The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud (Paperback)

by Said K. Aburish (Author) "'British Aerospace Wins Huge Saudi Defence Contract'; 'King Fahd Forms Consultative Council but Retains Absolute Power'; 'Saudi Arabia Maintains Lower Oil Prices - Pressure Mounts..." (more)
Key Phrases: active negativism, offset deals, brutal friendship, Saudi Arabia, House of Saud, Ibn Saud (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, is also the world's most absolute feudal monarchy and the place where the gap between the haves and have-nots is the widest. Journalist Aburish (Pay-Off: Wheeling and Dealing in the Arab World) takes a close look at the 90-year-old dynasty, emphasizing recent history and the House of Saud's dictatorial, profligate and increasingly corrupt ways, aided in the last instance by U.S. oil companies. He compares the present situation in Saudi Arabia with Iran before the overthrow of the Shah in 1979?"blind, oblivious haughtiness by a hated ruling class." With a national debt approaching $100 billion, the country's financial structure is on the verge of collapse. The West, says the author, must take immediate drastic action before a revolution results in a cessation of oil production, worldwide depression and the possibility of a jihad, or holy war, against the infidel West if, for instance, UN forces tried to occupy the oil fields. Aburish urges a complete reversal of U.S. policy, with Washington pressuring the House of Saud to share the national wealth with the Saudi people, to begin protecting their human rights and to give them a voice in the country's affairs. A well-researched and provocative expose/denunciation of Arabia's powerful ruling clan. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
The House of Saud rose to prominence during the 18th century, but it wasn't until the early 1900s that Abdul Aziz Rahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud) seized control of what is now Saudi Arabia. The House has come under fire from both the Shi'ite populations of the Islamic world and an increasingly large number of its own citizens. In this scathing account, the author contends that the members of the royal house are ruining the country with their self-indulgent spending and unnecessary military "toys." He states that the West must stop tolerating the Saudi persistence in maintaining the status quo. Aburish (Cry Palestine: Inside the West Bank, LJ 9/1/93) calls for "massive interference" in Saudi internal affairs to introduce controls on the "colossally wasteful habits of the royal family." He also urges an increase in oil prices and recommends that King Fahd be forced to form an independent consultative council and subordinate the succession to "the pressing needs for reform." Aburish's point is well taken, but his strident tone often overwhelms his argument. Recommended for large libraries with major collections in this area.?David P. Snider, Casa Grande P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312161190
• ISBN-13: 978-0312161194
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #459,568 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent expose from inside circles, December 11, 1999

By	lisatheratgirl "lisatheratgirl" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This book is well-written, well-documented and important. The author (who is writing from a country outside Saudi Arabia, but is himself a Saudi) minces no words in discussing the history, government and Royal Family. My personal view is that it is important to read books about other countries that are not authored by Americans. While this country has much more freedom in what is allowed to be written, read, published and broadcasted (the chapter on the Saudi press was very chilling), the media here tends to oversimplify many issues, and people don't take the time to hunt out other sources. Thus, another country is our "friend" one day in the news, the next they are "the enemy" and politics, foreign loans, arms deals, and all sorts of other goings-on are not really explained. This author explains the reasons behind everything that has been happening in the Middle East from 1900 on, and I certainly learned a lot about the Gulf War. In addition, I have read several books from the women's viewpoint in Saudi Arabia (e.g., Princess, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street), but this shows what is going on with the men in the ruling class. The author also did a good job of convincing me that the Saudi people may not be of one mind with the Royal Family, and that ordinary citizens can be subject to many abuses. Anyone who is interested in the Middle East ought to read this book. Informative, compelling and convincing.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-Documented Look at One of the World's Worst Governments, June 12, 1999

By A Customer

Once you read this book it will be extremely difficult NOT to allow your revulsion for the Saudi Government and the "Royals" which populate it get in the way of objectivity toward the Saudis in general. This is a well-documented and classic study of the totally undeserving being handed incredibly good fortune and totally abusing the opportunity. Without retelling the story, suffice it to say, it addresses an inconsequential tribe of Bedouins who, due to being in the right place at the right time, are thrust onto the world's center stage and instead of making the most of the opportunity to be a positive force, use their good fortune in the most self-serving ways one can imagine (unfortunately with the "help" of Britain and the United States [aka as the Arabian American Oil Company]). (I lived in an ARAMCO compound, Ras Tanura, from 1961-1963 and I believe what I read squares with some of my experiences there.) This is a story of the total abuse of governmental privilege, of human rights, and of the opportunity to unite the positive aspects of Arab/Muslim culture with an entry into modernity. My guess is, many of you who think you know Saudi Arabia and Saudis, don't, and if you're interested in what is going on in that country, and with Western complicity in human rights violations and abuses of governmental privilege that would not be tolerated elsewhere, read this book. It addresses history, economics, and the human condition. It IS an eye-opener even for one who lived in the country and has been back since he lived there.

