The Kingdom - Hardcover

Lacey, Robert

4.15

551 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091457904 ISBN 13: 9780091457907

Publisher: Hutchinson, 1981

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HISTORY.NEW.CLASSED V/G.V/G.I BELIEVE THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ITS APPEARANCE, SO PLEASE READ THE SYNOPSIS.....At the beginning of Mr. Lacey's monumental work he relates a conversation he had with a Georgetown educated member of the House of Saud: "I have lived in the Kingdom over 30 years, yet if I was to put down on paper how my family and this country worked, I would be lucky if I got a B+ mark. You have spent four years with us. The best you can hope for is a C." Lacey clearly did his homework, as the large bibliography indicates. Moreover, he actually lived in the Kingdom, unlike so many "Saudi experts." And while there, he conducted numerous interviews with key individuals, who entrusted him with versions of historical reality not often seen in other works. He mastered his source materials, and wrote an immensely readable history of the Kingdom until the ascension of King Fahd to the throne in 1982. A full 40% of the book relates to events prior to the actual proclamation of the Kingdom in 1932. This portion covers the ancient political alliance of the Al-Saud's with the conservative preacher, Abdul Wahab, and his family. Also, Ibrahim Pasha's 1819 destruction of Diriyah, the Saud's home village, for defying the sultan-caliph in Constantinople. But the main thrust of this section is the exile, and return of the Al Saud family in the late 1800's, culminating in the capture of the fort in Riyadh from the Al Rashed clan in January, 1902. Thereafter is a 25 year consolidation of power for the Al Saud's over most of "Al Jazeera," the peninsula. The first significant conflict was at Dilam, when Abdul Aziz only had enough ammunition for one mighty fusillade. After taking Al Hasa in 1913, he made a fateful alliance with the Ikhwan, "the Brotherhood," of fanatical conservatives who were indomitable in battle. This alliance was key to the conquest of the rest of what would become the Kingdom, including the ouster of the Hashemites from th......

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