CHAPTER 1: PART-1 الباب اﻷول: النهضة في العصر الحديث THE RENAISSANCE IN MODERN ERA Before we talk about the renaissance in the modern era, it is better for us to talk about the era of the renaissance and its stability, because the rebellious tidal wave which had erupted in the first phase13, it calmed down in the second phase14 but in this period a stream of life and a strength of revival has been sent to it once again. That is because of a man from the Saudi Royal Family. He was a unique man, had conscious mind, far sight and distinctive poise for men who were created. He had the ability to build a nation, to revive a community and educate the people. That man was Abdul Aziz bin Abdur Rahman. He was distinguished by every quality to regain for his family the kingship which was for them before and seize all what was under his forefather Abdul Aziz first and his son Saud the great including the land of the Arabic Peninsula, hoist his flag here and remove the influences of the Turks completely . He was fully aware when to extend his hand towards English for help and when to confront with them, How to convince the religious scholars to introduce the means of civilization in the country. The persons were unaware about the secret of these means or had some reservations in this issue. He also knew how to get their permission for it to invade the peninsula riding through the modern era and what would be his roadmap in some of the political and administrative issues, which were in the interest of the country and the people. This period has the credit in richness of the Kingdom, in its welfares, in welcoming of the experts who discovered petrol. He issued the licenses to the American companies to utilize it in the interest of the country. He planted the land by the money he obtained from it, opened industrial plants and the built factories, paved roads, civilized the rural areas, disseminated the education and fought the laziness, dependency and the idea of underestimating the industry. He was all worthy to be called as The King of The Saudi Arabia and The Lion of Peninsula. Then his successor and son Saud walked through his father’s plan for some time but when his steps missed the right way, his brother Faisal took over the charge and started to complete what his father and brother had started. Due to the importance of this period its events and incidents have been entangling and because of the impacts it left on various aspects of intellectual and material life we liked to talk in detail about it, so we could refer the reasons to its origin and the results to the creators while the necessity calls to conduct this study. 13. It is called the period of expansion 1744-1818 A.H. 14. It is called the period of setback 1818-1902 A.H. 6 The regaining of the forefather’s land and reunification of the Peninsula seems like a myth or dream which Abdul Aziz15 began along with twenty persons and ended after owning Najd, Hejaz, Ahsa and Hail, a land which has the area of million square kilometers and the millions of people. His first effort started in 1318A.H/1901A.D. The Amir of Kuwait16 pushed him as the head of the army to invade Riyadh city. He sent another group to Qassim to create inconvenience for Ibn Rashid his opponent. The group seized Qassim. The Prince Abdul Aziz left Riyadh after he seized it in fear of Ibn Rashid. In 1319A.H/1902A.D he returned with forty persons to Riyadh and took over it and killed its chief and governor of Ibn Rashid17. The city declared it’s submissive and obedience to him. Then his authority extended to the southern regions taking advantage of the absence of Ibn Rashid in Iraq in seeking of Turkish help against Mubarak al-Saba18. His stay in Iraq lasted long because the Turks deferred, postponed and took long time to response him. When he returned, he went to Riyadh to regain it. Ibn Saud left it to move towards south. Ibn Rashid met him in Dalam19. Both the armies converged there and the fortune sided with the young man against his stubborn opponent. Ibn Rashid returned to Iraq and got help from Turks. He moved to Kuwait and Mubarak called Ibn Saud for help. He responded his call but sonly realized that it was a deception20 by Ibn Rashid who became able by this act to keep Abdul Aziz away in Kuwait and he himself moved towards Riyadh. This news reached to the young man. He moved to Qassim and