Sa{ʽ}ūd dynasty

or Āl Saʽūd ("Saʽūd family")

Rulers of present-day Saudi Arabia.

In the 18th century Muḥammad ibn Saʽūd (d. 1765), chief of an Arabian village that had never fallen under control of the Ottoman Empire, rose to power together with the Wahhābī religious movement. He and his son ʽAbd al-ʽAzīz I (r. 1764–1803) conquered much of Arabia; Saʽūd I (r. 1803–14) conquered Medina in 1804 and Mecca in 1806. The Ottoman sultan induced the viceroy of Egypt to crush the Saʽūdīs and Wahhābīs, which was accomplished by 1818. A second Saʽūdī state was formed in 1824 by Muḥammad ibn Saʽūd's grandson Turkī (r. 1823–34), who made Riyadh his capital. When Turkī's son Fayṣal (r. 1843–65) died, succession disputes led to civil war. Power did not return to Saʽūdī hands until 1902, when Ibn Saūd recaptured Riyadh. He established the kingdom of Saudi Arabia by royal decree in 1932. One of his sons, Fahd (b. 1923), became the country's ruler in 1982.

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