First Saudi state

History

Early establishment

The House of Saud and its allies quickly rose to become the dominant power in Arabia by first conquering Najd, and then expanding their influence over the eastern coast from Kuwait down to the northern borders of Oman. Saud's forces also captured the highlands of Asir, while Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab wrote letters to people and scholars to join the jihad. After many military campaigns, Muhammad bin Saud died in 1765, leaving the leadership to his son, Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, whose forces captured the Shia holy city of Karbala, in Ottoman Iraq, in 1801. Here they destroyed the shrine of the saints and monuments and killed over 5,000 civilians. In retribution, Abdulaziz was assassinated by a young Shia in 1803, having followed him back to Najd.

Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab died in 1792. In 1803, eleven years after his death, the son of Abdulaziz bin Muhammad, Saud bin Abdulaziz, sent out forces to bring the region of Hejaz under his rule. Taif was the first city to be captured, and later the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina followed. This was seen as a major challenge to the authority of the Ottoman Empire, which had exercised its rule over the holy cities since 1517.

Decline of sovereignty

The task of weakening the grip of the House of Saud was given to the powerful viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, by the Ottomans. This initiated the Ottoman–Saudi War, in which Muhammad Ali sent his troops to the Hejaz region by sea. His son, Ibrahim Pasha, then led Ottoman forces into the heart of Najd, capturing town after town. Saud's successor, his son Abdullah I, was unable to prevent the recapture of the region. Finally, Ibrahim reached the Saudi capital at Diriyah. He placed it under siege for several months until it surrendered in the winter of 1818. Ibrahim then shipped off many members of the House of Saud to Egypt and the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Abdullah I was later executed in the Ottoman capital, with his severed head thrown into the waters of the Bosporus, marking the end of what became known as the first Saudi state. However, both the followers of the Wahhabi movement and the remaining members of the House of Saud stayed committed. In 1824 they founded a second Saudi state which lasted until 1891. Before the unification of modern Saudi Arabia, several emirates and kingdoms were established in the region, eventually paving the way for the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Legacy

In 2022, the Saudi government designated 1727, the year Muhammad I assumed leadership of the Sheikhdom of Diriyah, as the official beginning of the first Saudi state. They also designated February 22 as Saudi Founding Day, an annual holiday to celebrate the nation's founding.

References

References

1. James Norman Dalrymple Anderson. ''The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia''. Stacey International, 1983. p. 77.
2. Anishchenkova, Valerie. (2020-06-01). "Modern Saudi Arabia". Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
3. Almogren, Nawaf Bin Ayyaf(Nawaf Bin Abdulaziz Bin Ayyaf). (2020-01-01). "Diriyah narrated by Its built environment : the story of the first Saudi State (1744-1818)".
4. Kostiner, Joseph. (1993-12-02). "The Making of Saudi Arabia, 1916-1936: From Chieftaincy to Monarchical State". Oxford University Press.
5. Madawi Al Rasheed. (2010). "A History of Saudi Arabia". Cambridge University Press.
6. [[Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab#Met92. Metz 1992]]
7. "Karbala".
8. [http://www.islamlife.com/religion2/component/content/article/69-later-scholars/672-biography-of-imam-muhammad-bin-abdul-wahhab Sauds's campaign for Hejaz and the two holy cities] {{webarchive. link. (14 September 2010, ''Islam Life'' online magazine)
9. [http://www.ibnsaud.info/main/9456.htm Abdullah bin Saud's capture] {{webarchive. link. (6 January 2010, King Abdullah Ibn Saud Information Resource)
10. (2 November 2025). "Refounding the Kingdom: Saudi Arabia from Islamism and Wahhabism to ‘Moderate’ Islam". Middle Eastern Studies.
11. (2022-02-21). "Saudi Arabia celebrates 3 centuries of glorious history on Founding Day".