The BBC Two ‘House of Saud: A Family at War’ is a three-part investigative series which delves into the House of Saud and examine the challenges facing modern-day Saudi Arabia.
The series starts by looking into the kingdom’s connections to funding hardline Jihadists and looks into challenges facing new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has pledged to transform the country.
But who is the Crown Prince of Saudi and who makes up the rest of the Saudi Arabia royal family tree?
Who is the Crown Prince of Saudi?
The Crown Prince of Saudi is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the son of current King of Saudi Arabia King Salman and from the ruling House of Saud.
Mohammed bin Salman was appointed as the Crown Prince by his father King Salman Bin Abdulaziz on June 21 last year and named as his father’s successor.
King Salman removed his nephew as Crown Prince and gave his 32-year-old son unprecedented powers to overhaul the country’s oil-dependent economy.
The Crown Prince of Saud is the second most important position in Saudi Arabia and is only second to the king and is his designated successor.
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Saudi Arabia royal family tree: King Salman appointed his son Mohammed bin Salman as Crown Prince
First king of Saudi Arabia
The most influential member of the Royal family is the King of Saudi Arabia, currently King Salman.
The succession of the Saudi Arabian throne was designed to pass from the sons of the first king, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, to another.
Ibn Saud was the modern founder of Saudi Arabia and established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
He ruled from 1932-1953 and by the time of his death in 1953, the country stretched from the Gulf to the Red Sea and from Iraq to Yemen.
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Saudi Arabia royal family tree: King Salman assumed the throne in January 2015
King Saud Bin Abdulaziz
When King Abdulaziz died in 1953, his eldest son, King Saud, acceded to the throne.
King Saud Bin Abdulaziz ruled until 1964 in a modern state with a growing oil revenue.
However he oversaw a disordered government that squandered its new found wealth and failed to respond to the needs to a new age.
King Faisal Bin Abdulaziz
King Faisal secured the throne in 1964 and managed to turn Saudi Arabia into a functioning modern state.
He oversaw the rise of Saudi Arabia as a world energy powerhouse during the Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s, but was assassinated by a nephew in 1975.
King Faisal had two sons – Prince Saud Al Faisal who served as foreign minister and Khaled al Faisal who is the current governor of the Mecca province.
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Saudi Arabia royal family tree: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pledged to reform the country
King Khaled Bin Abdulaziz
King Khaled became monarch between 1975 to 1982 as an elderly man.
He was monarch during the 1979 seige of Mecca, in which Islamic extremists seized the holy mosque and could only be forced out after a violent battle.
King Fahd Bin Abdulaziz
King Fahd was a leading member of the government and royal family from the 1960s onwards.
Fahd modernised the kingdom with grand projects but allowed Islamic conservatives greater sway over education and society.
He suffered a stroke in 1995 and never fully recovered, and handed his half-brother Abdullah de facto control of the kingdom more than a decade before his death in 2005.
BBC
BBC Two’s documentary will delve into the House of Saud and the challenges it faces
King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz
King Abdullah became monarch in 2005 after spending a decade as an effective ruler of the country during the illness of King Fahd.
He responded to the 2011 Arab Spring by banning protests and supporting dictatorial allies in neighbouring countries and stood down from the throne in 2015.
Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz
Prince Sultan never actually inherited the throne and died in October 2011 in New York, after six years as heir to his elder half brother King Abdullah.
Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz
Prince Talal is know as the Red Prince for his politically liberal views.
He led the Free Princes movement in the 1960s, which called for the end of the absolute monarchy in Saudi Arabia – reforms his family refused.
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Saudi Arabia royal family tree: Saudi families commemorate the founding of the kingdom
Prince Nayef Bin Abdulaziz
Prince Nayaf succeeded Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz as heir to the throne in October 2011.
He held the position of Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 2011 to 2012.
Prince Muqrin Bin Abdulaziz
Prince Muqrin briefly served as Saudi Arabia’s crown prince until April 2015, when King Salman replaced him with a nephew.
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King Salman lifted a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia
King Salman Bin Abdulaziz
King Salman is the current king of Saudi Arabia and assumed the throne in January 2015 after the death of his half-brother King Abdullah.
He took action to elevate his own son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the second-in-line to the throne and then as crown prince, replacing the King’s nephew Muhammad bin Nayef.
Recently King Salman took bold action to lift the ban on women driving in the country – a move towards a more liberalised Saudi society.
The king ordered the reform in a royal decree requesting that drivers’ licences be issued to women who wanted them.
Under King Salman Saudi Arabia embraced a more aggressive foreign policy, launching a war in Yemen and severing diplomatic ties with Iran and neighbouring Qatar.
House of Saud: A Family at War airs on BBC Two tonight at 9pm.