في بضع سنين لله الأمر من قبل ومن بعد ويومئذ يفرح المؤمنون . بنصر الله ينصر
من يشاء وهو العزيز الرحيم.
سورة الروم – (4 -5)

Within ten years – Allah’s is the command in the former case and in the latter – and in that day believers will rejoice
In Allah’s help to victory. He helpeth to victory whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Merciful
(koran, The Romans 4/5)

In the seven years after the battle of Rowdhat Muhanna, Ibn Saud’s territory expanded no further. It is unlikely that he himself could have said exactly where the boundaries of that territory lay because it was defined, not by lines on a map, but rather according to the loyalties of the bedouin tribesmen who had come to accept him as their ruler. The area north of Riyadh he controlled as far as the northern boundaries of Al-Qasim. Beyond that lay Jabal Shammar, which was still under the control of the family of Rashid and remained hostile to Ibn Saud. However, after the death of Abdul Aziz Al Rashid, his sons engaged in a long and vicious struggle with certain of their Rashidi relatives for control of the city of Ha’il. This resulted in the assassination of three Rashidi rulers in seven years as well as the deaths of numerous lesser members of the family. While this feud was going on, the Rashids were too busy fighting each other to present any threat to Ibn Saud. To the south the Prince controlled all the territory up to the natural boundary formed by the Rub‘ Al-Khali. To the east was Al-Hasa, occupied by the Turks, who had no cause to be friendly to Ibn Saud. While they now knew better than to attempt any further military expeditions into desert, they could still be relied upon to support the Rashids and obstruct the Prince as much as possible. Furthermore, while they held Al-Hasa they also held the ports in the Arabian Gulf and thus ensured that Najd remained landlocked. To the west lay Hejaz, which was for all practical purposes a Turkish province governed by the puppet ruler, Sherif Hussein. Hussein had no cause as yet to be actively hostile to Ibn Saud, but he harboured dreams of ruling the whole Arabian peninsula and an eventual clash between the two rulers seemed probable. Even Sheikh Mubarak in Kuwait had shown that he could not be trusted entirely; he was known to be jealous of Ibn Saud.

Although the Prince was surrounded by enemies, both actual and potential, most of his problems in the period after Rowdhat Muhanna originated inside his own domain. Ibn Saud could count on the loyalty of his tribesmen as long as there were battles to be won and booty to be gained; but as soon as the pace of warfare slackened, the very same tribesmen were likely to revolt and attempt to overthrow him. The Prince had to deal with several such revolt, including a serious rebellion of the Mutair tribe under Faisal Ad-Dawish in May 1907. Ad-Dawish was defeated at the battle of Majma’a and pardoned. Thereupon he rebelled again, only to be defeated once more by the Prince at a battle near Buraida. Not only the tribesmen but also some townsfolk revolted against him. Among the latter were the Governors of Buraida and Al-Hariq, and a kinsman, Al-Urafa.

The rebellions, large and small, with which the Prince had to deal all had two things in common. First, all of them were crushed (though not always without difficulty). Secondly, in every case the rebel leaders were treated with mercy and often pardoned and restored to their positions of authority. In doing this Ibn Saud was displaying more than simple generosity and mercy; he was also showing great wisdom. The traditional penalty for treason was death. If the Prince had executed each tribal chief who rebelled, he would have had to replace him with a man of his own choosing. It is unlikely that any man would have come forward for such a task, for the resentment of the tribesmen at the presence of an interloper would be likely to take such a murderous turn that he could not have expected to live long. Furthermore, the execution of a tribal chief might itself start an endless blood feud with the tribe in question. By defeating and then pardoning the treacherous sheikh the Prince was more likely to earn their eventual loyalty and respect. In most cases this policy proved remarkably successful, although there were a few notable exceptions such as Faisal Ad-Dawish. The Governor of Buraida, Mohammed Aba Al-Kheil, was a persistent turncoat. He rebelled in 1908 and was defeated, pardoned and restored to his position by the Prince, only to do exactly the same thing again. Even on the second occasion, when Ibn Saud had every reason to execute him, Aba Al-Kheil escaped with his life and was merely banished to Iraq.

In 1909 there was further trouble in Ha’il when, after another outburst of murderous infighting, Zamil Ibn Subhan, who was related to the Rashids, became the new ruler of Jabal Shammar. Shortly after establishing himself, Ibn Subhan attempted a large-scale raiding expedition into Ibn Saud’s territory, where he suffered a resounding defeat at the battle of Al-Ash‘ali. Although on this occasion the Rashids had been easily dealt with, they continued to be a thorn in the Prince’s side. It was obvious that sooner or later there would have to be a final reckoning with Ha’il.

