Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

Biography

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was born in Riyadh, officially in 1924, a son of King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud) and of a mother from the rival Al Rashid dynasty. His first public office was as mayor of Mecca in 1961, and in 1963 he became commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, which he turned into a modern force and kept under his control for almost five decades.

King Khalid made him second deputy prime minister in 1975, and when Fahd became king in 1982 Abdullah was named crown prince. After Fahd's stroke in 1995 he became the country's de facto ruler. As crown prince he launched the Arab Peace Initiative, adopted by the Arab League at its Beirut summit in 2002, which offered normal relations with Israel in exchange for withdrawal from the occupied territories.

He succeeded Fahd as king and prime minister in August 2005. His reign saw large spending on education and infrastructure, the founding of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, interfaith initiatives including a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, and a council to regulate the royal succession. He kept close ties with the United States and Britain, answered the Arab Spring with a large domestic spending package, and sent troops to Bahrain in 2011. He died in January 2015 and was succeeded by his half-brother Salman.