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Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — King of Saudi Arabia (1953–1964)

Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1902–1969) was King of Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1964. His reign saw rapid expansion funded by oil revenues, internal rivalry with Crown Prince Faisal, fiscal strain and eventual deposition.

Author: Leandro Alegsa Creation date: November 13, 2022 Last updated: May 30, 2026

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Overview

Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Arabic: سعود بن عبد العزيز آل سعود; 15 January 1902 – 23 February 1969) served as King of Saudi Arabia from 1953 until 1964. He was one of the sons of the kingdom's founder, Ibn Saud, and inherited a state that was transforming rapidly due to burgeoning oil income.

Early life and accession

Born into the ruling Al Saud family, Saud grew up during the consolidation of the modern Saudi state. Before becoming king he held senior roles within the royal administration and was a prominent member of the next generation of leadership. He succeeded his father in 1953 at a time when oil revenues were beginning to fund broad public works and institutional development.

Reign: modernization and administration

During Saud's decade on the throne, the kingdom accelerated investments in infrastructure, health care, and education. The state expanded roads, hospitals and schools, and took on an increasingly visible role in regional politics. Much of this activity was financed by oil export income, which transformed the country's economy and social services.

Challenges and removal

Saud's reign was marked by rising government expenditures and disputes within the royal family over fiscal policy and governance. A continuing rivalry with Crown Prince Faisal centered on administration, austerity measures and foreign policy. Mounting financial strain and concerns about administrative effectiveness culminated in a transfer of power: in 1964 the royal family endorsed Faisal as king, ending Saud's rule.

Later life and legacy

After his removal from power Saud spent his remaining years away from the Saudi political center and died in 1969. Historians view his legacy as mixed: he presided over important early stages of modernization and state-building fueled by oil, but his reign also exposed the need for stronger fiscal institutions and more streamlined governance. The contrast between his approach and that of his successor shaped subsequent reforms in the kingdom.

Key aspects at a glance

Reign: 1953–1964, a period of rapid public spending and infrastructure growth.
Strengths: promoted development projects and expanded government services.
Criticisms: fiscal management and internal political disputes that led to deposition.
Significance: transitional figure in the transition from a nascent oil state to a modernizing monarchy.

For more on the family background and the broader historical context, see sources that discuss the founding generation of the modern Saudi state and the contrasting policies of later monarchs. Additional references and primary documents can be found via archival and academic collections on Middle Eastern history.

Ascension

Saud was born in Kuwait on January 15, 1902, the second eldest son of King Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd ar-Rahman Al Saud, on the day Saud's father conquered Riyadh.

His mother was Princess Wahdba Bint Mohammed Bin Al-Uraymir Al-Hazzam of the Bani Khalid tribe. Saud's biological brothers were Prince Turki I, Prince Fahd I and Prince Abdul Salam. All of them had died at an early age. After the death of his elder brother Prince Turki in 1919, he was the eldest surviving son of his father.

Saud attended his father's numerous audiences and thus learned the direct contact between the ruler and his subjects.

During his youth, Saud also had to live with the Bedouins of the country. This was required by his father for each of his sons to understand and live by the simple Bedouin way of life, their culture, history and mentality. In addition, the king's sons had to get up two hours before dawn, walk barefoot, and ride a horse and camel without a saddle.

On May 10, 1933, in Mecca, King Abdul Aziz designated Prince Saud as Crown Prince. For the tradition-conscious people, this was a mistake, because it broke ancient Bedouin traditions. Never had the emirs and sheikhs of the desert tribes been allowed to choose their successors alone: Always the most experienced and eldest of the men had a say. Moreover, Bedouin custom required that the selection be made only shortly before the death of the ruler. Abdul Aziz, however, had chosen his successor 20 years before his demise in order to prevent the collapse of his newly created empire through family feuds. However, he was aware at the time that he was violating tradition, for he made a point of appointing a second crown prince so that the most experienced and eldest would have a choice - this second crown prince was Prince Faisal.

In October 1953, King Abdul Aziz formally established a Council of Ministers, which he appointed the Crown Prince to chair. At the same time, Saud was appointed by his father as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The king took this step because of growing pressure from his sons, particularly Crown Prince Saud and Prince Faisal, who demanded a modern system of government for the kingdom.

