The House of Saud is the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Its rise began in 1744, when Muhammad bin Saud, the emir of the town of Diriyah in central Arabia, made a pact with the religious reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, creating the first Saudi state. That state was destroyed by Ottoman-Egyptian forces in the early nineteenth century, and a second state followed and also fell. In the early twentieth century Abdulaziz ibn Saud recaptured Riyadh and gradually conquered most of the Arabian Peninsula, proclaiming the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. His sons have since succeeded one another as kings, and the family's rule has been closely tied to the country's oil wealth and to its role as the custodian of Mecca and Medina.
Before and after
- 2 April 1743Birth of Thomas Jefferson
- 27 June 1743Battle of Dettingen
- 26 August 1743Birth of Antoine Lavoisier
- 9 December 1743Discovery of Great Comet of 1744
- 1744Rise of House of Saud
- 1 August 1744Birth of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
- from 7 August 1744 to 25 December 1745Second Silesian War
- 1745Founding of North Adams
- 18 February 1745Birth of Alessandro Volta
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- c. 1500Modern period
- from 1501 to 1736Safavid dynasty
- from 1543 to 1687Scientific Revolution
- from 1613 to 1762House of Romanov
- June 1644The Manchus take Beijing and found Qing rule
- 1748Excavations begin at Pompeii
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.