Fahd of Saudi Arabia

Fahd invited half a million foreign troops onto Saudi soil in 1990 and spent the rest of his reign dealing with what that decision cost him at home. He was the eldest of the Sudairi Seven, the full brothers who dominated the Saudi state for a generation, served as the first minister of education and then as interior minister, and was crown prince and effective ruler under his brother Khalid before succeeding in 1982. He replaced the style Majesty with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. His reign covered the aftermath of the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque, which had already pushed the state toward concessions to the religious establishment, and the funding of Islamic institutions abroad on a very large scale. When Iraq took Kuwait in August 1990 he accepted an American-led coalition on Saudi territory; Osama bin Laden's public break with the monarchy dates from that decision, and so does much of the domestic opposition that followed. In 1992 he issued the Basic Law of Governance, the closest thing the kingdom has to a constitution, and created an appointed consultative council. Falling oil prices and a large population meant income per head declined through the 1990s. He suffered a severe stroke in 1995 and his half-brother Abdullah governed in practice for the last decade of a reign that formally continued until his death. He was said to have gambled heavily in Europe as a young man and to have given it up entirely afterwards. The Basic Law states explicitly that the Quran and the Sunna are the constitution, which is why the document is called a law and not one. He funded the expansion of the mosques at Mecca and Medina on a scale that roughly doubled their capacity. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers of September 2001 were Saudi nationals, and the strain that put on the relationship with Washington fell on his brother to manage.

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