Salman of Saudi Arabia

Salman of Saudi Arabia (born December 31, 1935, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) is king of Saudi Arabia (2015– ) and is expected to be the last of the sons of Abdulaziz ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, to rule the country. Because Salman acceded to the throne at the advanced age of 79, his son Mohammed bin Salman has assumed many of his father’s duties as the head of state and government.

Salman entered government in 1954 as the deputy governor of Riyadh province, and he served as governor from 1955 to 1960. He was once again appointed governor of the province in 1963. His second stint lasted 48 years, during which time he oversaw the capital’s development from a modest city with a population of less than 100,000 into a sprawling metropolis of more than 5 million.

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The last son of King Abdulaziz to take the throne

By the 2010s observers had become wary of the potential for a royal succession crisis. The royal family did not rely on an automatic process of primogeniture (inheritance by the eldest direct descendant), nor did it have an established line of succession. Rather, the designation of an heir apparent depended on the consensus of the royal family, although since 1992 the ruling king could appoint a successor that he presumed the family would support upon his death. But the senior members of the family, the sons of Abdulaziz ibn Saud, were advancing in age, and concerns were growing that the country would see a rapid succession of ailing monarchs. Sultan, who became crown prince in 2005 while reportedly battling cancer, died in October 2011. His brother Nayef was then appointed crown prince but died only eight months later, in June 2012. When it seemed likely that Salman would replace Nayef as crown prince, The New York Times offered this comment about his qualifications: “Prince Salman is believed to have back problems, but no life-threatening illnesses.” When he became crown prince, Salman had at least 15 living brothers and half brothers, and the youngest were in their late 60s.

On January 23, 2015, Salman became king upon the death of his half brother Abdullah, who had ruled Saudi Arabia since 2005. Just days after taking the throne, Salman issued a series of royal decrees that reconfigured government ministries and forced several prominent officials out of their posts, moves that were widely seen as positioning a younger generation to take the reins of policymaking. He appointed his youngest half brother, Muqrin (69), as crown prince—passing controversially over his full brother Ahmad (72)—and made his nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef, the first deputy crown prince from the Saudi family’s third generation. In April he removed Muqrin as crown prince, and Mohammed bin Nayef became the heir apparent.

Handing over the reins: the rise of Mohammed bin Salman

Meanwhile, Salman had appointed his son Mohammed bin Salman as minister of defense, one of the most powerful posts in the Saudi government. Mohammed took quick initiative, launching an aggressive military policy in Yemen to prevent an ally of Iran, the Houthi movement, from gaining a foothold on Saudi Arabia’s southern border. But, outside his role as defense minister, Mohammed also set out an ambitious plan for economic diversification and social reform. In 2017 Salman appointed him to replace Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince.

Salman’s reign was largely overshadowed by his son, who was quickly recognized as the country’s de facto ruler. In the years that followed his appointment as crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman spearheaded a bold foreign policy agenda, a campaign of economic liberalization that also resulted in the loosening of some social restrictions, and a series of crackdowns on dissidents—even detaining rivals such as Ahmad, Salman’s brother, and Mohammed bin Nayef. Salman intervened on rare occasions, such as to manage the fallout from the extrajudicial killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, which had been orchestrated by Mohammed bin Salman. He remained a figurehead in most circumstances, and in 2022 he made the unusual move of appointing Mohammed as prime minister, an office overseeing the Council of Ministers that had traditionally been held by the king.