大象传媒

Saudi Arabia has been in the public eye recently, not least because of the death of King Abdullah. In the first part of a new series, Egyptian writer Tarek Osman examines the history of this desert kingdom and asks why it is still so relevant and yet so misunderstood.

His journey takes him from the origins of the modern Kingdom to the current reign of King Salman.

Tracing a line back to the desert sands of the Arabian Peninsula in the 18th century and a pact made between the Al Saud royal family and the founders of an austere school of Islam, Wahhabism, we see how an alliance between monarchy and religion forms the core of the nation's existence in a volatile region.

Drawing on this religious legitimacy, the founder of the modern Kingdom, Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud embarks on a conquest of the Arabian Peninsula in the early 20th century and after a dramatic desert campaign, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is born.

With the discovery of oil Tarek charts the rise of the Kingdom and its place as a global energy power. An enduring relationship with the United States based on 'oil for security' is rocked during the 1973 Oil Crisis, when King Faisal uses energy prices as leverage against the West in response to American involvement with Israel in the Arab-Israeli War.

Larger and larger oil revenues lead to rapid development and reforms. However this modernization comes at a cost and incurs a backlash by conservative Saudi forces which shakes the foundations of the Kingdom.

Producer Neil McCarthy.