Ibn Saud: King by Conquest - Rilegato

Sander, Nestor

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1587360179 ISBN 13: 9781587360176

Casa editrice: Hats Off Books, 2001

Riassunto

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was created by the man whose life is recounted in this book. His sons still rule it nearly a century after the day in mid-January 1902, when triumphant in a bloody battle against odds, Abdul Aziz ibn Abdur Rahman ibn Faisal as Saud, just twenty-five years old, stood on the battlements of the capital city, Riyadh, and proclaimed to all, ‘Your own amir is with you again!’ For the next thirty years, Ibn Saud’s superior intelligence, strong body, great courage, deep comprehension of the strengths and weaknesses of his people, and indisputable charisma were all used in full measure to regain most of his ancestors’ holdings and to unite them into a kingdom, formally declared so on 27 September 1932.The ebbs and flows of the struggle to reach that goal are a saga of ingenious ploys that together with acts of force freed him from the threat of three strong adversaries and a large number of weaker ones. At the end, through the shrewd use of religious fervor, Ibn Saud had an army of unprecedented valor and strength of purpose. In 1929–30 a part of that army turned against him and was dispersed only after a period of uncertainty, but stability had been achieved when on 9 May 1933 a contract obtained by the Standard Oil Company of California granted rights to explore for and develop the resources of oil in the eastern half of the nation.The revenues from oil after the first valid discovery in mid-1938 were, during the king’s lifetime, used mainly to satisfy his wants and those of his family, for Ibn Saud made all decisions. More often than not the exchequer was empty but the government functioned.The final section of the book discusses Ibn Saud himself: his aspect, his qualities of mind, mannerisms, and interests. He was a man of his time with a greater-than-average sex drive. He had 48 legitimate sons, 22 declared wives, and later in life, several concubines. Some marriages were made only to firm up alliances, but all were consummated.

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L'autore:

Armed with an MA in paleontology from the University of California (Berkeley), Nestor John Sander—just turned 24— arrived in Saudi Arabia early in December 1938, six months after Dammam No. 7 first produced oil in commercial quantities. On 30 April 1939 the king of Saudi Arabia visited the oil camp, Dhahran. He dined in company with the whole group of expatriate workers and shook hands with many of the forty or so present.The king’s visit left Sandy Sander with a few slides in color and indelible memories. For the next sixty years he read everything he could find that dealt with the life and times of Ibn Saud. He found a vast assortment of reminiscences, views, and inferences by the king’s associates and friends, along with biographies and studies of relationships and events for the most part by scholars and diplomats. The great divergence among them even concerning so-called ‘facts’ led to this book: an attempt to winnow them for grains of truth.Qualifications for the attempt: Reading knowledge of western European languages, training as a scientist (D.Sc. from the Sorbonne), scepticism regarding ‘proven facts’ and an insatiable curiosity.Long retired after forty years of looking for oil, Sandy now lives in Modesto, California.

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• Editore: Hats Off Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1587360179
• ISBN 13: 9781587360176
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida