WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.740 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:02.740 --> 00:00:05.440 a file that feels less like a geopolitical history 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.359 and more like a, well, a high -stakes Shakespearean 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:11.519 tragedy. It really has all the elements, doesn't 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:13.599 it? Oh, absolutely. It's got everything you'd 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:17.379 expect from a prestige drama. A spare heir who 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:20.300 wasn't supposed to rule. A bitter brotherly feud 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:22.899 that almost caused a civil war. A modernization 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:25.719 drive that dragged a society kicking and screaming 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:28.399 into the 20th century. And an assassination that, 00:00:28.500 --> 00:00:30.960 in hindsight, feels disturbingly inevitable. 00:00:31.260 --> 00:00:33.399 It really is one of the most dramatic arcs in 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:35.280 modern history. We are talking about a figure 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:38.359 who quite literally stopped the industrialized 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:41.659 world in its tracks and forced the global superpowers 00:00:41.659 --> 00:00:43.600 to blink. We're talking about King Faisal of 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:45.719 Saudi Arabia. To understand the sheer magnitude 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:47.880 of this man's life, I want to start with a single 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:50.240 moment that I guarantee listeners or certainly 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:53.460 their parents remember vividly. We have to start 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:57.939 in October 1973. The oil crisis. Yeah. The moment 00:00:57.939 --> 00:01:00.420 the world changed. Right. If you were driving 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:03.100 a car in the U .S., the U .K., Canada or Japan 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:05.939 during that time, your life suddenly ground to 00:01:05.939 --> 00:01:07.760 a halt. I mean, we're not just talking about 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:09.959 higher prices. No, no, this is different. We're 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:11.780 talking about gas lines stretching for blocks, 00:01:11.980 --> 00:01:14.180 people abandoning their cars on the side of the 00:01:14.180 --> 00:01:16.359 highway because they ran dry waiting in line. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:19.319 Panic at the pumps. Exactly. Panic at the pumps. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:22.239 Even daylight savings time was extended in the 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.299 U .S. just to save electricity. It was a complete 00:01:25.299 --> 00:01:27.819 societal shock. It was a complete psychological 00:01:27.819 --> 00:01:31.180 shock. You have to remember, prior to October 00:01:31.180 --> 00:01:34.739 1973, the West operated on the assumption of 00:01:34.739 --> 00:01:37.140 cheap, infinite energy. Of course. It was the 00:01:37.140 --> 00:01:39.620 foundation of the entire post -war economic boom. 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:43.060 Then, overnight, the price of oil jumps nearly 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:47.140 300%. 300%. It went from $3 a barrel to nearly 00:01:47.140 --> 00:01:49.680 $12. Which, admittedly, sounds like a bargain 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:52.040 today. I mean, I wish they could pay $12 a barrel. 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.140 But in 1973 dollars, that was an economic heart 00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:58.030 attack. It was. And for the first time, you know, 00:01:58.049 --> 00:02:00.090 the West realized that its massive industrial 00:02:00.090 --> 00:02:03.590 engine ran on fuel controlled by people who might 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:05.689 not always agree with them. And this wasn't an 00:02:05.689 --> 00:02:07.849 accident, right? It wasn't a hurricane or a supply 00:02:07.849 --> 00:02:10.349 chain glitch. No, this was a calculated political 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:13.889 weapon wielded by one man, King Faisal. He targeted 00:02:13.889 --> 00:02:16.189 the industrialized world specifically because 00:02:16.189 --> 00:02:18.050 of their support for Israel in the Yom Kippur 00:02:18.050 --> 00:02:20.629 War. And the result wasn't just economic pain. 00:02:20.689 --> 00:02:23.370 It was a total tectonic shift in global power. 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:27.159 Time magazine named him Man of the Year in 1974. 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:30.759 He effectively forced the world to acknowledge 00:02:30.759 --> 00:02:34.439 Saudi Arabia not just as a, you know, a gas station, 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.560 but as a superpower. He did. But here is the 00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:40.039 mission for today's deep dive. If you only know 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:42.500 Faisal for the oil embargo, you are missing 90 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:45.280 % of the story. Oh, easily. The man himself was 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:47.740 a massive contradiction. He was a modernization 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:50.620 reformist who introduced television and world's 00:02:50.620 --> 00:02:53.620 education to a deeply, deeply conservative society. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:55.580 But at the same time, he was this incredibly 00:02:55.580 --> 00:02:58.780 pious, ascetic figure who was militantly anti 00:02:58.780 --> 00:03:01.060 -communist and anti -Zionist. A total paradox. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:04.780 And our goal today is to unpack how this spare 00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:07.639 air The third son, never really meant to be King 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:10.340 Rose to power through a family coup, modernized 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:13.479 his country against, well, violent internal resistance, 00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:17.360 and then was killed in a way that is, the irony 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:20.240 of his death is just haunting. It really is. 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:23.159 We have a massive stack of sources today. Historical 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:25.560 records, biographical details, military accounts. 00:03:26.789 --> 00:03:29.129 Let's go back to the beginning. Where does the 00:03:29.129 --> 00:03:31.689 story of Faisal actually start? It starts in 00:03:31.689 --> 00:03:34.689 Riyadh, 1906. Now, you have to picture Riyadh 00:03:34.689 --> 00:03:37.530 in 1906. This isn't the city of glass skyscrapers 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:39.590 we see today. Not even close. Right, this is 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:41.250 the middle of the desert. It was a mud brick 00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:43.849 fortress town, completely isolated from the outside 00:03:43.849 --> 00:03:46.949 world. Faisal was the third son of King Abdulaziz, 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:49.250 the legendary founder of modern Saudi Arabia. 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:51.889 But right from birth, there is a detail that 00:03:51.889 --> 00:03:54.349 sets Faisal apart from his brothers. Okay, what 00:03:54.349 --> 00:03:57.039 was that? It's his mother, Tarfa. She wasn't 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:58.759 just from any prominent tribe. She was from the 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:00.840 Al -Ashshaykh family. Okay, so for those of us 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:02.960 who aren't experts in Saudi genealogy, let's 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:05.539 unpack that. Why is the Al -Ashshaykh family 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:08.699 so significant? It's absolutely crucial. The 00:04:08.699 --> 00:04:12.020 al -Ash 'aq are the direct descendants of Mohammed 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:14.960 bin Abdul Wahab. The founder of the strict interpretation 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.779 of Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia. Exactly. The 00:04:17.779 --> 00:04:20.180 entire Saudi state is built on this pact, right? 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:23.259 It dates back to the 1700s between the political 00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:26.079 leadership, the al -Saud, and the religious leadership, 00:04:26.259 --> 00:04:29.339 the al -Ash 'aq. So by having a mother from the 00:04:29.339 --> 00:04:31.600 religious nobility and a father from the political 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.360 royalty, Faisal is... He's physically the bridge 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.759 between these two pillars of power. Precisely. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:40.120 And this wasn't just symbolic. His mother died 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.439 when he was just a baby, so he was actually raised 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:45.040 by his maternal grandparents. He grew up in a 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.899 very strict, intensely religious household. I 00:04:47.899 --> 00:04:50.180 read he had memorized the entire Quran by age 00:04:50.180 --> 00:04:52.939 nine. Age nine. And he was studying Sharia law. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:55.860 This background explains so much about his later 00:04:55.860 --> 00:04:58.019 life. Right, because when he eventually pushed 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:00.720 for controversial reforms like TV or girls' education, 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:03.889 he had this built -in armor. The religious scholars, 00:05:04.189 --> 00:05:06.110 the Ulema, they couldn't just dismiss him as 00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:09.389 some westernized secularist. They couldn't. They 00:05:09.389 --> 00:05:11.649 knew he was one of them. That credibility was 00:05:11.649 --> 00:05:15.110 his single most valuable political asset. He 00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:17.069 spoke their language probably better than they 00:05:17.069 --> 00:05:19.110 did. But he wasn't just a religious scholar. 00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:22.350 King Abdulaziz saw something sharp in him very 00:05:22.350 --> 00:05:25.350 early on. He did. There's this incredible story 00:05:25.350 --> 00:05:29.579 from 1919. Faisal is just 13 years old. 13. I 00:05:29.579 --> 00:05:32.379 mean, at 13, I think I was struggling to organize 00:05:32.379 --> 00:05:34.699 a group project in middle school. Well, at 13, 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:37.360 Faisal is sent on a high stakes diplomatic mission 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:40.620 to London. He becomes the first ever Saudi royal 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:43.459 to visit England. Why on earth would you send 00:05:43.459 --> 00:05:46.639 a 13 year old to negotiate with the British Empire? 00:05:46.939 --> 00:05:49.560 That seems like a massive gamble. It was tragic 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:51.899 circumstances, actually. His older brother, Turkey, 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:54.660 was supposed to go. He was the heir apparent's 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:57.240 brother and a real rising star, but he died during 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.500 the Spanish flu pandemic that swept the world. 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:02.319 Wow. So Abdulaziz looks at his sons and picks 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:05.259 Faisal, the spare. Imagine the culture shock. