JEDDAH, 23 April 2007 — A documentary has been planned in order to recount King Abdul Aziz’s journey from Kuwait to Riyadh, according to Dr. Fahd ibn Abdullah Al-Samary, secretary-general of King Abdul Aziz Museum (Darat) in Riyadh.
“A private company has already begun work on the documentary,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. The film will reenact the camel journey of King Abdul Aziz and his supporters from Kuwait to Riyadh. “Our museum has already documented the king’s journey by collecting stories from people living in different regions and were published in book form on the occasion of the Kingdom’s centennial celebrations,” he added.
King Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman Al-Saud (known as Ibn Saud) is the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. He made tremendous efforts to unify the Kingdom by bringing together many warring tribes, each one proud of its own lineage and traditions. His success was derived from his faith and his determination to maintain and build on the traditions of the region, making use of modern technological advancements as they were needed.
With 40 of his trusted men, Abdul Aziz left Kuwait in December 1901 and arrived outside Riyadh in January 1902. His assault on the Masmak Fort and his retaking of Riyadh from the Rashids is one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of modern Arabia. Under the cover of night, together with his cousin Abdullah bin Jiluwi and other volunteers, Abdul Aziz stealthily made his way to a section of the city wall that he knew they could easily scale, unobserved.
The wall was adjacent to the house of a man who had served Abdul Rahman, Abdul Aziz’s father, years ago when the Al-Saud still ruled Riyadh. When the wife of this man realized that the son of Abdul Rahman had come to reclaim his birthright, she provided some useful information about Ajlan, the emir of Riyadh, the man Abdul Aziz would depose.
After the capture of Riyadh, Abdul Aziz spent 12 years consolidating his conquests around Riyadh and the eastern part of the country from where the Ottomans were expelled. On Sept. 22, 1933, the territories under the control of Abdul Aziz were renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Samary said the museum was also in the process of documenting the Kingdom’s oil story. “We have already reached an agreement with Saudi Aramco and have now collected a lot of information to go ahead with this project,” he added.
Samary recently met with intellectuals and historians in the Eastern Province on the occasion of the end of the second phase of a project for documenting the Kingdom’s historical sources. He said the museum had stopped a project for preparing an encyclopedia of prominent Saudi personalities including intellectuals, men of letters and historians. However, he hinted that it would restart the project after completing documentation from historical sources. “Another project we have on hand is to compile an encyclopedia of Saudi history, but it is temporarily stopped in order to collect information from historical sources from all parts of the Kingdom,” he explained.
