Fahd bin Abdulaziz was born on March 16, 1921, in Riyadh. He was the eighth son of Ibn Saud. His mother was Hassa Al Sudairi and he was the eldest member of the Sudairi Seven. At the age of eleven, in 1932, Fahd watched as his father officially founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by signing the Treaty of Jedda.
Fahd's education took place at the Princes' School in Riyadh, a school established by Ibn Saud specifically for the education of members of the House of Saud. He received education for four years as a result of his mother's urging. While at the Princes' School, Fahd studied under tutors including Sheikh Abdul-Ghani Khayat. He then went on to receive education at the Religious Knowledge Institute in Mecca, where he studied Wahhabi Islam.
As a young man, the king's son acquired a reputation as somewhat of a rake on the international social circuit. He was known to drink alcohol—in violation of his conservative Wahhabi Muslim upbringing—and reportedly gambled freely with his generous allowance in the casinos of Monte Carlo. In an attempt to ready his son for future political roles, King Saud sent Fahd to San Francisco in 1945 for the founding convention of the United Nations, and the visit marked a turning point for Fahd.
Back in Saudi Arabia, Fahd honed his competence in political matters as regional governor of Jauf and of Um Laj. In his early thirties by then, Fahd was reportedly warned by his brother Faisal, then Crown Prince, to curb his hedonistic streak, or the family would consider him to be an unsuitable candidate for the throne. When his father died in 1953, Faisal ascended to the throne, and a decidedly subdued Fahd was appointed Saudi Arabia's first minister of education. The country's educational system was virtually nonexistent at the time, but revenues from Saudi Arabia's rich oil reserves helped fund the construction and staffing of hundreds of secondary schools and numerous universities under Fahd's direction.
Fahd became Saudi Arabia's minister of the interior in 1962. Five years later he was also made second deputy prime minister, enabling him to preside over cabinet meetings. As a member of the Council of Ministers during Faisal's reign, Fahd served as chairman of ministerial councils and committees for national security, educational policy, universities, petroleum and minerals, youth welfare, and pilgrimage affairs. These duties gave him broad exposure to vital issues in the development of Saudi society.
In 1975 King Faisal was assassinated and another brother, Khalid, came to the throne. Fahd then became first deputy prime minister and next in the line of succession. The new Crown Prince took an active role in the kingdom's second five-year development plan (1975-1980), and with it the Saudi government's effort to achieve orderly economic progress and careful financial planning for its oil revenue during an extraordinary period of booming development. With the king, Fahd actively worked for the formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional organization founded in 1981 to help coordinate and unify Saudi economic, industrial, and defense policies with those of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Yet it was also known during this era that Khalid suffered from heart trouble and delegated much of his job to Fahd.
Over a period of years, Fahd developed his experience as a spokesperson abroad by leading Saudi delegations to Arab League meetings in Casablanca (1959) and Lebanon (1960) and to Arab summit conferences in Cairo (1965). He represented Saudi Arabia on official trips to France (1967), Britain (1970), Egypt (1974), Spain (1977), and the United States (1974, 1977, and 1985). He headed the Saudi delegation to the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) summit conference in Algiers in 1975 and to the North-South Conference at Cancun, Mexico, in 1981. He was especially active in developing the foreign policy objectives of Saudi Arabia, often working behind the scenes in a mediating role. In 1976 Fahd was instrumental in devising an Arab League peacekeeping force to assist in Lebanon while avoiding direct intervention in the civil war there.
After the Camp David Accords of 1978, which isolated Egypt from the rest of the Arab world, Fahd worked toward an alternative framework that would permit broader participation by Arab nations. His Eight Point Peace Plan of August 1981 was adopted by the Arab summit conference in Fez, Morocco, as the basis for the "Fez Declaration. " This plan summarized a consensus of Arab views and proposals concerning political tensions in the Middle East based on a belief that recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people was an essential factor in working toward a comprehensive peace in the area. The Eight Point Peace Plan suggested that mainstream Palestinian representatives participate in negotiations and called for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.
Another of Fahd's achievements was his savvy financial management of the state treasury—he had always insisted that when a new public-works project was approved (the country constructed much of the housing its citizens enjoy for a negligible amount, for instance), he insisted that the funds be set aside, rather than allowed to earn interest. At one point during the 1970s, the country's revenues topped $100 billion annually, but a drop in crude oil prices lessened that to $20 billion in the space of a few years; yet there were relatively few financial repercussions for the Saudi economy.
On June 13, 1982 Fahd acceded to the throne. He took over a nation of sixteen million—roughly 25 percent of that foreign workers, who must also abide by the strict Wahhabi Islamic tenets that are the law of the land. Part of Fahd's new official title was "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, " referring to the venerable mosques in the cities of Medina and Mecca that are the Islamic world's most important sites of worship. As king, Fahd also assumed the presidency of Saudi Aramco, a state-owned firm that controls the country's oil reserves—estimated to be one-quarter of the planet's stores. The new ruler was also one of the world's richest citizens: prior to 1980, Fahd had received a percentage of every barrel of oil drawn in Saudi Arabia. A decade later, his fortune was estimated at $18 billion.