On November 9, 1953, King Abdul Aziz died. In the provisions to his estate, he had stipulated that his sons should respect the different maternal ties, never turn against each other, while respecting Islam and Wahhabi teachings. The kingdom was to be brought into modernity without destroying traditional values.

Saud was appointed king on the anniversary of his father's death and appointed Prince Faisal as the new crown prince on the same day. King Saud's reign was characterized by the creation of numerous ministerial posts, often given to close family members, their expertise being of secondary importance. On March 7, 1954, Saud appointed a new council of ministers. He acted as its chairman and also as prime minister. He appointed his brother Faisal as deputy prime minister, who also served as foreign minister.

Saud's extravagance, reflected in his palaces, soon got the state budget into trouble, despite the millions in revenue from the oil business. He gave away countless watches made of gold to the Bedouins in order to secure their loyalty. After he gave key administrative positions to his own sons, fears arose among his brothers that the Saudi law of succession would be challenged, depriving them of their rights to the throne.

After coming to power, he continued his father's policy. The close relations with the USA and Great Britain remained.

In August 1954, Saud and Faisal entered into a mutual agreement to share some of the powers of government between them. Saud then appointed Faisal as prime minister. The post of deputy prime minister remained vacant for the time being. However, Saud retained the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers at the same time. At the same time, Saud dismissed Finance Minister Sheikh Abdullah as-Sulaiman from his post and appointed Mohammed bin Surur as-Sabban as the new Finance Minister.

On March 22, 1958, Prince Mohammed and Prince Talal demanded King Saud's abdication, and other princes called for the full transfer of executive governmental powers to Crown Prince Faisal. Prince Abdullah was able to broker a compromise between his nephews King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal. Faisal refused to accept the kingship. He was now given full executive powers of government in the interior, exterior, and financial sectors as prime minister. Saud retained the royal dignity, but now functioned only as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Furthermore, all matters concerning security were left to him.

On March 23, 1958, Faisal, as prime minister with full executive powers, immediately began to reduce the kingdom's $480 million debt piled up by Saud's lifestyle. In May, Faisal appointed a new council of ministers.

Since 1962, Saudi Arabia also supported the royalists in the Yemeni civil war against the Egyptian-backed republicans.

Power struggle and exile

Within the royal family, tensions grew around King Saud and his brother Faisal, who were characterized by opposing lifestyles. While the king was addicted to gambling, alcohol and women, his brother was considered a strict Wahhabi. The first crisis occurred in 1962, when King Saud underwent medical treatment in the United States and Faisal took the opportunity to form a cabinet in which the king's sons were excluded. Upon his return, King Saud condemned these decisions and threatened to use the Royal Guard against his brother, who in turn could count on loyalty in the National Guard and appointed his younger half-brother Prince Abdullah as commander of the National Guard in 1963.

Thus, in the spring of 1964, the Royal Guard and the National Guard stood opposite each other in Riyadh - one loyal to the king, the other to the crown prince. The conflict became explosive when Faisal decreed at the end of March 1964 that the Royal Guard would henceforth be subordinate to the defense minister Prince Sultan, a younger half-brother of Faisal, who was one of Faisal's loyalists. The officers realized that this meant they could no longer obey the king in the event of conflict and submitted to Faisal.

In this critical situation, one of Saud and Faisal's uncles, Prince Abdullah bin Abd ar-Rahman Al Saud, spoke to the kingdom's most important ulema and managed to get them to agree on a joint fatwa that provided for the king's removal from power.

Saud at first did not care for the opinion of the clergy and did not think of abdicating. Six months later, however, after much urging from his family and when he saw that his fortune would be confiscated, he abdicated.

King Saud's reign officially ended on 2 November 1964, the day after which he went into exile. He first moved to Geneva, frequented Paris as well as the Côte d'Azur, and continued to lead a luxurious lifestyle. Despite his earlier disagreements with the Egyptian leader, he made a rapprochement with Nasser and resided in a lavish palace in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis as well as a large estate in the Greek capital of Athens, where he died of heart failure on December 23, 1969. His body was transferred aboard a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing to Mecca to the al-Haram Mosque, whereupon he was quietly buried in Riyadh.

To this day, his name is hardly mentioned in Saudi Arabia; only King Saud University, which he founded in Riyadh in 1957, bears his name.