The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power

by Daniel Yergin

Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman bin Faisal al Saud was just over fifty years old. He had an imposing physical presence; at six feet, three inches tall, with a barrel chest, he towered over most of his countrymen. The impression he had made during a visit to Basra more than a decade earlier still held. “Though he is more massively built than the typical nomad sheikh, he has the characteristics of the well-bred Arab, the strongly marked aquiline profile, full-fleshed nostrils, prominent lips and long, narrow chin, accentuated by a pointed beard,” observed a British official in Basra at that time. “He combines with his qualities as a soldier that grasp of statecraft which is yet more highly prized by the tribesmen.” Ibn Saud, also known as ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, certainly applied his talents both for war and for statecraft to a most remarkable achievement in nation building, the creation of modern Saudi Arabia. And his later amassing of immense wealth was no less remarkable for a ruler who, in his early days, could carry his entire national treasury in the saddlebags of a camel.