Table of Contents

Author's Note. Foreword by Wyche Fowler Jr. Cities and Regions of Saudi Arabia Today. The Men of the Al-Saud Family. Introduction. Part One: THE BIRTH OF ISLAM IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 1 Muhammad: Islam's Prophet. 2 The Successors Who Preserved the Faith and Began the Conquests: Abu Bakr and Umar (632-644). 3 Expansion, Civil War, and the Sunni-Shi'ite Split: Uthman and Ali (644-661). 4 The Beginning of Monarchy: Muawiya, the Fifth Caliph, His Son Yazid, and the Martyrdom of Hussein (661-683). Part Two: THE FIRST AND SECOND SAUDI STATES (1744-1887). 5 The Founder of Wahhabism: Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792). 6 Nineteenth-Century Saudi Arabia (1792-1887). Part Three: THE CREATION OF MODERN SAUDI ARABIA: THE LIFE OF KING ABDUL AZIZ (1876-1953). 7 Exile and Return (1876-1902). 8 Expanding the Kingdom (1902-1926). 9 Powerful but Poor (1926-1945). 10 The Influx of Oil Money (1945-1953). Part Four: OIL BRINGS POWER: THE LIFE OF KING FAISAL (1905-1975). 11 The Young Prince and Foreign Minister (1905-1953). 12 The Struggle between the Brothers (1953-1964). 13 The King in Full Control (1964-1972). 14 Oil as Political Power (1973-1975). Part Five: MODERN SAUDI ARABIA (1975-2001). 15 The Boom Years of King Khalid (1975-1982). 16 The Lean Years of King Fahad (1982-1990). 17 The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991). 18 The Rise of Militant Fundamentalism (1991-1996). 19 Abdullah Begins Reform, bin Laden Steps Up Terror (1996-August 2001). Part Six: SAUDI ARABIA SINCE 9/11. 20 Fighting Terror, Fostering Reform (2001-2007). 21 A New Oil Boom, a New Business Climate (2003-). 22 Abdullah Becomes King, Iran Becomes a Threat (2005-). Conclusion. Acknowledgments. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Photo gallery.

About the Author

Mark Weston, a former Visiting Scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, has worked for ABC News and has written for the New York Times and the Washington Post . He is the author of The Land and People of Pakistan and Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Greatest Men and Women . A graduate of Brown University and the University of Texas Law School, he lives north of Manhattan.

Reviews

"...it is important in the sense that it enables the reader to draw his or her own conclusions." (Literary Review, December 2008)