...Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, ruled by the Al Saud family. King Abdullah bin Abdel- Aziz al-Saud succeeded his half-brother, Fahd bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud, in August 2005, when King Fahd died following many years of ill health. King Fahd was one of the sons of Abdel- Aziz bin Abdel-Rahman al-Saud, or "Ibn Saud", who became the first fully-fledged king of Saudi Arabia in 1932. All subsequent Saudi kings have been sons of Abdel-Aziz, and several of his surviving sons are seen as potential future successors, as well as being influential political actors in their own right. The Al Saud family has operated in partnership with senior clerics since the foundation of the Saudi state. The first expansion of Al Saud family rule in the 18th century took place on the back of a proselytising campaign carried out jointly by Mohammed bin Saud, the ruler of the small city of Diraaiya in the Nejd (central Arabia), and Mohammed bin Abdel-Wahhab, an Islamic preacher who espoused an austere form of Islam....
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