Banu Saud’s Second Eruption In The Service Of Colonialism, Imperialism And Zionism

Zafar Bangash

Dhu al-Hijjah 05, 1446 2025-06-01

News & Analysis

by Zafar Bangash (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 55, No. 4, Dhu al-Hijjah, 1446)

At the beginning of the 20^th century, the Banu Saud were still small beer compared to the many clans and tribes that dotted the Arabian Peninsula. Attacking and robbing pilgrims’ caravans as well as other clans was their favourite practice. Defeated clans were robbed of their camels, possessions as well as women. If they lost, they were lucky to escape alive.

The Ottomans were still in control of the Arabian Peninsula although their power had considerably diminished especially after their defeat in the Balkans War of 1912-1913. The governor of the Hijaz, one Sharif Hussain, reported to the Sultan in Istanbul.

This was the time when Britain and France competed for possessions in West Asia (aka the Middle East). In 1902, the British Consul General in Jeddah, James Ernest Napoleon Zohrab sent a message to the foreign office in London alerting his superiors to the fact that Muslims gathered for Hajj in Makkah each year. The British, indeed all non-Muslims, were barred from Makkah. He warned that Muslims could be plotting against Britain while at Hajj. He proposed that Britain should appoint a trusted Muslim agent in the Hijaz who would serve their interests.

The idea of controlling the Hijaz, especially Makkah, had been floated as early as 1850 by Captain Richard F Burton (later Sir Richard Burton). Since Sharif Hussain was the governor of the Hijaz, they started to cultivate links with him promising to make him the “king of all Arabs” if he were to join the British plot to drive the Turks out of the Hijaz.

The British argued that the Turks were not Arabs—true—but the British were not Arabs either. Besides, they were not even Muslims. This is where personal ambitions and greed came into play to create havoc in the Muslim society. Lured by the British promise to make him king of all the Arabs, Sharif Hussain joined the anti-Turkish plot.

Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, founder of the present-day Saudi kingdom, was at that time a petty figure. His father, Abdur Rahman ibn Saud had been driven out of his stronghold in Riyadh by the Banu Rashid who had the support of Britain, so the ibn Sauds sought refuge with the Mubaraks in Kuwait.

Amid competing clan loyalities as well as shifting alliances, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud realized that in order to gain power, external support was essential. For contemporary example, consider Donald Trump’s visit to three Arabian countries on May 13–15. In return for promising protection, Trump came away with trillions of dollars in sales and contracts.

Abdul Aziz formally entered the British orbit in December 1915 when he met Sir Percy Cox, the British political resident in the Persian Gulf. Through the Anglo-Saudi friendship treaty, Britain recognized Abdul Aziz’s “authority” in Najd. The British, however, would supervise his foreign relations.

More good news followed. Abdul Aziz was put on the British payroll to receive £20,000 annually for attacking Turkish forces in Eastern Arabia. A similar task was assigned to Sharif Hussain in the Hijaz. His forces started attacking the Hijaz Railway to sabotage Turkish movement. Th two British agents—Abdul Aziz and Sharif Hussain—would get their bakhsheesh increased to £60,000 annually for advancing British colonial interests.

History, however, can play cruel tricks. Two events exposed British duplicity. In November 1916, the British and French had struck a deal, call the Sykes-Picot agreement. It was named after the British civil servant Mark Sykes and Frenchman Georges Picot. It came to light after the Bolshevik revolution that overthrew the Czar in November 1917.

The date is important. It was also in November 1917 that the British promised a homeland for the Jews in Palestine through what is called the Balfour declaration. The British had no desire to honour their pledge to either of their Arabian puppets. Their aim was to use their tribal forces to undermine the Ottoman Turks.

When the First World War ended in 1918, Britain informed its two Arabian clients that their bakhsheesh would end. Turkey had lost the war and the British no longer needed the help of either: one a Turkish appointed governor and the other a caravan-plundering thug.

With British support gone—at least temporarily—Abdul Aziz turned to his Wahhabi hordes. He had settled them in Ghot Ghot, just outside Riyadh. Always eager to kill those who disagreed with their distorted interpretations of Islam, they launched their murderous spree once again as their forefathers had done a century ago.

In the struggle for supremacy, the Banu Saud hordes proved far more ruthless than Sharif Hussain’s forces. The latter lost the Hijaz to the Najdi Bedouins. Not surprisingly, Sharif Hussain was extremely upset at British betrayal. In order to placate him, they carved out Trans-Jordan (today’s Hashemite kingdom of Jordan) from Palestine and placed one of his sons, Abdullah, on the “throne”. His other son Faisal was made the “king” of Syria. Later Iraq was also added to his domain. The current “king” of Jordan, Abdullah II, takes his name from his great grandfather.

In Turkey, meanwhile, Mustafa Kamal, a freemason and British-zionist agent, grabbed power and abolished the Khilafah in March 1924. The Sultan had already been forced to abdicate two years earlier. During the same period, the Banu Saud hordes attacked Taif on their way to Makkah and massacred anyone coming in their way. Frightened residents were not spared even when they took shelter in mosques.

Makkah was spared the bloodbath because the people flung open its gates to the invaders but the Banu Saud-Wahhabi hordes indulged in their customary vandalism. With Makkah subdued, they marched on al-Madinah. The residents of the Prophet’s city were not so fortunate.

For three days, the Wahhabi hordes not only smashed graves in Jannatul Baqi‘ under the spurious assertion that people indulged in their worship but they also attacked and molested the women of Madinah. Such scandalous behaviour against the honour of Muslim women has rarely been witnessed anywhere else. One can think of the Serbs indulging such behaviour against Bosnian Muslim women (1992-1995) or the Hindu zealots in Indian occupied Kashmir (1989-present).

In 1925, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud declared himself king and seven years later (1932), announced that he was linking Najd and the Hijaz to establish the ‘kingdom of Saudi Arabia’. This monstrosity has continued to plague the Muslim world ever since and is at par with that other monstrosity, the zionist entity.

(Next: How the Banu Saud buy the loyalty of Muslims)