The king of Saudi Arabia is the monarchial

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...

and ruler of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

who holds absolute power. He is the head of the Saudi Arabian royal family, the

House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), ...

. The king is called the "

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (abbreviation ''CTHM''; ar, خَادِمُ ٱلْحَرَمَيْنِ ٱلشَّرِيفَيْنِ, '), Servant of the Two Noble Sanctuaries or Protector of the Two Holy Cities, is a royal style that has been u ...

" (), a title that signifies Saudi Arabia's jurisdiction over the mosques of Masjid al Haram in

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

and

Al-Masjid an-Nabawi Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (), known in English as the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina in the Al Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. It was the second mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, afte ...

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

. The title has been used many times through the history of Islam. The first Saudi monarch to use the title was King Faisal; however,

King Khalid Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, خالد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Khalid ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'' ; 13 February 1913 13 June 1982) was a Saudi Arabian statesman and politician who served as King and Prime Minister of ...

did not use the title after him. In 1986,

King Fahd Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Fahd ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', ; 1920, 1921 or 1923 – 1 August 2005) was a Saudi Arabian politician who was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia fro ...

replaced " His Majesty" with the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and it has been ever since used by both King Abdullah and King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

History

Ibn Saud Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود, ʿAbd al ʿAzīz bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted ...

King Abdul-Aziz (known in the West as Ibn Saud) regained his patrimony, which is known as today's Saudi Arabia in 1902. Restoring his family as emirs of

Emirate of Riyadh The Emirate of Riyadh Madawi Al-Rasheed. ''A History of Saudi Arabia''. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. 40. was the first iteration of the Third Saudi State from 1902 to 1913. J. A. Hammerton. ''Peoples Of All Natio ...

, he then established

Sultanate of Nejd The Sultanate of Nejd ( ar, سلطنة نجد, ') was the third iteration of the Third Saudi State, from 1921 to 1926. It was a monarchy led by the House of Saud. This version of the Third Saudi State was created when Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Emi ...

as his headquarters in 1922. Following the establishment of Riyadh as the capital of his state, King Abdulaziz Al-Saud then captured Hejaz in 1925. Ibn Saud proclaimed his dominions as the

in 1921, shortly before completing the unification of the region. He was proclaimed king/ malik of Hejaz in 1926, and raised

Nejd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the H ...

to a kingdom as well in 1927. For the next five years, Ibn Saud administered the two parts of his realm, the

Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd ( ar, مملكة الحجاز ونجد, '), initially the Kingdom of Hejaz and Sultanate of Nejd (, '), was a dual monarchy ruled by Abdulaziz following the victory of the Saudi Sultanate of Nejd over the Hashemite ...

as separate units. On 23 September 1932, he formally united his territories into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Succession

The kings since Ibn Saud's death have all been his sons, and all likely immediate successors to the reigning King Salman will be from among his progeny. This makes the Saudi monarchy quite distinct from Western monarchies, which usually feature large, clearly defined

royal families A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papa ...

and orders of succession, and use the absolute primogeniture system of succession.

Muhammad bin Nayef Muhammad bin Nayef Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن نايف آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Nāyif Āl Su‘ūd; born 30 August 1959), colloquially known by his initials MBN or MbN, is a former Saudi Arabian politician and businessman who serv ...

was the first grandson of Ibn Saud to be in the line of succession before being deposed from the position of

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...

by a royal decree in 2017.

Other functions

The king of Saudi Arabia is also considered the head of the

and

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

. The

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...

is also the "

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

". The kings after Faisal have named a "second deputy prime minister" as the subsequent heir after the crown prince.

Royal Standard

*The Royal Flag consists of a green flag, with an

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

inscription and a sword featured in white, and with the

national emblem A national emblem is an emblem or seal that is reserved for use by a nation state or multi-national state as a symbol of that nation. Many nations have a seal or emblem in addition to a national flag A national flag is a flag that represents ...

embroidered in gold in the lower right canton. Royal Standard of Saudi Arabia

The script on the flag is written in the Thuluth script. It is the ''

shahada The ''Shahada'' ( Arabic: ٱلشَّهَادَةُ , "the testimony"), also transliterated as ''Shahadah'', is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there i ...

'' or Islamic declaration of faith: : : ' :''There is no other god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of God.'' *The Royal Standard consists of a green flag, in the center of the national emblem embroidered with gold.

Kings of Saudi Arabia (1932–present)

Current heirs-apparent

Mohammed bin Salman Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...

, born ; son of

King Salman Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, سلمان بن عبد العزیز آل سعود, , ; born 31 December 1935) is King of Saudi Arabia, reigning since 2015, and served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2022. The 25th son of Kin ...

and

Fahda bint Falah Al Hithlain Fahda bint Falah Al Hithlain ( ar, فهدة بنت فلاح آل حثلين) is the third spouse of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi Arabia. She is a member of the Ajman tribe. Her mother is Munira bint Abdullah and her ancestors ...

Opposition

Criticism of the King, religious leaders, or government is not allowed and can generally mean jail time for the critics. It can also result in death.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1930 till:2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1930 Colors = id:Lifespan value:red legend: Lifespan id:Crown_Prince value:yellow legend: Prince id:King value:green legend: King Legend = columns:4 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100 TextData = pos:(20,27) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"Title:" BarData = barset:PM PlotData= align:left fontsize:S shift:(3,-4) anchor:from width:15 barset:PM from: 1932 till: 1953 color:king text:" Abdulaziz" fontsize:10 from: 1953 till: 1964 color:king text:" Saud" fontsize:10 from: 1964 till: 1975 color:king text:" Faisal" fontsize:10 from: 1975 till: 1982 color:king text:"

Khalid Khalid (variants include Khaled and Kalid; Arabic: خالد) is a popular Arabic male given name meaning "eternal, everlasting, immortal", and it also appears as a surname.

" fontsize:10 from: 1982 till: 2005 color:king text:" Fahd" fontsize:10 from: 2005 till: 2015 color:king text:"

Abdullah Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...

" fontsize:10 from: 2015 till: end color:king text:" Salman" fontsize:10

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Kings of Saudi Arabia

1932 establishments in Saudi Arabia History-related lists