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.560 He's coming from the deserts of Nedj, which, 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.620 as he said, was completely isolated, no electricity, 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:12.759 no cars to speak of, and he lands in post -World 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:15.870 War I London. It had to be jarring. There are 00:06:15.870 --> 00:06:18.290 photos of this tour. You see this young teenager 00:06:18.290 --> 00:06:21.050 looking so serious and dignified in his traditional 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:24.910 robes, headdress, and dagger, surrounded by all 00:06:24.910 --> 00:06:27.350 these European dignitaries in top hats and tails. 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:30.310 Who did he even meet? He met Lord Curzon, the 00:06:30.310 --> 00:06:32.649 foreign secretary. He went to the House of Lords. 00:06:32.810 --> 00:06:36.089 Then he went on to France and toured the battlefields 00:06:36.089 --> 00:06:38.670 of World War I. That has to shape your worldview. 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:41.819 Seeing the sheer industrial scale of the West, 00:06:41.899 --> 00:06:44.899 the weaponry, the organization, but also the 00:06:44.899 --> 00:06:47.259 devastation. They absolutely did. He saw the 00:06:47.259 --> 00:06:49.920 power of modernization up close. But interestingly, 00:06:50.139 --> 00:06:53.060 he wasn't intimidated by it. He didn't come back 00:06:53.060 --> 00:06:55.459 wanting to be British. He came back wanting to 00:06:55.459 --> 00:06:57.899 make Saudi Arabia powerful enough to stand on 00:06:57.899 --> 00:07:00.720 its own. He realized that to survive, his country 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:03.060 needed the tools of the West, but to keep the 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:06.040 soul of the East. And his father clearly recognized 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:08.370 that potential. There's that famous quote King 00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:10.589 Abdulaziz used to say about him. I really wish 00:07:10.589 --> 00:07:12.870 I had three Faisals. That is some high praise. 00:07:13.569 --> 00:07:15.750 But also a bit of a dig at the other sons, isn't 00:07:15.750 --> 00:07:18.490 it? A little bit, yes. But Abdulaziz backed it 00:07:18.490 --> 00:07:21.290 up with real responsibility. He gave Faisal military 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:25.829 command very, very early. In 1922, Faisal led 00:07:25.829 --> 00:07:28.829 6 ,000 fighters to take control of the Azir region 00:07:28.829 --> 00:07:32.329 in the south. At 16 years old. 16. Later, he 00:07:32.329 --> 00:07:34.930 commanded the entire campaign in the Saudi -Yemeni 00:07:34.930 --> 00:07:37.750 War in 1934. So he's a diplomat and a general 00:07:37.750 --> 00:07:40.470 before he's even 30. And a viceroy. He was appointed 00:07:40.470 --> 00:07:43.769 viceroy of Hejaz in 1926, which is the western 00:07:43.769 --> 00:07:45.810 part of the country containing Mecca and Jeddah. 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:48.589 Then, and this is key, he became foreign minister 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:51.230 in 1930. And he basically held that job for the 00:07:51.230 --> 00:07:53.389 rest of his life. Virtually continuously, with 00:07:53.389 --> 00:07:55.689 only one brief break. For decades, he was the 00:07:55.689 --> 00:07:58.269 face of Saudi Arabia to the world. He met FDR 00:07:58.269 --> 00:08:01.519 on the USS... Quincy in 1943. He helped found 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:04.399 the UN in San Francisco in 45. But despite that 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:07.199 incredible resume general, diplomat, viceroy, 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:09.560 foreign minister, when his father died in 1953, 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:12.879 Faisal didn't become king. No. The succession 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:15.420 laws or traditions really favored the eldest 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:17.959 son. So his older half -brother Saud became king. 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:20.300 Faisal became crown prince and prime minister. 00:08:20.579 --> 00:08:23.300 And this sets the stage for what I think is the 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:25.620 most tense period in Saudi domestic history. 00:08:26.670 --> 00:08:29.629 The feud between King Saud and Crown Prince Faisal. 00:08:29.750 --> 00:08:31.829 This wasn't just a disagreement over dinner. 00:08:32.009 --> 00:08:34.210 No. This was a struggle for the soul of the country. 00:08:34.309 --> 00:08:36.450 It was existential. And you have to understand 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:39.330 the context of the 1950s in the Middle East. 00:08:39.490 --> 00:08:42.570 The region was on fire. Monarchy was going out 00:08:42.570 --> 00:08:45.169 of style. Very much so. You have Gamal Abdel 00:08:45.169 --> 00:08:47.710 Nasser in Egypt who had overthrown the king there. 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:50.889 And he was preaching this secular pan -Arabism. 00:08:50.909 --> 00:08:53.690 He was actively calling for the overthrow of 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:56.600 reactionary regimes like Saudi Arabia. So you 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:59.460 have this massive external threat. And how is 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:02.299 King Saud handling it? Poorly. To put it mildly, 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:05.100 Saud was seen as, well, let's say diplomatically 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:07.259 challenged compared to Faisal. But the bigger 00:09:07.259 --> 00:09:09.940 problem was his spending. It was out of control. 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.980 The famous palaces. Massive royal palaces, luxury 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:16.120 cars, just handing out cash to tribes to buy 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.559 their loyalty. All while the country was financially 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:21.299 unstable, bordering on bankruptcy. So the treasury 00:09:21.299 --> 00:09:23.779 is empty and there is a revolutionary wave next 00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:26.240 door just waiting to sweep them away. The family 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.559 must have been panicking. They were. By 1958, 00:09:28.860 --> 00:09:30.919 the pressure was too much. The senior princes 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:33.639 and the ulema stepped in. They essentially forced 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:36.480 King Saud to hand over all executive powers to 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:39.700 Faisal to save the economy. It was a soft coup. