Abdullah bin Saud

Abdullah succeeded his father – Saud. At the beginning of his reign Abdullah faced intrafamily challenges from his uncle Abdullah bin Muhammad, but Abdullah managed to settle down these problems.[1] His father, Saud, had initiated a war with the Ottoman Empire with the capture of Mecca and Medina. Because of his father's conquest, Abdullah immediately had to face an invasion of his domains by an Ottoman-Egyptian army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali.[3] The Ottoman forces began their campaign by quickly recapturing Mecca and Medina.[3] Heavily outnumbered and under-equipped, the Saudi forces retreated to their stronghold of Najd.

Rather than engage the invaders in open battle, Abdullah decided to attempt to weather the invasion by fortifying his forces in the Najd towns. As a result, Ibrahim took the villages of Najd one by one, sacking any town that resisted. Ibrahim finally reached the Saudi capital at Diriyah. After a siege that lasted several months, Abdullah finally surrendered in September 1818, marking the end of the Saudi state.[3] Ibrahim systematically razed Diriyah to the ground and sent many members of the Al Saud clan into captivity in Egypt and Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire. Abdullah himself was promptly executed in the square before Hagia Sophia, Constantinople.[3]

In 1801, the tomb of Imam Husayn was defaced by the army of Abdullah bin Saud, causing anger and shock among entire Muslim world.[4] As a result, the Ottoman authorities found themselves in a situation that they had to punish the Saudis for their crimes. The guardian of Islam's religious places was the Turkish-Ottoman Caliph in Istanbul, Mahmud II. Mahmud II ordered that an Egyptian force be sent to the Arabian Peninsula to defeat Abdullah bin Saud and his allies. In 1818, an Egyptian army led by Ibrahim Pasha (Mohammad Ali's son) completely destroyed Abdullah's forces and took their capital, Diriyah in Najd.[5] Abdullah bin Saud was captured along with two of his supporters. They were then sent to prison in Istanbul.[5] Abdullah and his two followers were publicly beheaded for their crimes against holy cities and mosques.[4][6] Prior to his execution, Abdullah, who forbade to listen to music, was forced to listen to the lute.[7]