Leaving Riyadh: Exile in Kuwait

After Mohammad ibn Rashid left, the Saudi family left Riyadh. Their departure, and the unsettled time that followed, lasted from 1309 to 1311 AH. Because of his political standing, Imam Abdulrahman could not stay in any of the region’s political centres. For a few months to a year he lived among the Al-Murrah and Ajman tribes.

In 1309 AH he sent the women of the family, with Abdulaziz, to Bahrain, to stay with Sheikh Essa Al-Khalifa. He could not go to Al-Ahsa, which was under Ottoman authority. Kuwait was the most suitable refuge, but its ruler, Mohammed ibn Sabah, first needed the approval of both the Ottoman state and Britain. Once it was given, Imam Abdulrahman settled in Kuwait in 1311 AH.

While the family was in Kuwait, Mubarak Al-Sabah came to power after a conflict with his brothers, and Yusuf Al-Ibrahim departed.

“Fear for your chair from one person”

Ibn Rakhees’s remark still troubled Mohammad ibn Rashid. He sent Ali Al-Mejrad, a man of Ha’il who was close to him, also known for his farasah, and who had not heard the remark. Officially, Al-Mejrad was to deliver a letter to Mubarak Al-Sabah. His real task was to visit Imam Abdulrahman and observe the Imam and his sons.

Mubarak Al-Sabah understood that the letter was not the real purpose of the visit. On the third day Al-Mejrad asked permission to visit “our Imam”, a sign of how highly Imam Abdulrahman was regarded even among Ibn Rashid’s men. He spent about ten days attending the Imam’s council. The Imam’s sons with him in Kuwait then were Mohammed and Abdulaziz.

Back in Ha’il he told Ibn Rashid: “Fear for your chair from one person: Abdulaziz ibn Abdulrahman.” Asked why him, and not Mohammed or Imam Abdulrahman, he replied: “I saw a brilliant heart between his shoulders, a character with limitless ambition, and a soul that embodies all aspects of leadership.”

Ambition

Around 1315 AH, the story goes, Abdulaziz was sitting with other young men in Kuwait, drawing in the sand with his stick (mehjan) while they talked and laughed. Asked why he was not listening, he said he was thinking about how he would rule Najd from east to west and from south to north. Even as a boy, when teams were picked, he would ask, “Who will join me?” He led, and he never accepted being led.

He lived in Kuwait for almost seven years and by 1318 AH was about twenty-two or twenty-three. He would leave the house at night, and servants sent by his father found that he went to sit alone on a hill to think. When they asked him the next day, he said he was thinking about how to recover Riyadh.

His sister, Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman, was close to him and encouraged his ambition, and he took pride in her name.

Until 1318 AH, Imam Abdulrahman would raid Ibn Rashid’s territory and return. Abdulaziz pressed him to put his plan into action. His father, not wanting to risk his young son, told him to be patient until they had gathered men and guns.