大象传媒

Saudi Arabia has been in the public eye recently, not least because of the death of King Abdullah. In the second 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 through to the current reign of King Salman.

Having followed the dramatic events that led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its rise, in less than 50 years, to the status of global power, Tarek sees how that establishment was suddenly challenged. At the end of the 1970's - when Saudi Arabia was experiencing immense affluence and rapid development - a conservative religious backlash struck at the foundations of the Kingdom.

In 1979, religious extremists stage an armed takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Iranian Revolution took place on the other side of the Persian Gulf and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. These three events, in different ways, posed significant challenges to Saudi Arabia, made the Kingdom change course and led to a more conservative balance of power in the Saudi establishment.

The 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait coincided with the return of thousands of Saudi jihadis who had been fighting in Afghanistan only to find half a million US military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia, shoring up its defences. The following decade witnessed repeated attempts by jihadi groups to strike the US that has sullied Islam's sacred land, a campaign that culminated in 9/11, 15 of the 19 hijackers being Saudi nationals. A few years later, the "jihad abroad" was brought back home. Saudi Arabia was to endure ferocious jihadist strikes.

Having successfully suppressed extremist violence, again the Kingdom is poised for another period of shock and uncertainty as the wave of Arab uprisings and their aftermath rocks the region.

Producer Neil McCarthy.