The role of religion, the Ikhwan and Ibn Saud in the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Over the course of a single lifetime Saudi Arabia went from being a minor kingdom in Arabia to one of the largest geopolitical actors on the globe. But how did this happen? What made it happen so quickly? What are the repercussions of such a fast rise to prominence? This thesis argues that the success of Saudi Arabia was largely due to Ibn Saud’s ability to rally the Ikhwan, a group of religiously motivated warriors, as his personal army in the early days of his reign. By using these warriors, Ibn Saud also inadvertently created the largest threat that Saudi Arabia faces today: militarized Wahhabism. This paper looks at the life of Ibn Saud, the rise of the Ikhwan, and details how the Ikhwan eventually turned against their creator. Finally this paper explores how the Ikhwan continued to exist after their failed rebellion against the Saudi Kingdom and how that defeat led to the Siege of the Great Mosque of Mecca in 1979.