Editing History of Saudi Arabia (section)

==Ottoman era==
{{Main|Ottoman era in the history of Saudi Arabia}}
[[File:The First Saudi State Greatest Extent.png|thumb|The [[first Saudi state]] 1727–1818]]

Beginning with [[Selim I]]'s acquisition of Medina and Mecca in 1517, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]], in the 16th century, added to their empire the Hejaz and [[Asir]] regions along the [[Red Sea]] and the [[Al-Ahsa Oasis|al-Hasa]] region on the [[Persian Gulf]] coast, these being the most populous parts of what was to become Saudi Arabia. They also laid claim to the interior, although this remained a rather nominal suzerainty. The degree of control over these lands varied over the next four centuries, with the fluctuating strength or weakness of the empire's central authority. In the Hejaz, the [[Sharif of Mecca|Sharifs of Mecca]] were largely left in control of their territory (although there would often be an [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] governor and garrison in Mecca). On the eastern side of the country, the Ottomans lost control of the al-Hasa region to Arab tribes in the 17th century but regained it again in the 19th century. Throughout the period, the interior remained under the rule of a large number of petty tribal rulers in much the same way as it had in previous centuries.<ref name="Amazon.com">{{cite book |last1=Goodwin |first1=Jason |title=Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire |date=2003 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0312420666 }}{{page needed|date=July 2020}}</ref>

===Rise of Wahhabism and the First Saudi State===
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = vertical
| header    = Arabia in the 19th century
| image1    = Second Saudi State Big.png
| alt1      = Second Saudi State
| caption1  = The [[Emirate of Nejd|second Saudi state]] 1824–1891, at its greatest extent.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
| image2    = Alrasheed hail english.png
| alt2      = Second Saudi State
| caption2  = The [[Rashidi dynasty|Rashidi]] realm 1830–1921, at its greatest extent
}}
{{See also|Emirate of Diriyah|Wahhabi movement}}

The emergence of the Saudi dynasty began in central Arabia in 1727. In 1744, [[Muhammad ibn Saud]], the tribal ruler of the town of [[Diriyah|Ad-Dir'iyyah]] near [[Riyadh]], joined forces with the religious leader [[Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab]],<ref>[http://www.ibnsaud.info/main/9451.htm King Abdul Aziz Information Resource – First Ruler of the House of Saud] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414114812/http://www.ibnsaud.info/main/9451.htm |date=14 April 2011 }} retrieved 20 January 2011</ref> the founder of the [[Wahhabi movement]].<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica: Wahhabi">[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/634039/Wahhabi 'Wahhabi', Encyclopædia Britannica Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430071335/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/634039/Wahhabi |date=30 April 2015 }} retrieved 20 January 2011</ref> This alliance, formed in the 18th century, provided the ideological impetus to Saudi expansion and remains the basis of Saudi Arabian dynastic rule today. Over the next 150 years, the fortunes of the [[House of Saud|Saud family]] rose and fell several times as Saudi rulers contended with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and other Arabian families for control of the peninsula.<ref name="Saudi Embassy US Website" /><ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Online: History of Arabia" />

[[File:Ibrahim_Pasha,_Larivière.jpg|alt=Ibrahim_Pasha,_Larivière|thumb|242x242px|[[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]] (1789–1848)]]

The [[Emirate of Diriyah|First Saudi State]] was established in 1727 in the area around Riyadh and briefly controlled most of the present-day territory of Saudi Arabia through conquests made between 1806 and 1815; these included Mecca (captured in 1806)<ref name="shaf">{{cite thesis |author=Shazia Farhat |title=Exploring the Perspectives of the Saudi State's Destruction of Holy Sites: Justifications and Motivations |year=2018 |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42004034 |location=Harvard Extension School |degree=Master of Liberal Arts}}</ref> and Medina (captured in April 1804).<ref>{{cite thesis |author=Jerald L. Thompson |title=H. St. John Philby, Ibn Saud and Palestine |location=University of Kansas |degree=MA |date=December 1981 |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA111290 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324065359/https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA111290 |url-status=live |archive-date=24 March 2022}}</ref><ref>[http://countrystudies.us/saudi-arabia/7.htm The Saud Family and Wahhabi Islam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316131703/http://countrystudies.us/saudi-arabia/7.htm |date=16 March 2017 }}. [[Library of Congress Country Studies]].</ref>
Concerned at the growing power of the Saudis, the Ottoman Sultan [[Mustafa IV]] instructed his [[viceroy]] in Egypt, [[Mohammed Ali Pasha]], to reconquer the area. Ali sent his sons [[Tusun Pasha]] and [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]], who were eventually successful in [[Ottoman–Saudi War|routing the Saudi forces in 1818]], and destroyed the power of the [[House of Saud|Al Saud]].<ref name="Saudi Embassy US Website" /><ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Online: History of Arabia" />

