Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Faisal bin Turki al-Saud
House of Saud
Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Saud Al Saud
Offspring
Abdallah ibn Faisal Saud ibn Faisal Muhammad ibn Faisal Abdul Rahman ibn Faisal

Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdullah Al Saud (Arabic: فيصل بن تركي بن عبد الله آل سعود) (d. 1889) was the second ruler of the Second Saudi State and seventh Head of the House of Saud.
Born in 1785, he was deported to Egypt along with other members of his family after the fall of Dir'iyya. He managed to escape and joined his father Turki in his revolt against the Egyptian forces of the Ottoman Empire. Turki established himself as ruler of Dir'iyyah and then adopted Riyadh as the new capital. Faisal was sent on military operations to al-Hasa in the east, but his father was assassinated in 1834 by Mushari ibn Abd al-Rahman,a distant cousin, and Faisal hurried back to Riyadh to deal with the revolt. His troops stormed the castle and killed Mushari. Those not directly involved in the murder were spared and the town pledged allegiance. Faisal thus succeeded his father as Imam of the Saudi state.
His rule continued to be opposed by the Ottoman forces, however, and the Egyptian governor of Arabia, Khurshid Pasha, supported a rival candidate in the person of Khalid ibn Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz. Khalid was a member of the senior line of the Saud family and a legitimate heir, but was later revealed to be little more than an Egyptian puppet. Nonetheless, Faisal was forced to flee the city and take refuge among his Bedouin allies. In 1838, he attempted to come to terms with Khurshid Pasha, but was forced to go into exile a second time in Cairo.
Faisal escaped from captivity again and returned to Riyadh in 1843, where he easily defeated the then ruler, Abdallah ibn Thunayyan, a distant cousin who had in the meantime revolted against the ineffective Khalid ibn Saud and taken the capital. Faisal now resumed his interrupted reign and governed with great success until his death in 1865.
Faisal depended on a close alliance with the Al Rashid family of Ha'il, as Abdullah ibn Rashid played a key role in his success, and the families were extensively intermarried. Abdallah ibn Rashid was appointed Amir of Ha'il under Faisal.
Faisal ibn Turki is remembered as one of the greatest of all Saudi leaders, and although the infighting among his four sons eventually destroyed the state, this branch of the family, which includes the present King of Saudi Arabia, is still technically referred to as the Al Faisal (House of Faisal).