Abdullah bin Faisal Al Saud (1923–2007)

Abdullah bin Faisal Al Saud (Arabic: عبد الله بن فيصل آل سعود ʿAbd Allāh bin Fayṣal Āl Suʿūd; 18 June 1923 – 8 May 2007) was a Saudi Arabian businessman, politician, and poet who held multiple posts in the Saudi government throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Prince Abdullah was the eldest son of King Faisal. He served as the governor of Hejaz during the reign of his grandfather King Abdulaziz, and as the minister of health and interior during the reigns of his grandfather and his uncle King Saud. These positions made him one of the most powerful Saudi Arabian royals of his time.

Not to be confused with Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki.

Abdullah bin Faisal Al Saud
Prince Abdullah in his late 20s
Prince Abdullah in the early 1950s
Governor of Hejaz
Tenure1946–1949
PredecessorMansour bin Abdulaziz
MonarchAbdulaziz
Minister of Interior
Tenure2 June 1951 – 30 March 1959
PredecessorFaisal bin Abdulaziz
SuccessorFaisal bin Abdulaziz
Monarch
Minister of Health
Tenure1950–1953
PredecessorOffice established
SuccessorRashad Pharaon
Monarch
  • Abdulaziz
  • Saud
Born18 June 1923
Riyadh, Nejd
Died8 May 2007(2007-05-08) (aged 83)
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Burial
Al Adl cemetery, Mecca
SpouseAl Jawhara bint Khalid bin Mohammed
Issue10
Names
Abdullah bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
HouseHouse of Saud
FatherKing Faisal
MotherSultana bint Ahmed Al Sudairi

Early life and education
King Faisal, father of Prince Abdullah

Prince Abdullah was born in Riyadh in 1923.[1] However, some sources list his birth year as 1921[2] or 1922. He was the eldest son of King Faisal.[3][4] His mother was Sultana bint Ahmed Al Sudairi, sister of Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi.[3]

It is believed that Prince Abdullah was the second grandson of King Abdulaziz after Faisal bin Turki who was born in 1918.[3][5] The marriage of Prince Faisal and Sultana bint Ahmed was prearranged while Prince Faisal was travelling abroad. They never saw each other until the marriage and later divorced.[5]

Abdullah bin Faisal completed his education in Mecca in 1939.[3]

Career

Abdullah bin Faisal assumed a number of government positions. He started his political career in 1945 when he disputed his half-uncle Mansour's appointment as acting viceroy of Hejaz and actually assumed the office one year later.[6]

Prince Abdullah was the first minister of health of Saudi Arabia and appointed to the post in 1950.[7] Then, he was named minister of interior in 1951, being the first interior minister of the Kingdom.[3][8] He served in this post during the reign of King Abdulaziz and also, of King Saud.[9] His appointment as minister of health and of interior was a move to make him equal in status to then-minister of defense Prince Mishaal.[10] His term lasted until March 1959 when he resigned,[11][12] and he was replaced by his father, Crown Prince Faisal, in the post of interior minister.[13]

Business activities

Following his retirement from government jobs Abdullah bin Faisal devoted his time to business and cultural activities. First he dealt with real estate business in Jeddah.[14] He established Saudi Arabian Agricultural and Dairy Company which was a joint venture with Lebanese businessmen.[15]

Abdullah bin Faisal was the founder of Al Faisaliah Group, which was established in Jeddah in 1971.[16] He also owned the largest dairy farm in Saudi Arabia.[17] In addition, he founded Abdullah Establishment for Trading and Industry in Jeddah in 1978[18] and the SIGMA (Saudi Investment Group and Marketing) company in 1979. The chairman and CEO of the latter was his son, Prince Saud.[19]

Prince Abdullah's business partners included the sons of Rashad Pharaon, Ghaith and Mazen.[3] He was one of the founders of the Dar Al Maal Al Islami Trust which was initiated by his half-brother Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud in 1981.[20]

Other positions

Abdullah bin Faisal was the founder of the King Faisal International Charity Foundation.[21] He was the chairman of the King Faisal Foundation.[22] He was the cofounder and former chairman of Al Ahli football club.[11][23]

Works and awards

A composer of both classical and colloquial poetry, his works include the collection The Inspiration of Deprivation (Min Wahye al Hirman), 1980.[21]

Prince Abdullah's poems were put into music and sung by the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum and many others.[4][24] Some of them were translated into English, French and Russian.[23]

Abdullah bin Faisal received a number of international honors including an honorary doctorate degree in humanities.[11] He was rewarded with French State Acknowledgement Award for Literature in 1984.[25] In May 1989 he was given honorary doctorate degree, doctorate of humane letters, from Shaw University.[26]

Personal life

Prince Abdullah married three times.[27] One of his spouses was Al Jawhara bint Khalid, a daughter of Khalid bin Muhammad and a granddaughter of Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman, who was an uncle of Prince Abdullah's father King Faisal. Al Jawhara bint Khalid died at age 87 in 2005.[28] Another spouse of Prince Abdullah was the granddaughter of Saad bin Abdul Rahman, another of King Faisal's uncles.[27] His third spouse was the daughter of a Bedouin tribe leader.[27]

Prince Abdullah had ten children:[23][29]

Death

Prince Abdullah died on 8 May 2007.[34] Funeral prayers were performed at the Masjid al Haram in Mecca. A number of royal family members attended the funeral, including his half-brothers Prince Saud and Prince Khalid and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Sultan bin Abdulaziz. Prince Abdullah was buried in Al Adl cemetery in Mecca[35] next to his first wife, Al Jawhara.[23]

