Muhammad ibn Saud
Muhammad ibn Saud was the emir of Diriyah who in 1744 made the alliance from which Saudi Arabia descends. He ruled a small oasis settlement in the Najd, the arid interior of the Arabian peninsula, a region of competing towns and tribes with no central authority and no significance to the wider Islamic world. In 1744 or 1745 the religious reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab arrived at Diriyah, having been expelled from Uyayna after his preaching provoked its patron's overlord. He had destroyed a tomb venerated by locals and had a woman stoned for adultery, and his doctrine — a strict insistence on the absolute unity of God and the condemnation of tomb visitation, saint veneration and intercession as idolatry — made him unwelcome in most places. The two men made a pact. Ibn Saud would provide protection and military force; Ibn Abd al-Wahhab would provide religious authority and legitimacy. The emir was to be imam of the community, and the scholar's family would hold the religious offices. Reportedly Ibn Saud asked to keep the tax he levied on the harvest, and the reformer replied that conquest would bring better revenue than that. The arrangement gave a minor local ruler a cause that justified expansion, since neighbouring Muslims could be declared to have fallen into idolatry and fought accordingly. It gave a homeless preacher an army. The first Saudi state expanded from Diriyah across the Najd over the following decades and eventually took Mecca and Medina. Muhammad ibn Saud died in 1765, and the division of authority between the two families persists.
- Lived: 1710 CE – 1765 CE
- Nationality: Arabian
- Roles: ruler
