Word: saud
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...earth's few remaining absolute monarchs last week tried to give an order and failed. This distressing occurrence befell aging, ailing King Saud of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, who, 14 months ago, let his able half brother, Prince Feisal, take over the job of running the country as Prime Minister...
...country has benefited from Feisal's mild reforms, but not the royal family. Feisal fired King Saud's sons from Cabinet posts and governorships; worse, Feisal slashed the royal privy purse to a paltry $40 million annually...
...During Saud's absence Feisal, as Premier, pushed ahead with a new-broom campaign to sweep the king's sons (an estimated 32 in all) out of the palace, and to make a start on reforms in the feudalistic monarchy. On paper at least, Feisal has abolished slavery, and he is even stumping oasis villages promising schools, hospitals, housing and freshwater wells. By slipping arms to the royalists fighting in Yemen-something he denies-Feisal has helped the fight against Nasser expansionism...
Princes and tribal chieftains have taken Feisal's side. Thus, there was no great applause when Saud last month sent word that he wished to come home. At a three-hour conference, Feisal and most of his 38 other brothers drew up a document allowing the monarch to return, on condition that he stay out of affairs of state and issue no more decrees. A three-man Feisal delegation flew to Vienna, handed Saud the document; sadly, the King signed...
...could do little else. Only one of Saud's sons, Prince Mansour, is still around the palace, and his powers are largely ceremonial. The King's last personal armed force is being merged into the army. The King, whose cunning is legendary, may use his fortune, estimated at more than $100 million, to buy out his pro-Feisal kinsmen. The outlook was perhaps best forecast by an Arab journalist: "I see ahead a period of intrigue and suspicion, in which a passing word from a harem woman might take the sleep for nights from the eyes of important...