seized the city one by one. He broke down on his big opponent and rushed to Qassim to save it. He left Riyadh after a long fight. In the year of 1324A.H/1906A.D Ibn Saud knew through his sources that his opponent was in Rauza Mehna21. He moved to it and both armies converged in the darkness and the fighting intensified. In the meantime Ibn Rashid was moving among his army riding his horse and inciting them to fight and fortitude. He could not know that he reached the region of his opponent while he was repeating his famous word The Saudis recognized his voice and showered him with the hail of .22”من ها ْن يا الفريخ“ bullets. He fell down reddened with blood. Abdul Aziz became free with his death from his strongest competitor in the heart of the Peninsula. 15. Abdul Aziz was born in Dhul al-Hijjah 1293A. H/December 1876 and died in 1373A.H/1953A.D 16. Abdul Aziz and his father Abdur Rahman were refuses in Kuwait at Mubrak al-Sabah 17. The name of the chief was Ajlan, he was killed by the hand of Abdullah bin Galloway, the cousin of Abdul Aziz 18. Mubarak Al-Sabah bin Jaber bin Abdullah bin Sabah was from Anza (1254-1354A.H/1838-1915A.D), the Emir of Kuwait, he grew up there. His word was the last word about his two brothers Mohammad and Jarrah. He killed them in 1313A.H/1895A.D. The issue became right for him after that. The ottomans had some control over Kuwait so they incited ibn Rashid against Mubarak and tried to exile him with deception. They sent one of the ships to carry him to become one of the members of the advisory council in Astana. He resorted to English and they declared their protection on Kuwait (Al-Aalam 6/150). 19. Dalam: one of the city of kharj and it is valley close to land of yemama for the tribe of Bani Qais bin Thalaba bin Akaya bin Bikr bin Wail, by the road to Mecca from Basra. This is the good valley in yemama. Its famous cities are Dalam which was the capital city, Najan, Saleema, Yemama, Munsif, Munisaf, Zaiah, Bade, and Farzan, after the establishing of agricultural plant of Kharj in 1360H/1940A.D, became the base till now (yaqoot 3/416, Hafiz Wahba, page: 52) 20. Tarikh Najd by Ameen Raihani, page:134 21. This was a place in Qassim region the homeland of Al-Mehna 22. That means from here o, Farikh, it was the name of a soldier who was carrying their flag in wars. 7 After Abdul Aziz killed Ibn Rashid, this Rashid’s family received the same kind of dispersion and fragmentation what the Saudi family had received after the death of Faisal bin Turkey. Mataab took over the charge of the authority after his father’s death of Saleh bin Saud. He agreed with him to waive the rule of Qassim and the rest of Najd while he would keep the Hail, its neighboring regions and whole Chammr23. The rule of Mataab did not last long. He was assassinated by Sultan bin Hamoud of Al-Rashid and took over the rule of Hail. The brother of Sultan named Saud attacked on his brother, killed him, took over the authority and compromised with Ibn Saud. It was in the year of 1326A.H/1908A.D. But Saud was killed after a year and a few months by his cousin Abdullah Bin Talal and again Abdullah killed and rule came to Abdullah bin Mataab. During this period the relation between Al-Rashid and Ibn Saud was tilting between reconciliation and strife, war and peace. It remained so until Ibn Saud completely eliminated them in 1340A.H/1921A.D24. Ibn Saud faced several unrests but he settled down these all. In 1327A.H/1909A.D Hazzazna25 revolted in Hariq26. In the following year his cousins Saud Faisal revolted in Kharj, but he defeated them. In 1330A.H/1913A.D Prince Abdul Aziz saw the Turkish state cracking and collapsing, he also saw the ambitions were surrounding it from every corner. He taken the opportunity of its exit from Balkan27 war losing all strength, pounced on Ahsa province and freed it from Turkish influence and it carried out to Arabian Gulf. His relations with British Government28 started. In 1331A.H./1914A.D. when the World War first started the situation of the Arab countries was in the following shape. The Prince Abdul Aziz al-Saud the ruler of Najd and Ahsa. The Ottomans and the Ashraf were ruling Hejaz. Al-Rashid was ruling Hail and Chammr Mountain, and allied with Turks. Idrisids and Ottomans were ruling Aseer. Al-Hamiduddin was on the charge on Yemen authority which was in conflict with the Ottomans.