Legacy

In November 2018 the International Prize Prince Abdullah Al Faisal for Arabic Poetry was launched.[36]

Ancestry

References
  1. Winberg Chai (2005). Saudi Arabia: A Modern Reader. Indianapolis, IN: University of Indiana Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-88093-859-4.
  2. J. E. Peterson (2003). Historical Dictionary of Saudi Arabia (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 16. ISBN 9780810827806.
  3. Sharaf Sabri (2001). The House of Saud in Commerce: A Study of Royal Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. New Delhi: I.S. Publications. pp. 48, 50, 52, 151. ISBN 978-81-901254-0-6.
  4. Nick Luddington (5 April 1975). "King Faisal's eight sons". Lewiston Evening Journal. Jeddah. Associated Press.
  5. "Sultana bint Ahmad bin Muhammad Al Sudairi". Datarabia. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  6. Joseph A. Kechichian (2001). Succession In Saudi Arabia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-312-23880-3.
  7. Zuber Mujeeb Shaikh (June 2018). "A comparative study on the Economic Indicators of Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia". Research Review. 3 (6). doi:10.5281/zenodo.1285887.
  8. "Advisers, heirs and heir apparent". Life. 1953. p. 72. ISSN 0024-3019.
  9. "House of Saud". Life. 1953. p. 66. ISSN 0024-3019.
  10. Steffen Hertog (2007). "Shaping the Saudi State: Human agency's shifting role in rentier-state formation" (PDF). International Journal of Middle East Studies. 39 (4): 539–563. doi:10.1017/S0020743807071073. JSTOR 30069487. S2CID 145139112.
  11. Mahmoud Ahmad (9 May 2007). "Abdullah Al Faisal Passes Away". Arab News. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  12. Alexander Blay Bligh (1981). Succession to the throne in Saudi Arabia. Court Politics in the Twentieth Century (PhD thesis). Columbia University. p. 167. ProQuest 303101806.
  13. Steffen Hertog (2010). Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia. Cornell University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780801447815. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt7zbkq.10.
  14. Vincent Sheean (January 1966). "King Faisal's First Year". Foreign Affairs. 44 (2): 304–313. doi:10.2307/20039166. JSTOR 20039166.
  15. Monera Nahedh (June 1989). The Sedentarization of a bedouin community in Saudi Arabia (PhD thesis). The University of Leeds. p. 255.
  16. Anthony Shoult (2006). Doing Business with Saudi Arabia. London: GMB Publishing Ltd. p. 481. ISBN 978-1-905050-67-3.
  17. Kiren Aziz Chaudhry (2015). The Price of Wealth: Economies and Institutions in the Middle East. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-8014-8430-8.
  18. Giselle C. Bricault, ed. (1993). "Saudi Arabia". Major Companies of the Arab World 1993/94. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 448. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-1458-5_13. ISBN 978-1-85333-894-6.
  19. "About us". SIGMA Company. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  20. Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud (2014). "The Well of Influence". In Emmy Abdul Alim (ed.). Global Leaders in Islamic Finance: Industry Milestones and Reflections. Singapore: Wiley. p. 56. doi:10.1002/9781118638804.ch3. ISBN 978-1-118-46524-0.
  21. Publitec Publications, ed. (2007). Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008 (18th ed.). Beirut: Publitec Publications. p. 714. doi:10.1515/9783110930047. ISBN 9783598077357.
  22. The Monthly Newsletter of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Information Office, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. 1989. p. 39.
  23. "في وفاة الأمير الشاعر". Elaph (in Arabic). 10 May 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  24. "أمراء، ولكن شعراء.. "الكلمة السّعودية" في الأغنية المصرية والعربية". Raseef 22 (in Arabic). 22 February 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  25. Saleh Oawid Alharbi (2015). The Image of the West in Saudi poetry 1920-1990 (PhD thesis). University of Exeter. hdl:10871/18232.
  26. The Monthly Newsletter of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Information Office, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. 1989. p. 7.
  27. Gary Samuel Samore (1984). Royal Family Politics in Saudi Arabia (1953-1982) (PhD thesis). Harvard University. p. 58. ProQuest 303295482.
  28. "وفاة الأميرة الجوهرة بنت خالد آل سعود". Al Sharq Al Awsat (in Arabic). 16 November 2005. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  29. "Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Faisal's burial ceremony (video)". Saudi 24 News. 5 June 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  30. "Expo spotlight on stunning designs by Princess Nourah". Gulf Daily News. Manama. 25 November 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  31. "زي النهاردة.. وفاة الأمير محمد عبد الله الفيصل 21 أغسطس 2011". Al Masry Al Youm (in Arabic). 21 August 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  32. "حفيد الملك المؤسس سفيراً لخادم الحرمين بالأردن الأمير خالد بن فيصل آل سعود يستعد لاستلام مهام عمله الجديد المزيد على دنيا الوطن". Al Watan (in Arabic). 21 October 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  33. "Saudi prince dies of Coronavirus". Iran Press. 29 June 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  34. الأمير عبدالله الفيصل بن عبدالعزيز أل سعود. Royal KSA (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  35. "Prince Muhammad Al Faisal dead". Saudi Gazette. Jeddah. 22 August 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  36. "Today, the newspaper launches the International Prize Prince Abdullah Al Faisal for Arabic Poetry". Praams. 11 November 2018. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
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