Word: abdullah
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...visit of King Saud of Saudi Arabia to the neighboring sheikdom of Kuwait. A Connecticut-sized chunk of desert bordering on the Persian Gulf, Kuwait is so rich from oil that it literally does not know what to do with all its money. Kuwait's portly ruler, Sheik Abdullah as Salim as Sabah, has an annual income of $200 million but modestly keeps only one wife and a single Cadillac. Saud has a yearly income of $320 million, keeps four wives, some 100 concubines, countless cars...
Preparing for Saud's arrival, Kuwait's lesser sheiks spared no expense. Cabinetmakers and furniture manufacturers were kept busy round the clock for a whole month refurbishing air-conditioned desert palaces. First among the princely spenders was Sheik Abdullah al Mubarak as Sabah, commander in chief of the 3,000-man armed forces, head of the police, Minister of Defense and Broadcasting, and Kuwait's unchallenged strongman. Mubarak already owns a Cadillac with brightware completely goldplated, but to celebrate Saud's coming he ordered another 69 Chevrolets, seven Oldsmobiles and seven more Cadillacs. Triumphal arches...
...other planes bearing a retinue of 58 courtiers and five court jesters. Ostensibly, King Saud was merely returning the Kuwait ruler's visit to Saudi Arabia last October. But word in the souks was that the Saudi monarch had ac tually come to get acquainted with Sheik Abdullah al Mubarak, who, although 25 years the junior of Kuwait's ruler, is nonetheless his uncle and is slated to succeed...
...between four princes and six commoners. The key post of Finance went to Saud's brother Prince Talal, whose powerful voice in the family councils had cinched Feisal's rise and Saud's demotion two years before. The new Minister of Petroleum, Mines and Education is Abdullah Tariki, the aggressively nationalistic University of Texas-trained geologist who in Arab councils argues that all the Arab countries should be getting a larger share of oil-company profits...
Miserable little Qatar (pop. 35,000), a sun-seared knuckle of sand and stone jutting into the Persian Gulf, was a latecomer in the Middle East oil boom. But when oil poured out in 1949 and the gold started pouring in, wizened old (69) Sheik Ali bin Abdullah bin Qasim Al Thani had no trouble adjusting his spending habits to those of the other sheiks of Araby...