Abdullah bin Abdullah Al Saud

Abdullah bin Abdullah Al Saud was the son of Abdullah bin Thunayan, Emir of Nejd from 1841 to 1843. Abdullah bin Thunayan became emir after overthrowing his cousin Khalid bin Saud in 1841.[1] In 1843 Abdullah was himself overthrown by another cousin, Faisal bin Turki, who imprisoned him in Al Masmak fort.[2][3] Emir Abdullah died in July of that year. One of his sons was born the same day he died, and due to this he was named Abdullah after his father.[2]

In 1879 Abdullah bin Abdullah headed to Constantinople, hoping to gain control over territory in the Al-Hasa region which the Ottomans had seized from his Al Saud relatives. While he was going towards Constantinople he sought the support of British authorities in Damascus and Cairo, among other places, but nothing came of this. In August 1880, he reached Constantinople, where he became known as Abdullah Pasha.[4]

Abdullah Pasha was a member of the Ottoman Council of State in the 1880s and 1890s under Sultan Abdul Hamid II.[5] He acted as a mediator between the Ottoman government and the Arab tribes living in the Ottoman territories.[5] He was instrumental in educating students from the Arab provinces of Hejaz, Yemen, and Trablusgarb at the Harbiye military academy and at the Mekteb-i Aşiret-i Humayun in Constantinople.[5]

While Abdullah was in Constantinople, he married a Turkish Circassian woman named Tazeruh and had four children: Mohammad, the twins Ahmed and Al Jawhara, and Sulaiman. Abdullah also had two sons from a second marriage named Abdul Rahman and Abdul Qadir.[4] Abdullah's son Mohammad became a physician in the Ottoman army and was the father of Queen Iffat, the wife of King Faisal.[6] Another of his sons, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Thunayan, was an advisor to King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia (founder of the Third Saudi State, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).[4]