Last week, Saudi Arabia lost an heir to the throne―for the second time in nine months. Prince Naif, 78, became the crown prince in October last year when his brother Prince Sultan, 82, passed away. After Naif himself succumbed to ill health on Saturday, King Abdullah, 88, named Naif’s younger brother Salman, 76, as the new heir apparent.
Remarkable as it sounds, they are all the sons of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, who founded the Saudi state more than a century ago. No one knows exactly how many sons the king had, although estimates range from 37 to 43 (in addition to innumerable daughters). He married around 20 women, mostly from powerful tribal families around the peninsula, to buttress his support.
Among his wives was Hassa al Sudairi, daughter of the influential Sudairi clan in Nejd, the arid central part of the peninsula. While the western Hejaz region, lapped by the Red Sea, has historically been more liberal and cosmopolitan and the eastern Hasa region is dominated by Shias, Nejd is the heartland of Saudi Arabia’s hardline Wahabi Islam. The al Saud family, as well as the ruling families of Qatar and Bahrain, also hail from this region.
Abdul Aziz and Hassa al Sudairi had seven sons, including crown princes Sultan, Naif, Salman and the late king Fahd. For half a century now, the ‘Sudairi Seven’ have been the most powerful bloc of al Saud’s children in the murky world of monarchical politics. But their clout now seems to be on the wane.
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