Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud

Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud was great-grandson of the Amir Faisal ibn Turki, the seventh Imam of the Second Saudi State, who ruled the area of Najd from 1834 to 1838, and again from 1843 to his death in 1865. Although Faisal's eldest son Abdallah ibn Faisal was the legitimate successor, the second-born, Saud, fought with his brother to gain control, and after Saud's death in 1875, his sons, and later his grandsons, continued intermittent hostilities against their cousins from their base in al-Kharj province.

Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud was born in 1878, the son of Wadhba bint Muhammad bin Hazzam al-Mana al-Hithlain, daughter of the sheikh of the Ajman Bedouin tribe. The family was extensively intermarried with the Ajman and the tribesmen were loyal supporters. After the fall of Riyadh in 1891 to the Rashidi dynasty of Ha'il, who had benefited from the endless infighting among the sons of Faisal, Saud, along with his brothers and cousins, were captured by the Rashid and taken to Ha'il. They spent the next fifteen years in captivity but developed co-operative ties in the hope of some day recovery their position in Riyadh. During a battle in 1904 with Ibn Saud who had by this time retaken Riyadh and was consolidating a revived Saudi state, they were defeated and later recognized among prisoners in the enemy camp. For this reason they were given the sobriquet of al-Ara'if (from the Arabic root for "recognition"), a Najdi term used to refer to a camel which had been lost but subsequently regained by its owner. Although pledging loyalty to the Amir Abd al-Aziz, they revolted with their Ajman allies again and it was not until 1912 that Saud was finally defeated. Some of his cousins fled to the Hijaz, but Saud was granted a pardon and allowed to marry the sister of King Abdulaziz, Noura bint Abdul Rahman. After his marriage, he became a loyal friend and supporter.