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.279 Here, Faisal, you fix the mess, but let your 00:09:42.279 --> 00:09:44.120 brother keep the crown and the title. Exactly. 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:47.139 And Faisal went to work. He slashed the budget. 00:09:47.259 --> 00:09:49.080 He stabilized the currency. He started getting 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:52.139 things in order. But Saud did not take this lying 00:09:52.139 --> 00:09:54.539 down. He resented being a figurehead. So he starts 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:56.919 pushing back. He starts rallying tribes, using 00:09:56.919 --> 00:09:59.620 his own money to build support. And in 1960, 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:02.360 Faisal actually resigned in protest because Saud 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:04.440 kept obstructing his reforms. He just walked 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:06.759 away. He did. He went to his retreat in Taif 00:10:06.759 --> 00:10:09.159 and said, fine, you run it. But of course, the 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:11.840 situation just got worse without him. By 1962, 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.340 the family was begging him to come back as prime 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:17.600 minister. And that leads us to 1964, the climax 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:19.929 of this feud. This part of the story, it really 00:10:19.929 --> 00:10:22.669 plays out like an action movie. It does. Faisal 00:10:22.669 --> 00:10:24.970 had had enough. He started consolidating power 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:28.250 for real this time. He removed Saud's loyalists 00:10:28.250 --> 00:10:31.409 from key military posts. And crucially, he put 00:10:31.409 --> 00:10:33.590 his half -brother, Prince Abdullah, who would 00:10:33.590 --> 00:10:35.990 later become king himself, in charge of the National 00:10:35.990 --> 00:10:39.289 Guard. And King Saud threatens to use his own 00:10:39.289 --> 00:10:42.389 force, the Royal Guard, to take power back. It 00:10:42.389 --> 00:10:45.860 was a standoff. A terrifying standoff. Faisal 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.440 ordered the National Guard to surround Saud's 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:51.580 palace. So you literally had two military forces 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:54.419 loyal to two different brothers facing off in 00:10:54.419 --> 00:10:56.740 the streets of Riyadh. It was moments away from 00:10:56.740 --> 00:10:59.460 a civil war. Absolutely. One wrong move and the 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:01.120 whole thing could have turned into a bloodbath. 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:04.320 So how do they stop it? What de -escalated the 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:06.740 situation? The religious scholars. The Grand 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:09.039 Mufti, remember, Faisal's cousin from the Al 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:12.059 -Ashshaykh family intervened. The Ulema got together 00:11:12.059 --> 00:11:14.100 and issued a fatwa. Or religious ruling. Yes, 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:16.779 declaring Saud unfit to rule due to his health 00:11:16.779 --> 00:11:19.120 and his ineptitude. And Faisal's reaction to 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:21.279 this is really interesting. The sources say he 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:24.120 was reluctant to take the throne. He was. He 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:26.440 had sworn an oath to his father to support Saud. 00:11:26.889 --> 00:11:29.210 He really struggled with the decision. But ultimately, 00:11:29.370 --> 00:11:32.149 the consensus of the family and the Ulema was 00:11:32.149 --> 00:11:34.269 that Saud had to go for the kingdom to survive. 00:11:34.850 --> 00:11:38.570 So in November 1964, Saud abdicated and went 00:11:38.570 --> 00:11:41.590 into exile. Basil became king. And his first 00:11:41.590 --> 00:11:44.909 speech really sets the tone for his entire reign. 00:11:45.029 --> 00:11:47.509 He said, I beg of you, brothers, to look upon 00:11:47.509 --> 00:11:50.830 me as both brother and servant. Majesty is reserved 00:11:50.830 --> 00:11:53.659 to God alone. That humility was genuine, but 00:11:53.659 --> 00:11:56.299 it was also incredibly savvy politics. He was 00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:58.379 signaling that he wasn't going to be the lavish, 00:11:58.379 --> 00:12:01.299 distant monarch his brother was. He was a servant 00:12:01.299 --> 00:12:03.639 of the state and of the faith. So Faisal is now 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:06.809 in charge. He's got the throne. and he immediately 00:12:06.809 --> 00:12:09.549 shifts gears into what I'd call hyper -modernization. 00:12:09.809 --> 00:12:11.830 He had actually laid the groundwork for this 00:12:11.830 --> 00:12:14.190 even before he became king. That's right. In 00:12:14.190 --> 00:12:16.769 1962, while he was essentially running the show 00:12:16.769 --> 00:12:18.470 as prime minister, he issued something called 00:12:18.470 --> 00:12:21.149 the Ten Point Program. It was a roadmap for building 00:12:21.149 --> 00:12:23.149 a modern state. And the biggest item on that 00:12:23.149 --> 00:12:25.789 list, which I think often gets overlooked, is 00:12:25.789 --> 00:12:29.539 the abolition of slavery. Wait, 1962? Slavery 00:12:29.539 --> 00:12:32.600 was legal in Saudi Arabia until 1962. It was. 00:12:32.659 --> 00:12:35.120 It was deeply entrenched in the social structure. 00:12:35.379 --> 00:12:38.120 Now, it wasn't the industrial chattel slavery 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:40.799 of the American South, but it was slavery. That 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:44.679 is startlingly recent. It is. But Faisal knew 00:12:44.679 --> 00:12:46.879 it had to end. There was external pressure. Sure, 00:12:47.019 --> 00:12:49.519 JFK and the U .S. were pushing for it, but Faisal 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:51.240 was the one who had to execute it domestically. 