Shah Faisal (Former Prince of Saudi Arabia)

Shah Faisal was a wise and talented person from the beginning.  Sultan Ibn Saud had great confidence in him and preferred Faisal over Saud.  Faisal started performing important feats in his youth.  Hijaz was conquered by Shah Faisal.  In 1920, he was appointed as the governor of Hijaz.  The successful military operation against Yemen in 1934 was carried out under the leadership of Faisal.  They had reached the port of Hodeidah in Yemen and if Ibn Saud had not agreed to a ceasefire, Faisal would have easily conquered the rest of Yemen.

Birth: April on 1905 in Capital of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh).

Mother's Name: Shah Faisal's Mother Name is Tarfa.

Father's Name: Abdul Aziz Bin Al Saood.

Nationality: Saudi Arabia:

As The Crown Prince:

 In 1953, when Saud bin Abdulaziz became king, Faisal was declared the crown prince.  A year later he became the President of the Council of Ministers i.e. the Prime Minister.  During the reign of King Saud, he continued to be the Governor of Hijaz and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the educational and financial reforms and development works that took place during the reign of King Saud were largely the result of Prince Faisal's efforts.

As The Head of State:

 After becoming king, Shah Faisal tried to make the government more public and democratic.  The expenses of the royal family were fixed and more money was spent on education and development works.  Ministers were recruited from among the people rather than from the royal family.

Development work:

 During the eleven-year reign of King Faisal, development works were carried out so frequently and rapidly that Saudi Arabia joined the ranks of prosperous and developed countries from the list of the most backward countries in the world.  Cities and ports were modernized, airports were built, roads were laid across the country, shrines were expanded and various facilities were provided to pilgrims.  The royal palaces were handed over to educational and welfare institutions.  New universities and institutions of higher education were established in Makkah, Jeddah and Riyadh, industries were developed and the first steel factory was established in 1967.  Due to the lack of water in Saudi Arabia, the work of agricultural development is very difficult and during the reign of King Faisal, an attempt was made to solve this problem and new underground reservoirs were discovered and dams were built in places on the rivers by stopping the rainwater.  were done.

Foreign Affairs:

When King Faisal was on the throne, the Arab world was on the path to extreme nationalism, socialism and other un-Islamic ideologies.  These secularists of the Arab world considered Saudi Arabia as an obstacle to their ideals.  Saudi Arabia was accused of being an agent of the United States, although the accused countries were themselves agents of Russia.  During the time of President Gamal Abdul Nasser, like other Arab countries, the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia were also interfered with and an attempt was made to overthrow the government.  King Faisal not only saved Saudi Arabia from all these ideas, but forced many Arab countries to change their views and practices within a few years.  It is a great achievement of Shah Faisal that he made the problem of Palestine, which was considered only an Arab problem, a problem of the Islamic world.

Unity of Islam:

 Unity of Islam was the great motto of Shah Faisal and he was a fortunate man that he achieved unprecedented success in this goal in his lifetime. In 1962, the Islamic World Association was founded, the first truly international organization of Muslims.  Although this organization was established during the time of King Saud, its origin was King Faisal, who was the foreign minister at that time.  After that, Shah Faisal pledged to unite Muslims around the world on the basis of Islam in a gathering of Islamic relations on the occasion of Hajj in April 1965.  In order to achieve his goal, he started visiting Islamic countries from November 8 of the same year.  First went to Iran.  After that, he visited Jordan, Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia respectively.  Shah Faisal.

 He went to Turkey in August 1966 and thus became the first Arab leader to visit Turkey.  This visit not only helped Saudi Arabia and Turkey to come closer to each other, but also started a new era of friendly relations between Arabs and Turks and began to heal the wounds that were inflicted on the Turks due to the Arab revolt.  King Faisal clearly declared in Ankara that the source of our power is only Islam.  On September 19, 1966, Tunisia was the last link in the series of his visits.

Affairs With Pakistan:

Saudi Arabia has had special relations with Pakistan since the beginning.  The first treaty of friendship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was signed in 1951 during the reign of Shah Ibn Saud.  During the reign of Shah Faisal, these relations got a lot of development.  Saudi Arabia is among the few countries that have openly supported Pakistan's stance on the Kashmir issue at the official level.  In the Indo-Pak war of September 1965, Saudi Arabia helped Pakistan on a large scale.  In April 1966, Shah Faisal visited Pakistan for the first time and on this occasion announced that he would bear all the expenses of the main mosque in Islamabad.  This mosque is known worldwide today as Shah Faisal Mosque.  

In 1967, a military cooperation agreement was signed between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan under which Pakistan was entrusted with the task of training Saudi Arabia's land, naval and air forces.  In April 1968, all British aviators and technicians were withdrawn from Saudi Arabia and replaced by Pakistani experts.  During the reign of King Faisal, Saudi Arabia provided financial assistance during the 1973 flood and in December 1975, it also donated one million dollars for the construction and development of the Swat earthquake victims.  In 1971, Shah Faisal was very saddened by the separation of East Pakistan from Pakistan and he did not recognize Bangladesh even after it was recognized by Pakistan.

 The people of Pakistan still look up to him.  A big city of Lyallpur in Punjab province of Pakistan was named Faisalabad after him.