Word: fahd
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They are, strangely, the same person: Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian (of the holy places of Mecca and Medina), a form of address he prefers to Your Majesty. And the difference between the profligate prince and the cautious King reflects something more than the aging of the young hell raiser into a 69-year-old monarch whose 275-lb. bulk has so weakened his knees that he has trouble walking. Some 37 years ago, Fahd went through a conversion that, though forced on him, has had a lasting effect...
...ascetic Crown Prince (later King) Faisal summoned his younger half-brother Fahd and told him he was disgracing himself and the kingdom. It was time, said Faisal, for Fahd to come home and devote himself to serious matters of state. Implicit in the rebuke was a warning that Fahd was endangering his chances of succeeding to the crown. As one of seven sons borne by the favorite wife of the legendary Abdul Aziz (generally known as Ibn Saud), who created Saudi Arabia, Fahd was among those in line someday to be King. But there was, and is, nothing automatic about...
Spurred by shame and ambition, Fahd tamed his playboy ways and became Minister of Education just as the oil money was beginning to pour in. Though his formal education had been confined to a few years at a kuttab (Koranic school), Fahd built schools by the hundreds and several universities. He later served as Interior Minister, and in 1975, when King Faisal was assassinated and succeeded by another brother, Khalid, Fahd became Crown Prince. Khalid, troubled by a weak heart, paid little attention to affairs of state; Fahd in effect ran the country for years before he succeeded...
...money by 1975 had reached flood tide -- around $100 billion a year -- and Fahd led Saudi Arabia into headlong modernization. He built hospitals, schools, superhighways, sports arenas. Many Saudis went in a single generation from mud huts to trim low-cost housing, free education for their children through the university level, and free medical care in modern hospitals. Fahd managed affairs with Bedouin shrewdness. He insisted that as soon as a project was approved, money for it had to be set aside. The practice horrified financial advisers who thought the cash should be invested to earn interest, but when...
...Saudi draft, the memo named King Fahd overall commander, with Schwarzkopf and the Saudi Defense Minister, Prince Sultan, as his deputies. Schwarzkopf objected -- as did George Bush -- and it was rewritten to establish separate, parallel commands: U.S. troops in one, Saudi and allied Arab forces in the other...