Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Thunayan (Arabic: أحمد بن عبد الله آل ثنيان; 1889–1923) was a Turkish-born Saudi royal and government official who was one of the advisors to Abdulaziz, Emir of Nejd, who later founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[1] He was the paternal uncle of Iffat Al Thunayan, spouse of King Faisal.
| Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Thunayan | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 1889 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire | ||||
| Died | 1923 (aged 33–34) Istanbul | ||||
| |||||
| House | House of Saud | ||||
| Father | Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al Saud | ||||
| Mother | Tazeruh Hanım | ||||
Origins and early life
editPrince Ahmed's family were the descendants of Thunayan, one of the brothers of Muhammad bin Saud, who is the patriarch of the House of Saud.[2] Ahmed's father was Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al Saud, who was captured by the Ottomans in Bombay and sent to Istanbul in August 1880.[3] He was appointed to the royal court there and was a member of the Ottoman Council of State in the 1880s and 1890s.[3][4] Ahmed's mother was a Cherkess-origin Turkish woman named Tazeruh.[1] His paternal grandfather, Abdullah bin Thunayan, ruled the Emirate of Nejd from 1841 to 1843.[1]
Prince Ahmed was born in 1889 in Istanbul and raised there.[5][6] He had a twin-sister, Jawhara, and two brothers, Mohammed and Suleiman.[1] Mohammed was the father of Iffat, who married the future King Faisal in the 1930s.[1]
Career and activities
editJust before World War I, Prince Ahmed went to Arabia and became a private secretary of Emir Abdulaziz.[2][3] In March 1913, he met with the Ottoman governor of Baghdad, Cemal Pasha, as an envoy of Abdulaziz to eliminate the tensions between Abdulaziz and Sharif Hussein.[7] Prince Ahmed headed the Saudi delegations which met with Sharif Hussein's staff following the establishment of the Kingdom of Hejaz in 1916.[8] Over time, Prince Ahmed became Abdulaziz's chief foreign affairs advisor[9] and acted as Saudi foreign minister.[10] Prince Ahmed, together with Abdullah Al Qusaibi, another advisor of Abdulaziz, accompanied Prince Faisal (later King Faisal) during his official visit to London and Paris in 1919.[2][11] Prince Ahmed's mission in this visit was to transmit the demands of Abdulaziz to British officials.[12] Through Prince Ahmed, Abdulaziz asked the British to exert pressure on Sharif Hussain to allow Najdi people to go on pilgrimage.[13] Prince Ahmed and Sharif Hussain's son Abdullah managed to sign a peace and friendship agreement in February 1920 in Baghdad, which lasted only for a short time.[8][14] Prince Ahmed was accompanied by Abdullah Al Damluji in this visit.[14]
On 1 May 1922, Prince Ahmed represented Abdulaziz in the Conference of Al Muhammarah, which was held to resolve the problematic Saudi-Iraqi border issues.[11][15] Despite the objections of Abdulaziz, Prince Ahmed signed the treaty of al Muhammarah, which led to his dismissal from the post.[11] Abdulaziz did not ratify the treaty and informed the British High Commissioner B. H. Bourdillon that Prince Ahmed had no authority to sign it.[15] Following this incident, Prince Ahmed was replaced by Abdullah Al Damluji as chief foreign affairs advisor.[9]
Personal life and death
editPrince Ahmed was fluent in Turkish, Arabic, English and German.[1][8] He died in Istanbul in 1923[11] shortly after his return from Saudi Arabia.[1] However, Joseph A. Kechichian argues that he died in 1921 which contradicts with the fact that he participated in the Conference of Al Muhammarah in May 1922.[11]
In popular culture
editPrince Ahmed was featured by Rubén Ochandiano in the 2019 film on King Faisal entitled Born a King.[16]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Joseph A. Kechichian (20 January 2012). "Self-assurance in the face of military might". Gulf News. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
- ^ a b c "Al Thunayyan Family". Encyclopedia.
- ^ a b c Joseph A. Kechichian (2014). 'Iffat Al Thunayan: An Arabian Queen. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. pp. 16–20. ISBN 9781845196851.
- ^ Eugene L. Rogan (1996). "Aşiret Mektebi: Abdülhamid II's School for Tribes (1892–1907)". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 28 (1): 85. doi:10.1017/s0020743800062796. JSTOR 176116. S2CID 154106467.
- ^ Leslie McLoughlin (1993). Ibn Saud: Founder of A Kingdom. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-349-22578-1.
- ^ G. Leachman (May 1914). "A Journey through Central Arabia". The Geographical Journal. 43 (5): 518. Bibcode:1914GeogJ..43..500L. doi:10.2307/1778299. JSTOR 1778299.
- ^ Lawrence Paul Goldrup (1971). Saudi Arabia 1902 - 1932: The Development of a Wahhabi Society (PhD thesis). University of California, Los Angeles. p. 139. ISBN 9798657910797. ProQuest 302463650.
- ^ a b c Adam Mestyan (2023). Modern Arab Kingship: Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. pp. 184–185. doi:10.1353/book.113384. ISBN 9780691249353. S2CID 260307818.
- ^ a b Joseph Kostiner (1993). The Making of Saudi Arabia, 1916-1936: From Chieftaincy to Monarchical State. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-19-536070-7.
- ^ F. E. Peters (1994). Mecca. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 388. doi:10.1515/9781400887361-014. ISBN 9781400887361.
- ^ a b c d e Mohammad Zaid Al Kahtani. The Foreign Policy of King Abdulaziz (1927–1953) (PhD thesis). University of Leeds. p. 36.
- ^ Jerald L. Thompson (December 1981). H. St. John Philby, Ibn Saud and Palestine (MA thesis). DTIC.
- ^ Joshua Teitelbaum (2020). "Hashemites, Egyptians and Saudis: the tripartite struggle for the pilgrimage in the shadow of Ottoman defeat". Middle Eastern Studies. 56 (1): 41. doi:10.1080/00263206.2019.1650349. S2CID 202264793.
- ^ a b Noel Walter Spencer Jr. (1979). The Diplomatic History of Iraq, 1920-1932 (Ph.D. thesis). University of Utah. pp. 213–214. ISBN 9798403473699. ProQuest 302993855.
- ^ a b Gamal Hagar (1981). Britain, Her Middle East Mandates and the Emergence of Saudi Arabia, 1926-1932: A Study in the Process of British Policy-making and in the Conduct and Development of Britain's Relations with Ibn Saud (PhD thesis). Keele University. pp. 70–72.
- ^ Luis Martínez (20 August 2019). "'Nacido rey': la millonaria aventura saudí de Agustí Villaronga". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 March 2024.