The Treaty of Darin, or the Darin Pact, of 1915 was made between the United Kingdom and Abdulaziz Al Saud (sometimes called Ibn Saud), ruler of the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa, who founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
The Treaty of Darin, or the Darin Pact, of 1915 was made between the United Kingdom and Abdulaziz Al Saud (sometimes called Ibn Saud), ruler of the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa, who founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
The treaty was signed at Darin, on the island of Tarut [1] on 26 December 1915 by Abdulaziz and Sir Percy Cox on behalf of the British Government. [2]
The treaty made the lands of the House of Saud a British protectorate and attempted to define its boundaries. [3] [4] The British aim was to guarantee the sovereignty of Kuwait, Qatar and the Trucial States. [5] Abdulaziz agreed not to attack British protectorates, but did not promise not to attack the Sharif of Mecca [6] Also, he agreed to enter World War I in the Middle East against the Ottoman Empire as an ally of Britain. [2]
Following the treaty, Abdulaziz obtained the following from the British: recognition as the ruler of Najd and its dependencies under British protection; a loan of £20,000 and a shipment of arms in June 1916; a monthly stipend of £5,000 and from the end of World War I to March 1924 an annual stipend of £60,000 in January 1917. [7] The first article of the treaty also acknowledged the rights of Abdulaziz's sons to rule. [8]
The treaty was the first to give international recognition to the fledgling Saudi state. For the first time in Nejdi history, the concept of negotiated borders had been introduced. [5] Additionally, the British aim was to secure its Persian Gulf protectorates, but the treaty had the unintended consequence of legitimising Saudi control in the adjacent areas. [5] The Treaty was superseded in 1927 by the Treaty of Jeddah. [9]
The history of Saudi Arabia as a nation state began with the emergence of the Al Saud dynasty in central Arabia in 1727 and the subsequent establishment of the Emirate of Diriyah. Pre-Islamic Arabia, the territory that constitutes modern Saudi Arabia, was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations; the prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world.
The Saudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone was an area of 7,044 km2 on the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq within which the border between the two countries had not been settled. The neutral zone came into existence following the Uqair Protocol of 1922 that defined the border between Iraq and the Sultanate of Nejd. An agreement to partition the neutral zone was reached by Iraqi and Saudi representatives on 26 December 1981, and approved by the Iraqi National Assembly on 28 January 1982. The territory was divided on an unknown date between 28 January and 30 July 1982. Notice was given to the United Nations in June 1991.
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, known in the West as Ibn Saud, was an Arab political and religious leader who founded Saudi Arabia – the third Saudi state – and reigned as its first king from 23 September 1932 until his death in 1953. He had ruled parts of the kingdom since 1902, having previously been Emir, Sultan, and King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz.
The House of Saud is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and his brothers, though the ruling faction of the family is primarily led by the descendants of Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, the modern founder of Saudi Arabia. It forms a subtribe of the larger prominent ancient Banu Hanifa tribe of Arabia, from which well known 7th century Arabian theologist Maslama ibn Ḥabīb originates. The most influential position of the royal family is the King of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarch. The family in total is estimated to comprise 10,000 to 20,000 members; however, the majority of power, influence and wealth is possessed by a group of about 2,000 of them. Some estimates of the royal family's wealth measure their net worth at anywhere from as low as $500 billion to as high as $3 trillion. This figure includes the market capitalization of Saudi Aramco, the state oil and gas company, and its vast assets in fossil fuel reserves, making them the wealthiest family in the world and the wealthiest in recorded history.
Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Al Saud was the last emir of Nejd, reigning from 1875 to 1876 and from 1889 to 1891. He was the youngest son of Emir Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah and the father of Abdulaziz, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi–Yemeni War was a war between Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Yemen in 1934.
Nawwaf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was a Saudi Arabian businessman and politician. A member of the House of Saud, he became a close ally of King Abdullah. In different periods Prince Nawwaf held significant government posts, including the director of Saudi intelligence agency.
The Battle of Jarrab was a territorial battle between the Al Saud and their traditional enemies, the Al Rashid on 24 January 1915. It was a proxy battle of World War I between the British-supported Saudis and the Ottoman-supported Rashidis.