Sherif Hussein of Mecca also started to make his presence felt. In 1911, encouraged by the Turks, he sent a strong military expedition into the west of Ibn Saud’s territory. At Quai’iya, about a hundred and ten miles south-east of Medina, this expedition was fortunate enough to kidnap Ibn Saud’s brother Sa’ad. In order to ransom his brother, the Prince was obliged to recognize Turkish sovereignty over Al-Qasim and had to agree to pay a nominal tribute to them. The recognition of this non-existent Turkish power was an absurdity, and the tribute was never paid. Nevertheless, it was an insult which Ibn Saud could not easily forget.

As has already been seen, one of Ibn Saud’s greatest difficulties in building up a stable kingdom was the same problem that faced any desert leader, namely, the fierce independence, belligerence and rapidly shifting loyalties of the desert tribesmen. In 1912, partly in an attempt to ease this problem, the Prince initiated a revival of the puritan, fundamentalist religious movement started by Abdul Wahhab in the eighteenth century. The revival aimed at uniting the tribesmen in the service of God; the Prince’s great innovation was to encourage them to form permanent settlement. Out of this revival sprang the fearsome religious movement known as the IKhawn, or Brotherhood, which provided a core of fanatical warriors ready to fight to the death for God and the Imam against the infidels. Of the formation, growth and eventual destruction of this movement, more will be told later. For the moment it need only be said that within a year of the birth of the Ikhwan, Ibn Saud found himself with a large, ferocious and powerful army of men who regarded him as God’s chosen instrument and could be relied upon to remain loyal and rally round him whenever he gave the call to arms.

The first victory for the Ikhwan came very quickly. In 1913 the Prince decided that the time was ripe for him to take the initiative against the Turks in Al-Hasa. On 8 May his army, including a number of Ikhwan detachments, made a sudden night attack on the town of Hufuf, which had a Turkish garrison of about twelve hundred men. The Turks were taken completely by surprise and offered almost no resistance. With his usual magnanimity, Ibn Saud allowed them to leave the town after they had surrendered their arms. They were escorted to Bahrain from where they eventually sailed back to Turkey. The rest of Al-Hasa contained only a few Turkish troops; they surrendered as soon as they heard of the débâcle at Hufuf. In less than a month, and with very little bloodshed, the Prince had gained a large new province and access to the Arabian Gulf from the south of Kuwait right down to the north of Qatar. In Hufuf he installed a new governor – none other than Abdullah Ibn Jelawi, whose spearthrust in mosque at Riyadh eleven years before had heralded the beginning of the new Saudi kingdom.

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought one immediate benefit to Ibn Saud in that the commitments of the Ottoman Empire elsewhere made it impossible for the Turks to attempt the recapture of Al-Hasa. During the war Najd became something of a backwater. The famous Arab Revolt (in which Lawrence of Arabia played such a prominent part) took place in Hejaz, which unlike Najd still contained Turkish troops for the Arabs to revolt against. However, the Turks managed to cause some trouble for the Prince by continuing to support Jabal Shammar. This area was now ruled by Saud Ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Mutaib Ibn Rashid, who engaged Ibn Saud in sporadic fighting, particularly in 1915. In January that year a fierce but indecisive battle took place at Jurrab, near Zilfi.

The battle is now chiefly remembered because, strangely enough, one of the casualties was an Englishman, Captain W. Shakespear. He had previously been Political Agent in Kuwait, and had managed to build up a strong personal friendship with Prince Abdul Aziz. Shakespear had been sent back to Arabia with the title of Political Officer on Special Duty. He had insisted upon accompanying Ibn Saud on the expedition against Ibn Rashid, and had been determined to take part in the battle even though the Prince urged him to stay out of danger. The Najdis had with them one of the Turkish cannons captured eleven years before at Bukairiya. Shakespear was directing its fire during the battle when his position was overrun by Rashidi cavalry and he was cut down and killed. His death was much regretted by Ibn Saud; it was also a considerable blow to the British, who lost their only representative in Najd. This proved significant towards the end of the war when the British, who were concerned that the Rashids with Turkish support might interfere with their operations in Palestine, wanted to commence negotiations with Ibn Saud to persuade him to attack Ha’il. They had nobody to do this in Riyadh, so a mission had to be sent especially for the purpose. The British offered as inducements substantial sums of money, ten thousand rifles, plentiful supplies of ammunition and no less than four field guns – in all, quite sufficient resources to enable the prince to overwhelm the defences of Ha’il. Ibn Saud accepted the offer, but the weapons were never delivered. This was because the man in charge of the British mission, Harry St John Philby, made (on his own initiative) a journey to see Sherif Hussein in Hejaz. The Sherif, who was anxious to obstruct Ibn Saud in any way he could, prevented Philby from returning. There was therefore no British representative in Riyadh to conclude the agreement and make the necessary arrangements. By the time another British representative reached Ibn Saud, the Turks in Palestine had been defeated and the British no longer had any need of assistance from Najd. Nevertheless, Ibn Saud attempted an attack on Jabal Shammar and laid siege to Ha’il. The siege failed for lack of the British guns to bombard the walls of the town and the Prince was forced to retire to Riyadh.