22 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but amateurish and bombastic, June 11, 2002

By	Eric Gudorf (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a useful book in that it challenges the public image that the Saudi royal family has put much effort and money into establishing, especially here in the West. That image is one of a benign monarchy, one that provides generously for its people while promoting geopolitical stability in the region. Needless to say, Mr. Aburish presents a radically different view, one of a brutal family run dictatorship that is corrupt to the core and which ruthlessly squashes dissent at home while sowing seeds of disunity among the other nations of the region. There is no doubt but that, in daring to write this exposé, Mr. Aburish provides a useful service, since neither the governments nor the media in the West show much interest in examining the Saudi government with a truly critical eye, although to some extent this can be explained by the inherent cynicism of mainstream journalism. After all, it is pretty much taken as a given that most regimes in the area are corrupt, repressive and autocratic, so reporting such is basically a "Dog bites man" type of story.

Mr. Aburish's problem is that he simply goes overboard. His attacks too often seem personal in nature, although this can be explained by the fact that he dedicated this book to a friend who had been tortured to death by the Saudi secret police. He brings a sense of passion to this work, which is laudable, but too often it causes him to abandon any sense of objectivity in his quest to lambaste the House of Saud. As a result, this book reads less like the work of a professional journalist and more like a one-man act of personal vengeance. At times it becomes downright silly, such as when he attacks Saudi patriarch Ibn Saud for buying 40 Packards, which he derides as being "the most vulgar car of the 1940's". And it is rife with factual errors and general sloppiness, most notably in the latter chapters. Defense contractor Grumman is spelled "Grueman" and he makes reference to Vice President Edmund Muskie, a man who was only a vice presidential candidate on McGovern's losing 1972 ticket. But the worst part is simply the complete lack of any sort of even handedness, this book reads less as an accurate accounting of the Royal Family and more as a cheap piece of propaganda (most notably, the section on Desert Storm, parts of which could have been lifted straight from the Iraqi Ministry of Information). He makes numerous broad assertions without providing much, if anything, in the way of proof. Most notable is his claim that the present regime is loathed by the majority of Saudis and is teetering on the verge of collapse. Perhaps it is, but he gives precious little evidence to support it.

In addition, he seems incredibly naïve when it comes to economics and foreign affairs. On the latter, he accuses the Saudi government of constantly trying to manipulate its neighbors so as to avoid potential conflicts. Well, since when is engaging in pragmatic opportunism forbidden in the art of statecraft? It would seem the Saudi government has been eminently successful in avoiding both bloody foreign confrontations and internal havoc, a feat that the late Shah of Iran was incapable of. Also, while asserting that rank and file Saudis have been denied their rightful share of the oil wealth, he simultaneously attacks the Saudi government for not sharing more of that wealth with their fellow Arab nations, a move that would have been about as politically popular as if the American president promised to fork over a large percentage of American tax dollars to enrich the Mexicans.

Finally, he is on multiple occasions guilty of rank hypocrisy. For example, he is outraged at the treatment that ARAMCO oilmen initially gave to their Saudi workers, looking down at them and calling them "A-rabs", yet Aburish is hardly above indulging in blatant snobbery, most notably in which he sneers at the Saud family as if they were the Arabic equivalent of disreputable white trash. And yet, toward the end, he also takes Oil Minister Sheik Yamani to task for showing off his academic prowess and sophistication because it was "un-Arabic". And, in the final chapter, one gets the impression that Aburish simply doesn't know what he wants, other than the overthrow of the House of Saud. Does he want to see a Western style liberal democracy? Or an Iran style Islamic republic? Or a "constitutional monarchy"? He doesn't say. And that's the fundamental problem. Aburish is, to a greater or lesser extent, a useful critic of the Saudi regime. But what he utterly fails to do is offer up any sort of practical alternative.