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:54.159 And he did it in a very pragmatic way. Right. 00:12:54.220 --> 00:12:55.840 He didn't just sign a piece of paper. He put 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:58.860 money behind it. Yes. The government paid compensation 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:02.659 for every enslaved person freed. About $2 ,000 00:13:02.659 --> 00:13:07.120 per person. Around 1 ,682 people were freed officially. 00:13:07.789 --> 00:13:09.990 It was a massive social shift, and he pushed 00:13:09.990 --> 00:13:12.850 it through despite very strong conservative resistance 00:13:12.850 --> 00:13:15.429 from the tribes who viewed owning slaves as a 00:13:15.429 --> 00:13:17.610 status symbol. And that was just the start. Once 00:13:17.610 --> 00:13:20.029 the oil revenue really started flowing, especially 00:13:20.029 --> 00:13:22.190 after he renegotiated the agreements with the 00:13:22.190 --> 00:13:24.769 Ramco to get a fairer share, he just poured that 00:13:24.769 --> 00:13:26.850 money into infrastructure. The five -year plan 00:13:26.850 --> 00:13:29.730 started in 1970. We're talking roads, ports, 00:13:30.029 --> 00:13:31.990 airports, but the most critical thing you can 00:13:31.990 --> 00:13:34.809 build in a desert. Water. Water. The Jizun Dam. 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:39.480 Completed in 1970. Exactly. Dams in Abha, Wadi 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:42.179 Hanifa. He established the agricultural bank 00:13:42.179 --> 00:13:45.259 to give interest -free loans to farmers. He understood 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:47.620 that food and water security were national security. 00:13:47.860 --> 00:13:51.220 It was foundational. But the reform that probably 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:54.399 caused the most friction, the most pushback, 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.960 was education. Specifically, women's education. 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:00.620 This is where we have to mention Queen Ifat. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.340 Yes, let's talk about her. She wasn't a typical 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:05.960 Saudi royal wife from a local tribe. No, not 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:08.519 at all. She was born and raised in Turkey. She 00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:11.000 was highly educated. Faisal met her in Istanbul 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.820 on a diplomatic visit. She was the driving force 00:14:13.820 --> 00:14:16.059 behind a lot of these social reforms. So it was 00:14:16.059 --> 00:14:18.940 a partnership. Very much so. Together, they started 00:14:18.940 --> 00:14:22.419 Dar al -Hanan in 1956, which was the first... 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:25.620 Proper girls' school. Then in 1960, they established 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:27.559 the General Presidency for Girls' Education. 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:29.840 I can only imagine this did not go over well 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:32.019 with the hardliners. It absolutely did not. There 00:14:32.019 --> 00:14:34.080 were protests. Fathers refused to send their 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.360 daughters. But here is where Faisal's unique 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:38.639 background, remember that religious upbringing 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.620 came in handy. He could debate them on their 00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:43.519 own terms. Exactly. He didn't say we're doing 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:45.700 this to be like the West. He said we are doing 00:14:45.700 --> 00:14:48.559 this because Islam requires all Muslims, men 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:51.360 and women, to seek knowledge. He used their own 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.120 logic to persuade them. It was a master class 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:56.679 in political maneuvering. But there was one innovation. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:59.159 that he couldn't just debate his way through. 00:14:59.259 --> 00:15:01.879 One piece of technology that became a flashpoint. 00:15:02.019 --> 00:15:06.440 Television. Television. Yes. In 1965, Faisal 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:09.580 introduced national TV broadcasts. The religious 00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:12.799 zealots were furious. They believed that images 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:15.679 of humans were forbidden, a form of idolatry. 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:18.649 And this leads to a specific... And very tragic 00:15:18.649 --> 00:15:21.129 incident that, in hindsight, is just haunting. 00:15:21.350 --> 00:15:24.230 It is. A group of protesters decided to attack 00:15:24.230 --> 00:15:26.789 the new TV station headquarters in Riyadh. And 00:15:26.789 --> 00:15:29.629 leading the attack was a prince, Prince Khalid 00:15:29.629 --> 00:15:32.169 bin Musaid. Faisal's own nephew. His nephew led 00:15:32.169 --> 00:15:34.629 the attack. And in the chaos, as they tried to 00:15:34.629 --> 00:15:37.009 storm the building, the police shot and killed 00:15:37.009 --> 00:15:39.470 Prince Khalid. Wow. So the king introduces TV, 00:15:39.690 --> 00:15:41.769 his nephew attacks the station, and the police 00:15:41.769 --> 00:15:44.590 kill the nephew. Faisal was reportedly devastated, 00:15:45.009 --> 00:15:47.269 but he stood by the decision to have the station. 