Word: bedouin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Gaddafi seems not quite sure how long his xenophobic regime can last, though no members of his Revolutionary Command Council currently challenge his authority. He never leaves the country without turning over control of three key army units to members of his Bedouin family, and Libyan jails contain many political prisoners. But the Egyptians, who in the .words of one official have been actively interested in "stirring up something" against him, admit that they have had no success. Predicts a U.S. diplomat who has watched Gaddafi's theatrics from the sidelines: "Barring a freak accident...
...world been so deeply shaken by the loss of a political leader. Across the Middle East, radio stations broke into their regular programs to replay the emotion-choked voice of the Riyadh announcer. Panic and hysteria swept through the dusty streets of the capital as the news spread. Fierce Bedouin tribesmen wept openly; army and police units moved into strategic positions throughout the city. Within hours, every Arab government had proclaimed extended periods of mourning. Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, who had received extensive aid and political support from the Saudi King, called Faisal "a tireless fighter...
Barely 24 hours after King Faisal's death, his successor was installed as Saudi Arabia's fourth monarch. In a large, incense-filled hall in Riyadh's royal palace, princes and Cabinet ministers, religious leaders and Bedouin chiefs gathered for the ceremony of mubaya 'a to kiss King Khalid 's face and shoul der and swear allegiance to him. Soldiers and bodyguards in red-and-white kaffiyehs held back the crowd; at one point, the new King thrust himself into the throng to lead forward a blind old man who had come to greet...
...never developed much taste for public affairs. His passions are falconry (he has one of the best collections of falcons in the world) and the desert life. In earlier years he liked nothing better than to visit tribes in the desert and engage them in a favorite Bedouin contest, camel-milk drinking; he won more often than not. He used to hunt big game in Africa and India, and decorated the walls of his palace in Riyadh with elephant tusks and tiger heads; he also founded a local zoo. But he curtailed many of his activities after undergoing open-heart...
Despite his wealth and power, Faisal lived simply and ascetically; his code was the Koran and his customs those of a Bedouin Arab. He neither smoked nor drank, prayed five times a day, and was anxiously concerned with the welfare of his subjects. Thus he continued the tradition of the majlis, or weekly royal audience, at which Saudis were free to approach their King with a message or a petition. No matter how farfetched or long-winded the complaints, Faisal would listen patiently. "If anyone feels wrongly treated, he has only himself to blame for not telling me," he said...