Arabia Unified: A Portrait Of Ibn Saud
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
Few figures in modern history rival the sheer audacity of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, the desert warrior-king who, armed with little more than tribal loyalty and iron will, forged a fractured peninsula into a unified nation. Arabia Unified: A Portrait of Ibn Saud chronicles the remarkable life of the founder of Saudi Arabia through the eyes of Mohammed Almana, a man who served the king directly and witnessed the grand sweep of his conquests firsthand. Drawing on personal recollection and historical record, the narrative traces Ibn Saud's rise from a dispossessed exile in Kuwait to the undisputed ruler of the Arabian Peninsula, detailing the military campaigns, diplomatic manoeuvres, and force of personality that made unification possible. What elevates this account above a standard political biography is its intimacy — Almana presents Ibn Saud not merely as a historical colossus but as a man of profound contradictions: a devout Wahhabi enforcer who nonetheless forged alliances with Western powers, and a tribal patriarch navigating the seismic collision of ancient custom and modern statecraft. Written with the authority of a genuine insider, the work illuminates the human machinery behind the birth of a kingdom that would go on to reshape the global order. For anyone seeking to understand the foundations of the modern Middle East, this portrait raises the question that still haunts the region: what happens to a nation built entirely on the vision of one extraordinary man?
Author: Mohammed Almana
Format: Paperback
Published: 1980, Hutchinson Benham
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
Few figures in modern history rival the sheer audacity of Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, the desert warrior-king who, armed with little more than tribal loyalty and iron will, forged a fractured peninsula into a unified nation. Arabia Unified: A Portrait of Ibn Saud chronicles the remarkable life of the founder of Saudi Arabia through the eyes of Mohammed Almana, a man who served the king directly and witnessed the grand sweep of his conquests firsthand. Drawing on personal recollection and historical record, the narrative traces Ibn Saud's rise from a dispossessed exile in Kuwait to the undisputed ruler of the Arabian Peninsula, detailing the military campaigns, diplomatic manoeuvres, and force of personality that made unification possible. What elevates this account above a standard political biography is its intimacy — Almana presents Ibn Saud not merely as a historical colossus but as a man of profound contradictions: a devout Wahhabi enforcer who nonetheless forged alliances with Western powers, and a tribal patriarch navigating the seismic collision of ancient custom and modern statecraft. Written with the authority of a genuine insider, the work illuminates the human machinery behind the birth of a kingdom that would go on to reshape the global order. For anyone seeking to understand the foundations of the modern Middle East, this portrait raises the question that still haunts the region: what happens to a nation built entirely on the vision of one extraordinary man?