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:50.090 He believed the country couldn't remain in the 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:53.149 dark ages, cut off from the world. But that death, 00:15:53.370 --> 00:15:57.070 that death. planted a seed of vengeance that 00:15:57.070 --> 00:15:59.730 would sit dormant for 10 years. And we'll definitely 00:15:59.730 --> 00:16:01.529 put a pin in that because that is going to come 00:16:01.529 --> 00:16:04.090 back in a big way. But first, we have to look 00:16:04.090 --> 00:16:06.470 at the global stage. We mentioned the oil embargo 00:16:06.470 --> 00:16:09.230 at the top, but Faisal's foreign policy was about 00:16:09.230 --> 00:16:11.509 so much more than just oil. It was an ideological 00:16:11.509 --> 00:16:15.649 war. In one corner, you had Nasser in Egypt promoting 00:16:15.649 --> 00:16:19.129 pan -Arabism, secular, socialist, leaning towards 00:16:19.129 --> 00:16:21.090 the Soviet Union. And in the other corner, you 00:16:21.090 --> 00:16:23.590 had Faisal promoting pan -Islamism. What was 00:16:23.590 --> 00:16:25.620 the core difference there? Pan -Arabism was about 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:28.200 uniting people based on Arab ethnicity and language. 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:30.620 Pan -Islamism was about uniting people based 00:16:30.620 --> 00:16:33.460 on a shared Islamic faith. Faisal founded institutions 00:16:33.460 --> 00:16:36.139 like the Muslim World League to push this idea 00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:38.700 and counter Nasser's influence. And Faisal was 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:42.200 strictly anti -communist. Militantly so. He refused 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:44.460 to have any diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union. 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:47.360 He saw communism as godless and fundamentally 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.720 incompatible with Islam. In his mind, he often 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:53.980 lumped communism and Zionism together as two 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:57.539 sides of the same coin foreign aggressive ideologies 00:16:57.539 --> 00:17:00.440 invading the region. This rivalry with Nasser 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.000 played out in a literal war, didn't it? The Yemen 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:05.759 Civil War. It was a classic proxy war. In the 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:08.440 1960s, a coup in Yemen overthrew the king there. 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:11.240 Egypt sent tens of thousands of troops to support 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:13.759 the new Republicans. Saudi Arabia sent money 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:15.619 and weapons to support the royalists who were 00:17:15.619 --> 00:17:17.880 fighting a guerrilla war in the mountains. It 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:20.799 dragged on for years. But then 1967 happens. 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:23.799 The Six -Day War. And everything changed. The 00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:25.980 Six -Day War changed everything. Israel defeated 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:29.059 the combined Arab armies, Egypt, Syria, Jordan 00:17:29.059 --> 00:17:31.900 in less than a week. Nasser was utterly humiliated. 00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:34.480 His military was destroyed. And the Egyptian 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.880 economy was in ruins. And this is where Faisal 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:39.099 makes a really surprising move. He doesn't gloat. 00:17:39.099 --> 00:17:41.559 He doesn't kick Nasser while he's down. Not at 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:44.259 all. He rescues him. At a summit in Khartoum 00:17:44.259 --> 00:17:47.799 after the war, Faisal pledged huge subsidies. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:51.140 I think it was around $154 million annually to 00:17:51.140 --> 00:17:53.599 Egypt to help them rebuild. That's a fortune 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:56.099 at the time. It was. And there's this famous 00:17:56.099 --> 00:17:59.000 moment where he and Nasser, these bitter rivals, 00:17:59.380 --> 00:18:01.660 embraced at the airport and called each other. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:05.039 brother. It's the keep your enemies closer strategy 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:08.200 or maybe just a pragmatic realization that a 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:10.960 collapsed Egypt was bad for everyone in the region. 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:14.200 It was pure pragmatism. And after Nasser died 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:16.980 and Anwar Sadat took over, Faisal found a partner 00:18:16.980 --> 00:18:19.400 he could really work with. Sadat was moving away 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:21.299 from the Soviets and wanted to get closer to 00:18:21.299 --> 00:18:23.759 the U .S. They formed a very close alliance. 00:18:24.019 --> 00:18:27.240 Which brings us full circle to 1973, the Yom 00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:30.420 Kippur War. Egypt and Syria attack Israel to 00:18:30.420 --> 00:18:33.180 regain their lost territory. The U .S. steps 00:18:33.180 --> 00:18:35.519 in with a massive airlift to resupply Israel, 00:18:35.660 --> 00:18:37.980 and Faisal finally plays his trump card. The 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:40.640 oil embargo. We have to understand, Faisal had 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:42.839 warned the U .S. about this. He had told them 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:44.759 for years, he told Henry Kissinger directly, 00:18:44.980 --> 00:18:46.960 that their unconditional support for Israel would 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:48.740 have consequences. And they just didn't believe 00:18:48.740 --> 00:18:50.839 him. They didn't believe him. They thought, well, 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:53.299 Saudi Arabia needs us to buy their oil more than 00:18:53.299 --> 00:18:56.259 we need to buy it. They severely underestimated 00:18:56.259 --> 00:18:59.069 him. And when he cut production and banned exports 00:18:59.069 --> 00:19:01.630 to the U .S. and other Western countries, the 00:19:01.630 --> 00:19:04.670 market panic was instant. It wasn't just about 00:19:04.670 --> 00:19:07.630 the price. It was the psychological shock. The 00:19:07.630 --> 00:19:10.170 realization that the West's entire industrial 00:19:10.170 --> 00:19:13.509 engine ran on fuel they did not control. This 