Fahd of Saudi Arabia

King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005

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Lived 1921–2005, aged 84

Historical Figures

Wikipedia
77 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1921–2005
Aged 84
Awards
17
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-09-01

He ruled Saudi Arabia for 23 years — longer than any king before or since — though for the final decade a stroke left him largely absent while his half-brother ran the country in all but name.

Biography

About

Born sometime between 1920 and 1923, Fahd bin Abdulaziz was the eighth son of the kingdom's founder and the eldest of the Sudairi Seven, a powerful bloc of brothers by the same mother. He climbed through the ministries — Education from 1953 to 1962 under King Saud, then Interior until 1975 — before becoming crown prince when his half-brother Khalid took the throne following King Faisal's assassination in 1975. Fahd was already the de facto leader during Khalid's reign, the ailing king a figure more than a force. When Khalid died in 1982, Fahd formally ascended and introduced the Basic Law in 1…

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