laurent. Princes of Darkness: The Saudi Assault on the West. Translated by George Holoch. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Murawiec’s thesis is that the Saudi political elite have long been enemies of the West, responsible for the spread of terrorism. He claims that Fahd’s campaign to correct the caricatures of Islam typical in the West was a cover for propaganda.

Wynbrandt, James. A Brief History of Saudi Arabia. New York: Checkmark Books, 2004. A balanced, readable account of the nation that includes the development of Wahhābīsm, the rise of the house of Saud, and the battle between conservatism and progressivism that characterized Fahd’s reign, which is discussed in depth.