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In recent years the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud, has promoted the oil-rich kingdom as an open, liberalizing nation that has invested in culture, tourism, and social innovation to become a beacon for the region. International political manoeuvring, sports sponsorship, and the Vision 2030 programme with its vast architectural planning declare a bold future. But the murder in October 2018 of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul reveals a darker reality: one of intensifying political and religious repression. This is within the tumultuous context of the war in Yemen, sectarian rivalry with Iran, the crisis in Gaza, and volatile relations with the United States.
Malise Ruthven, a leading commentator on Islamic affairs, reconstructs the nation's history. He shows how the royal house co-opted Wahhabism to consolidate its power and enforce authoritarianism in collusion with Western businesses and governments. Unholy Kingdom looks to the nation's future in the hands of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who touts the country's liberalisation while aggressively imposing his will upon the region.
This essential book traces the shifting fault lines in the Middle East to determine Saudi Arabia's place in our volatile times.
List of contents
Map
1. Murder in Istanbul
2. The Wahhabi Mission
3. Ibn Saud Founder of a Kingdom
4. Petroleum and Patriarchy
5. Managing the Ulama and Mismanaging the Hajj
6. Conflicting Currents
7. A Sectarian Outreach
8. Arms and Benefits
9. Family Values
10. Terraforming Arabia
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
About the author
Malise Ruthven worked as an editor with the BBC Arabic Service and World Service in London before teaching Islamic studies and comparative religion at universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the author of several books on Islamic affairs as well as fundamentalism and religion in America. In 2004, London's
Prospect Magazine ranked Ruthven among the 100 top public intellectuals in the UK. His blog on the
New York Review of Books,
Revolution by Latrine, won an award from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2011. He contributes regularly to the
Times Literary Supplement, the
Financial Times, the
New York Review of Books, and the
London Review of Books.
Summary
Religion, oil, and war bent to the House of Saud's will to dominate Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East
Report
Ruthven's unblushing polemic treats Jamal Khashoggi's gruesome murder in Istanbul and its cover-up as representative of the Saudi kingdom's recent policies rather than, as their defenders claim, a regrettable aberration Jonathan Benthall, Books of the Year Times Literary Supplement