00:19:13.509 --> 00:19:16.049 was the moment Saudi Arabia truly realized its 00:19:16.049 --> 00:19:19.349 leverage. Yes. It funded the massive development 00:19:19.349 --> 00:19:21.589 boom in the kingdom that followed. But you're 00:19:21.589 --> 00:19:23.750 right. It also put a target on Faisal's back. 00:19:23.950 --> 00:19:26.309 There were plenty of conspiracy theories that 00:19:26.309 --> 00:19:29.470 Western powers wanted him gone after that. Because 00:19:29.470 --> 00:19:31.609 when you disrupt the global economy that severely, 00:19:31.750 --> 00:19:34.569 you make some very powerful enemies. But before 00:19:34.569 --> 00:19:36.089 we get to the end of his life, I want to touch 00:19:36.089 --> 00:19:38.390 on who he was personally. We've talked about 00:19:38.390 --> 00:19:41.670 him being pious and ascetic, but what was he 00:19:41.670 --> 00:19:43.970 like day to day? By all accounts, he was a man 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:47.250 of integrity and extreme humility. He hated pomp 00:19:47.250 --> 00:19:50.109 and ceremony. He was tall, gaunt, usually just 00:19:50.109 --> 00:19:52.470 wore a simple Bedouin thob, even when meeting 00:19:52.470 --> 00:19:54.670 foreign dignitaries. What did he do for fun? 00:19:55.029 --> 00:19:57.670 Did he have any hobbies? His main passions were 00:19:57.670 --> 00:20:00.490 falconry and hunting, very traditional Bedouin 00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:04.170 pursuits. He also loved reading, especially poetry. 00:20:04.490 --> 00:20:06.930 And his family life was interesting too. He had 00:20:06.930 --> 00:20:09.650 multiple wives, which was standard for the time. 00:20:09.789 --> 00:20:12.789 But we mentioned Queen Ifet earlier. Their children 00:20:12.789 --> 00:20:14.789 weren't just sitting around in palaces. No, and 00:20:14.789 --> 00:20:17.329 this is a key part of his legacy. He insisted 00:20:17.329 --> 00:20:20.410 his children be highly educated. He sent his 00:20:20.410 --> 00:20:23.130 sons to the best universities in the West Princeton. 00:20:24.450 --> 00:20:27.529 Georgetown, Sandhurst, the RAF College at Cranwell. 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:30.109 Give us some examples. Well, Prince Saad al -Faisal, 00:20:30.230 --> 00:20:32.470 who graduated from Princeton, went on to become 00:20:32.470 --> 00:20:35.309 the foreign minister for 40 years. Prince Turki 00:20:35.309 --> 00:20:38.109 al -Faisal, a Georgetown grad, became the intelligence 00:20:38.109 --> 00:20:40.529 chief and later ambassador to the U .S. and the 00:20:40.529 --> 00:20:43.150 U .K. His daughter, Princess Sarah, was a huge 00:20:43.150 --> 00:20:45.329 activist for women's welfare. That's right. So 00:20:45.329 --> 00:20:47.509 he was building a meritocratic generation within 00:20:47.509 --> 00:20:49.789 the royal family. He wanted them to be competent, 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:52.549 not just titled. That's a huge shift. It was. 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:55.160 He spoke English and French fluently himself, 00:20:55.539 --> 00:20:57.759 though he usually insisted on speaking Arabic 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:00.380 in formal meetings. There are stories of him 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:02.420 listening to his translators and then correcting 00:21:02.420 --> 00:21:04.859 them when they got the nuance wrong. He was sharp 00:21:04.859 --> 00:21:07.380 as a tack. Which makes the end of his life all 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:09.960 the more tragic. He wasn't senile. He wasn't 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:12.859 losing his grip on power. He was at the absolute 00:21:12.859 --> 00:21:16.099 height of his power and influence. He was Time's 00:21:16.099 --> 00:21:18.839 Man of the Year. He was arguably the leader of 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:23.700 the Islamic world. March 25th. 1975. Take us 00:21:23.700 --> 00:21:26.140 to that day. It was a Tuesday morning. The king 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:28.940 was holding a majals in Riyadh. This is a traditional 00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:31.220 open audience where citizens and officials can 00:21:31.220 --> 00:21:33.680 come to petition the king directly. So it's an 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:36.039 open room, people coming and going, not a high 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:39.039 security situation. Exactly. The king was receiving 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:41.440 a delegation from Kuwait. And in the waiting 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.460 room, there was a young prince, his nephew, Faisal 00:21:44.460 --> 00:21:47.140 bin Musaid. This is the nephew, the brother of 00:21:47.140 --> 00:21:49.140 the prince who was killed at the TV station 10 00:21:49.140 --> 00:21:51.769 years earlier. The very same. He had just returned 00:21:51.769 --> 00:21:53.890 from the United States. He wasn't seen as a threat. 00:21:53.990 --> 00:21:56.109 He was family. He was just another person in 00:21:56.109 --> 00:21:58.869 line. So the doors open. The prince walks up 00:21:58.869 --> 00:22:01.769 to the king. The king recognizes him. He leans 00:22:01.769 --> 00:22:03.869 his head forward to kiss his nephew on the cheek, 00:22:04.029 --> 00:22:06.430 a traditional Saudi greeting. And then? And then 00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:08.470 the prince pulls out a pistol from his robes. 00:22:08.470 --> 00:22:10.809 He shoots the king three times at point -blank 00:22:10.809 --> 00:22:14.109 range. One shot hits the chin. One goes through 00:22:14.109 --> 00:22:18.130 the ear. Oh, my God. Just absolute chaos. Bedlam. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:21.480 A bodyguard strikes the prince with a sheathed 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:24.980 sword. The oil minister, Zaki Yamani, who was 00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:27.000 standing right there, screams at the guards, 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:30.119 don't kill him. Don't kill him. Why? I mean, 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:32.279 in that moment, why did he want him alive? He 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:34.460 needed to know why. Was this a coup? Was it a 00:22:34.460 --> 00:22:37.579 foreign plot? Was it the CIA, the Mossad, the 00:22:37.579 --> 00:22:40.039 communists? They had to question him. The fate 00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:41.660 of the country could have been hanging in the 00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:44.359 balance. So what was the official finding? Well, 00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:46.259 initially, there were claims he was insane. He'd 00:22:46.259 --> 00:22:48.460 had some issues in the U .S. But the medical 00:22:48.460 --> 00:22:51.039 experts, a panel of doctors, ruled that he was 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:53.700 perfectly sane when he committed the act. He 00:22:53.700 --> 00:22:56.380 was tried and convicted of regicide. And the 00:22:56.380 --> 00:22:58.859 motive. It almost certainly goes back to 1965. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:02.519 Vengeance for his brother, Khalid, who was killed 00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.440 attacking the TV station. That is, the irony 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:09.220 is just suffocating. The very technology Faisal 00:23:09.220 --> 00:23:11.200 introduced to modernize the country television 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:13.859 led to the riots, which led to the brothers' 00:23:13.980 --> 00:23:17.059 death, which, ten years later, led to Faisal's 00:23:17.059 --> 00:23:20.130 own assassination. It is a perfect, horrible 00:23:20.130 --> 00:23:22.990 Shakespearean tragedy. The very modernization 00:23:22.990 --> 00:23:25.269 he championed created the backlash that killed 00:23:25.269 --> 00:23:27.230 him. The aftermath must have been huge, both 00:23:27.230 --> 00:23:29.750 domestically and internationally. It was. The 00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:32.349 funeral was massive. Sadat was there. Yasser 00:23:32.349 --> 00:23:35.089 Arafat, Idi Amin, leaders from all over the world 00:23:35.089 --> 00:23:38.130 flew in. The assassin, Prince Faisal bin Musaid, 00:23:38.369 --> 00:23:41.009 was publicly beheaded in Riyadh a few months 00:23:41.009 --> 00:23:43.289 later. And the country itself, it didn't collapse 00:23:43.289 --> 00:23:46.049 into a succession crisis. No, the system Faisal 00:23:46.049 --> 00:23:49.430 built held up. was smooth. King Khalid, Faisal's 00:23:49.430 --> 00:23:51.390 half -brother, took the throne. But the spirit 00:23:51.390 --> 00:23:53.630 of the country changed. How so? Well, this brings 00:23:53.630 --> 00:23:56.430 us to the legacy. Faisal left behind a modernized 00:23:56.430 --> 00:23:59.150 state, a wealthy state, and institutions like 00:23:59.150 --> 00:24:01.190 the King Faisal Foundation, which does a lot 00:24:01.190 --> 00:24:03.630 of philanthropic work. Cities were named after 00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:06.829 him. Lalpur in Pakistan was renamed Faisalabad. 00:24:07.109 --> 00:24:09.009 But there's a sense of what if, isn't there? 00:24:09.109 --> 00:24:13.019 A massive one. There is a massive what if. Faisal 00:24:13.019 --> 00:24:15.720 was this unique figure who could balance the 00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:17.880 religious conservatives and the modernizers. 00:24:18.140 --> 00:24:20.779 He had the credibility to look the ulema in the 00:24:20.779 --> 00:24:23.460 eye and say, no, this is good for Islam. We are 00:24:23.460 --> 00:24:25.519 doing this. And look at what happened just a 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:29.039 few years after his death, 1979. 1979 is the 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:31.000 year everything changed again. You had the Iranian 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:33.779 Revolution, which put a Shia theocracy on their 00:24:33.779 --> 00:24:35.759 border. And then you had the siege of Mecca, 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.000 where a religious extremist took over the Grand 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.500 Mosque. And the Saudi response to that siege 00:24:40.500 --> 00:24:43.700 was to turn sharply, sharply conservative. Exactly. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:46.799 To appease the religious base and prevent another 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:49.619 uprising, the government rolled back many social 00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:52.819 freedoms. Cinemas were closed. Women's public 00:24:52.819 --> 00:24:55.240 roles were severely restricted. A lot of the 00:24:55.240 --> 00:24:58.240 modernizing spirit was put on ice. So the provocative 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:00.240 question to leave our listeners with is this. 00:25:00.660 --> 00:25:04.400 If Faisal hadn't been assassinated, if he had 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:06.759 been the one on the throne to guide Saudi Arabia 00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:09.759 through the storm of 1979, would he have handled 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:12.640 it differently? His grandson mentioned that after 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:17.019 the 1967 war, Faisal became very quiet and contemplative, 00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:19.779 as if he felt the enormous weight of the era 00:25:19.779 --> 00:25:22.519 to come. Perhaps he foresaw how difficult the 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:26.140 path ahead was. But if he had lived, it is very 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:28.779 possible that the extreme conservatism that defined 00:25:28.779 --> 00:25:32.660 Saudi Arabia from 1980 until very recently, well, 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:34.579 it might never have happened. He might have been 00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:36.319 able to keep that balance. He might have, and 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:38.259 the Middle East today could look very, very different. 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:41.609 A king who stopped the world with oil? and perhaps 00:25:41.609 --> 00:25:43.769 could have stopped a tide of extremism just with 00:25:43.769 --> 00:25:46.289 his presence. It's a fascinating and ultimately 00:25:46.289 --> 00:25:49.009 tragic deep dive. Indeed. That's it for this 00:25:49.009 --> 00:25:50.809 week. Thanks for listening to The Deep Dive. 00:25:51.049 --> 00:25:51.950 We'll see you next time.