The Unification of Saudi Arabia was a military and political campaign in which the various tribes, sheikhdoms, city-states, emirates, and kingdoms of most of the central Arabian Peninsula were conquered by the House of Saud, or Al Saud. Unification started in 1902 and continued until 1932, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed under the leadership of Abdulaziz, known in the West as Ibn Saud, creating what is sometimes referred to as the Third Saudi State, to differentiate it from the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State and the Emirate of Nejd, the Second Saudi State, also House of Saud states.
The Ikhwan revolt was an uprising in the Arabian Peninsula from 1927 to 1930 led by the Ikhwan. It began in 1927, when the tribesmen of the Otaibah, Mutayr and Ajman rebelled against the authority of Ibn Saud and engaged in cross-border raids into parts of Transjordan, Mandatory Iraq and the Sheikhdom of Kuwait. The relationship between the House of Saud and the Ikhwan deteriorated into an open bloody feud in December 1928. The main instigators of the rebellion were defeated in the Battle of Sabilla, on 29 March 1929. Ikhwan tribesmen and troops loyal to Abdulaziz clashed again in the Jabal Shammar region in August 1929, and Ikhwan tribesmen attacked the Awazim tribe on 5 October 1929. Faisal Al Dawish, the main leader of the rebellion and the Mutair tribe, fled to Kuwait in October 1929 before being detained by the British and handed over to Ibn Saud. Faisal Al-Dawish would die in Riyadh on 3 October 1931 from what appears to have been a heart condition. Government troops had finally suppressed the rebellion on 10 January 1930, when other Ikhwan rebel leaders surrendered to the British. In the aftermath, the Ikhwan leadership was slain, and the remains were eventually incorporated into regular Saudi units. Sultan bin Bajad, one of the three main Ikhwan leaders, was killed in 1931, while Al Dawish died in prison in Riyadh on 3 October 1931.
The 1927 Treaty of Jeddah, formally the Treaty between His Majesty and His Majesty the King of the Hejaz and of Nejd and Its Dependencies was signed between the United Kingdom and Ibn Saud. It was signed by Sir Gilbert Clayton on behalf of the United Kingdom and Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz on behalf of Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd on 20 May 1927. The treaty recognized the independence of Ibn Saud and sovereignty over what was then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd. The two regions were unified into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. In return, Ibn Saud agreed to stop his forces from attacking and harassing neighbouring British protectorates.
The Jordan–Saudi Arabia border is 731 km (454 mi) in length and runs from the Gulf of Aqaba in the south-west to the tripoint with Iraq in the north-east.
The Kuwait–Saudi Arabia border is 221 km in length and runs from the tripoint with Iraq in the west to the Persian Gulf coast in the east.
The Qatar–Saudi Arabia border is 87 km (54 mi) in length and runs from the Gulf of Bahrain coast in the west to the Persian Gulf coast in the east.
The Saudi Arabia–United Arab Emirates border is 457 km (284 mi) in length and runs from the Arabian Gulf coast in the west to the tripoint with Oman in the east.
The Oman–Saudi Arabia border is 658 km in length and runs from the tripoint with the United Arab Emirates in the north to the tripoint with Yemen in the south-west.
Abdullah bin Suleiman Al Hamdan, commonly known as Abdullah Suleiman and also by his nickname Wazīr Kullī Shaīʾ, was the treasurer and long-term as well as first finance minister of Saudi Arabia (1932–1955). He was named "the minister of everything" due to his involvement in nearly all state affairs which included agriculture, transportation and mining resources among the others. During the reign of King Abdulaziz he was the most significant non-royal official.
Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Thunayan (1889–1923) was a Turkish-born Saudi royal and government official who was one of the advisors to Abdulaziz, Emir of Nejd, who later founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He was the paternal uncle of Iffat Al Thunayan, spouse of King Faisal.
The Declaration of theUnification of Saudi Arabia was officially announced by Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz, the Viceroy of Hejaz on behalf of King Abdulaziz ibn Saud on September 23, 1932, at 9:00 am from al-Hamidiyah Palace in Mecca. Faisal read out the Royal Decree No. 2716 issued by Abdulaziz ibn Saud on September 18, 1932, that renamed the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd and its annexes as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Second Saud-Rashidi War (1915—1918) was fought between the British-aligned Emirate Nejd and Hasa and the Emirate Jabal Shammar, an ally of the Ottoman Empire.