Fahd continued his active role in Arab politics during the 1980s. He attempted to mediate a devastating war between Iran and Iraq that dragged on through the decade, and thorough his involvement in the Tripartite Committee on Lebanon, formed by the League of Arab States, helped bring about an end to that country's civil war. Fahd also continued to conduct friendly relations with a succession of American presidential administrations, and each of his sons were educated at American colleges. That cordiality proceeded in a new direction in 1990, when Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein refused to obey United Nations Security Council directives to withdraw his forces. In response, Fahd allowed U. S. troops to gather on Saudi soil, and after negotiations failed in January of 1991 the Persian Gulf War began from the northern sector of Saudi Arabia.
Fahd's lifetime witnessed the transformation of Saudi Arabia from a collection of Bedouin desert tribes to a modern, high-tech world economic leader that offered its citizens low-cost housing, free health care, and fully subsidized university degrees. Yet the country, and its autocratic ruling family, were sometimes criticized for interference in delicate Middle East politics and human-rights violations at home. In an attempt to deflect criticism, Fahd decreed a new constitution in 1992, and the following year the nation's first national council was seated; its appointed members reviewed, but could not veto, government directives. Fahd also tried to demonstrate goodwill through massive humanitarian aid to certain causes; he founded the Supreme Commission for the Collection of Donations for Bosnian Muslims in 1992 to provide aid to Muslim victims of the war in the former Yugoslavia.
By the early 1990s there were reports that the aging Fahd was in poor health. King Fahd was a heavy smoker, overweight for much of his adult life, and in his sixties began to suffer from arthritis and severe diabetes. He suffered a debilitating stroke on November 29, 1995, and became noticeably frail, and decided to delegate the running of the Kingdom to his brother Abdullah on January 2, 1996. On February 21, King Fahd resumed official duties.
After his stroke King Fahd was partly inactive and had to use a cane and then a wheelchair, though he still attended meetings and received selected visitors. In November 2003, according to government media, King Fahd was quoted as saying to "strike with an iron fist" at terrorists after deadly bombings in Saudi Arabia, although he could hardly utter a word because of his deteriorating health. However, it was Crown Prince Abdullah who took official trips; when King Fahd traveled it was for vacations, and he was sometimes absent from Saudi Arabia for months at a time. When his oldest son and International Olympic Committee member Prince Faisal bin Fahd died in 1999, the King was in Spain and did not return for the funeral.
In a speech to an Islamic conference on August 30, 2003, King Fahd condemned terrorism and exhorted Muslim clerics to emphasize peace, security, cooperation, justice, and tolerance in their sermons.
On May 27, 2005, King Fahd was admitted to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh for unspecified medical tests. The king had died at 07:30 on August 1, 2005, at the age of 84. Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was buried in Riyadh's Al Oud cemetery.
King Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud was a prominent politician, who succeeded his brothers Saud, Faisal, and Khalid in guiding a traditional Islamic society through the as tonishing economic and social development made possible by his country's vast petroleum resources.
In 1982 King Fahd received the Order of the Defender of the Realm. In 1984, King Fahd received the Faisal Prize for Service to Islam awarded by the King Faisal Foundation. On March 7, 2005, he received the highest order of Azerbaijan, Istiglal Order. Also King Fahd received the Royal Victorian Chain.
He was a member of the Council of Ministers.
King Fahd was married at least four times, he had six sons and four daughters.
Abdulaziz ibn Abdul Rahman ibn Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al Saud was the first monarch and founder of Saudi Arabia, the "third Saudi state".
Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi was one of King Abdulaziz many spouses and cousins and the mother of King Fahd and King Salman, monarchs of Saudi Arabia.
Jawahir bint Abdulaziz was a member of the House of Saud.
Al Jawhara bint Abdulaziz Al Saud is a member of the House of Saud.
Luluwah bint Abdulaziz Al Saud was a member of the House of Saud.
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Sultan bin Fahd Al saud is the former president of youth welfare and a member of House of Saud.
Faisal bin Fahd was the president of Youth Welfare in Saudi Arabia from 1975 to 1999 and a member of House of Saud.
Abdul Aziz bin Fahd is a Saudi prince and member of the royal House of Saud.
Mohammad bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is a prominent figure of the second generation of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family.
Saud bin Fahd Al Saud is a Saudi Arabian businessman and the former vice president of general intelligence directorate.
Robert Lacey is a British historian and biographer.
Turki (II) bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was a member of the House of Saud.
Ahmed bin Abdulaziz is a member of House of Saud who served as deputy minister of interior of Saudi Arabia from 1975 to 2012 and briefly as minister of interior in 2012.
Abdul-Rahman bin Abdulaziz was a senior member of the House of Saud and Saudi Arabian deputy minister of defense and aviation.
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is King of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and head of the House of Saud.
Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as well as first deputy prime minister from 2011 to 2012.
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 2005 to 2011.
