Gerald Posner gives "the inside story of the Saudi-U.S. connection" (2005, ISBN 1-4000-6291-8).
Reviewed by Cecil E. Maranville
Gerald Posner presents a detailed history of Saudi Arabia, "the House of Saud," focusing particularly on the unusual linkage between it and the United States from its creation through to the present. What he has to say isn't always flattering to either nation, but it is eye-opening. Much of current politics hinges upon a covenant that a sheik struck with a religious zealot nearly three centuries ago.
In the 1700s, the Arabian Peninsula was a desolate stretch of desert, broken by the occasional oasis and inhabited by many nomadic tribes that constantly battled each other for control of the sand.
At that time, a local tribesman named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab tried to persuade all who would listen that they should follow a strict interpretation of Islam. He memorized the entire Koran by the age of 10, and then traveled to what is now Iraq and Iran to study Islamic law further. He returned to the peninsula to preach against paganism and to advocate a pure Muslim faith. His students called themselves mujahideen ("holy warriors"), and they condemned nonbelievers as infidels.
Their detractors referred to them as Wahhabis.
Wahhab had a militant political dimension to his preaching, which attracted the attention of the emir of a tiny oasis town, Ad Diriyah. That emir was Muhammad Saud. The two leaders "...swore a traditional Muslim mithaq, or covenant, promising to work together to establish a state based on the most austere Islamic principles. It was an oath that would change history."
Eventually, Saud subdued all other tribes, creating a kingdom. The West largely discounted it by the turn of the 20th century, expecting it to collapse from bankruptcy. In 1932, geologists discovered oil, and suddenly the Sauds were wealthy and their nation viable. From the beginning, the royals shared their wealth with the Wahhabis, funding religious training.