Despite this setback, Jabal Shammar had only three more years of survival as an independent state. In 1919 Saud Ibn Rashid was shot dead during a picnic by his cousin Abdullah Ibn Talal. Abdullah was instantly cut down by Saud’s loyal servants. Abdullah’s brother Mohammed Ibn Talal, who was also involved in the plot, was imprisoned. The eventual successor to the throne was Abdullah Ibn Mutaib. (See Appendix 3.) He was the grandson of Ibn Saud’s old enemy Abdul Aziz Al Rashid, but he had none of his grandfather’s courage or ability. Under his rule Jabal Shammar became weak and divided; Ibn Saud was able to invade it with ease and persuade many of the Shammar tribesmen to join his army. In one of many desperate moves Abdullah Ibn Mutaib released his cousin Mohammed from prison, whereupon Mohammed rebelled against him, forcing Abdullah, ironically enough, to seek refuge with Ibn Saud. Mohammed now took over the defence of Ha’il, to which Ibn Saud again laid siege. This time the Prince brought with him the Turkish guns he had captured at the battle of Bukairiya seventeen years earlier. By now the guns were very dilapidated and it is not certain whether they were still serviceable. However, the threat of bombardment was enough to demoralize the occupants of the city. One of the gates of Ha’il was guarded by men of the family of As-Sabhan, who were related to the Rashids. The As-Sabhan had good cause to be disgruntled with the state of affairs in Ha’il, for a number of their close relatives had been butchered in the recent family strife. Certainly they had no desire to be deluged with high explosive for Mohammed’s sake. Secretly they made a pact with Ibn Saud to allow the Najdi army into Ha’il under cover of darkness. Once the Saudis were inside the walls, the garrison surrendered with little resistance. After nineteen years of struggle the Prince was at last master of Jabal Shammar.

As always, Ibn Saud was chivalrous in victory. The Rashidi army was absorbed into his own and several young Rashidi prince, including Mohammed Ibn Talal, were taken, not as prisoners, but as honoured guests to his capital of Riyadh. In time, many of them were to become Ibn Saud’s loyal and devoted subjects. In fact, in the 1920s I came to know Abdullah Ibn Mutaib personally. He was living in Riyadh on a pension provided by Ibn Saud, and seemed happy and content. He was always ready to talk and we discusses everything under the sun – except for his experiences in Ha’il, about which he was reluctant to say anything at all. Sadly, he died in the 1950s in Riyadh, in very unhappy circumstances.

Mohammed Ibn Talal was kept under guard in a room at the palace for some time, but later he was put under house arrest, with some servants and bodyguards to look after him. After a while, he managed to sneak out of his house, disguised in women’s clothes. By pretending to be a poor woman with a petition, he somehow slipped past the guards at the royal palace, ascended the staircase to the first floor and stood by the open door of the mid-morning general majlis. From here, he would have had to push past the throngs of seat bedouin, which would have been most unusual for a woman. The king immediately became suspicious. He strode towards Ibn Talal and disarmed him, tying him up in his billowing skirts. He was taken off by guards and again imprisoned in his house, this time under a tighter guard. Later on, he swore his loyalty to the king and gave an undertaking not to repeat his behaviour. Subsequently, he was given a little more freedom; he even came with the King’s troops to the battle of Sibillah, although still closely guarded. Ibn Talal stayed under house arrest for the rest of his life. In the end, he was killed by one of his own servants, who immediately committed suicide.

In recognition of the fact that Ibn Saud now ruled the whole of Central Arabia, the sheikhs and ulemas (religious leaders) of the kingdom decided to honour him with a title; at a public ceremony in Riyadh the Prince was proclaimed Sultan and Imam of Najd.