Word: koran
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Swearing on the Koran. He began by sending off his court minister with letters telling his allies, Nasser, Saud and the Syrian President, what he meant to do. (Saud's generous reply: "You will always find me on your side in person and with my forces.") The Jordanian Cabinet's taunting response was to propose establishing diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia. For the young King, the moment had come. First summoning 50 top army officers to the palace and exacting loyalty pledges, he demanded the Cabinet's resignation. Nabulsi, a left-wing and anti-Western economist (educated...
...Saud, the Old Lion, reared his son in the stern tradition of the desert. Saud's formal schooling consisted of the Koran, and ended at 13. But he learned the slashing swordsmanship of the Arab horseman; and as late as 1929, young Prince Saud was dealing with a domestic crisis by the simpler method of chopping off the heads of captured tribesmen. Once he saved his father's life by leaping between him and an assassin, taking the descending knife in his shoulder. Saud's concepts of government were formed in a land where there...
...world). Social reform comes hard when slavery, sanctioned by Mohammed, still exists, though Saudis protest that slaves are well treated and often freed by owners eager to gain credit with Allah (old Ibn Saud used to release one every Friday after prayer). Tax reform is blocked by the Koran's ban on any personal tax on believers except the Zakaah, a small yearly levy paid to the sheik, who is instructed to use it to support his own family and to give the rest to the poor. Thus there are no beggars in Arabia. But the social security system...
...political reform, the Koran says nothing of democracy. Neither does King Saud. Said one official: "The constitution we follow is the Koran. We don't want to replace this with any other thing...
Saud tries hard to be the Koran's conscientious father to his people. He travels the country (nowadays he flies in a Convair, has an air-conditioned trailer driven overland to meet him at his destination), listens to a sheik's troubles, soothes him with a Cadillac, a school or a clinic-given as a favor rather than as a right. But father comes first. In two years observers estimate Saud has set aside $100 million for new palaces. One just completed in Jiddah (cost: $28 million) brings his personal collection of palaces to 24, and another...