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Since When Is Arabia "Saudi"?

Modern Arabia's big picture

Arabia is ancient, but the story of Saudi Arabia doesn't begin until the 18th century, with the simultaneous rise of two men: Muhammad ibn Saud, a leader in the central Arabian town of Ad Diriyah, and Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, founder of Sunni Islam's puritanical Wahhabi movement.

In the 1740s, Abd al Wahhab traveled to Ad Diriyah, where Muhammad ibn Saud received the young theologian warmly. Soon prince and preacher had pledged loyalty to each other and to the foundation of a properly Islamic state in Arabia.

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