===Return to Ottoman domination===
{{See also|Emirate of Nejd|Emirate of Jabal Shammar}}

The Al Saud returned to power in 1824, but their area of control was mainly restricted to the Saudi heartland of the [[Najd]] region, known as the [[Second Saudi State]]. However, their rule in Najd was soon contested by new rivals, the [[Rashidis]] of [[Ha'il]]. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the Al Saud and the Al Rashid fought for control of the interior of what was to become Saudi Arabia. By 1891, the Al Saud were conclusively defeated by the Al Rashid, who drove the Saudis into exile in [[Kuwait]].<ref name="Saudi Embassy US Website" /><ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Online: History of Arabia" /><ref name="Global Security">[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/abdulaziz.htm Global Security] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225160939/https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/abdulaziz.htm |date=25 December 2018 }} Retrieved 19 January 2011</ref>

Meanwhile, in the Hejaz, following the defeat of the First Saudi State, the Egyptians continued to occupy the area until 1840. After they left, the Sharifs of Mecca reasserted their authority, albeit with the presence of an Ottoman governor and garrison.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Online: History of Arabia" />

====Arab Revolt====
{{Main|Arab Revolt}}

By the early 20th century, the [[Ottoman Empire]] continued to control or have suzerainty (albeit nominal) over most of the peninsula. Subject to this suzerainty, Arabia was ruled by a patchwork of tribal rulers (including the Al Saud who had returned from exile in 1902—[[#Unification|see below]]) with the Sharif of Mecca having preeminence and ruling the Hejaz.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Online: History of Arabia" /><ref name="Amazon.com" /><ref>David Murphy, The Arab Revolt 1916–18: Lawrence Sets Arabia Ablaze, Osprey Publishing, 2008,</ref>

In 1916, with the encouragement and support of Britain and France<ref>Murphy, David ''The Arab Revolt 1916–1918'', London: Osprey, 2008 p. 18</ref> (which were fighting the Ottomans in the [[World War I|First World War]]), the sharif of Mecca, [[Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca|Hussein bin Ali]], led a pan-Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, with the aim of securing Arab independence and creating a single unified [[Arab]] state spanning the Arab territories from [[Aleppo]] in [[Syria]] to [[Aden]] in [[Yemen]]. 

[[File:030Arab.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Soldiers in the Arab Army during the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918, carrying the [[Flag of the Arab Revolt]] and pictured in the Arabian Desert.]]

The Arab army comprised [[bedouin]] and others from across the peninsula, but not the Al Saud and their allied tribes, who did not participate in the revolt partly because of a long-standing rivalry with the [[Sharifs of Mecca]] and partly because their priority was to defeat the Al Rashid for control of the interior. Nevertheless, the revolt played a part in the [[Middle Eastern theatre of World War I|Middle-Eastern Front]] and tied down thousands of Ottoman troops, thereby contributing to the Ottomans' World War I defeat in 1918.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Online: History of Arabia" /><ref name="ReferenceA">David Murphy, The Arab Revolt 1916–18: Lawrence Sets Arabia Ablaze, Osprey Publishing, 2008</ref>

However, with the subsequent [[partitioning of the Ottoman Empire]], the British and French [[Sykes–Picot Agreement|reneged on promises to Hussein]] to support a pan-Arab state. Although Hussein was acknowledged as King of the Hejaz, Britain later shifted support to the Al Saud, leaving him diplomatically and militarily isolated. The revolt, therefore, failed in its objective to create a pan-Arab state, but Arabia was freed from Ottoman suzerainty and control.<ref name="ReferenceA" />