Fahd

Fahd, full name Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz (1923-2005), king of Saudi Arabia (1982-2005). Born in Riyadh and educated at the royal court and at foreign universities, he was the 11th son of King Ibn Saud, founder of the Saudi Arabian kingdom. Fahd became minister of education in 1953, minister of the interior in 1962, and second deputy prime minister in 1967. He was also an active diplomat and was influential in developing oil policies during the successive reigns of his half brothers King Faisal and King Khalid. Fahd helped to negotiate an agreement with the United States in 1974 and met with United States president Jimmy Carter in 1977 to discuss the Palestinian claim to territory occupied by Israel and the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

After Fahd succeeded Khalid as king in 1982, he continued his policies of diversifying Saudi Arabia's oil-dominated economy and of maintaining the kingdom's dominant position in the Islamic world. His greatest crisis came in 1990 and 1991 after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, thereby threatening Saudi Arabia. While opening Saudi Arabia to U.S. and other forces opposing Iraq, Fahd also expanded his own military forces, and Saudi Arabia played a prominent role in the 1991 Persian Gulf War that drove Iraq from Kuwait. Following Iraq's defeat, Fahd demanded Iraqi reparations for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and pressed for continued economic sanctions against Iraq. In 1992, amid calls for a democratically elected government, he established the Consultative Council (Majlis al-Shura), a body of 60 ministers who advise the king, and at the same time moved against fundamentalist Islamic groups that opposed the monarchy. After suffering a stroke in November 1995, Fahd gave control of the country to his half brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, in January 1996. Although Fahd reclaimed his authority the following month, the king’s overall poor health prompted a gradual transfer of actual power to the crown prince. Abdullah was appointed Fahd’s successor as monarch following Fahd’s death in August 2005.