Muhammad bin Saud

Muhammad ibn Saud (Arabic: محمد بن سعود ‎; died 1765), also known as Ibn Saud, was the emir of Ad-Diriyyah and is considered the founder of the First Saudi State and the Saud dynasty, which are technically named for his father – Saud ibn Muhammad ibn Muqrin (died 1725). Ibn Saud's family (then known as the Al Muqrin) traced its descent to the tribe of Banu Hanifa but, despite popular misconceptions, Muhammad ibn Saud was neither a nomadic bedouin nor was he a tribal leader. Rather, he was the chief (emir) of an agricultural settlement near modern-day Riyadh, called Diriyah. Furthermore, he was a competent and ambitious desert warrior.

Alliance with Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab

The initial power base was the town of Ad-Diriyyah, where he met Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab, who came to Ibn Saud for protection. Muhammad ibn Saud granted this and the two decided to work together to implement Ibn Abdel Wahhab's ideas of purifying Islam from innovations (heresies) in its practice by bringing it back to its purest form. They formed an alliance in 1744 which was formalized by the wedding of Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab's daughter to Abdul Aziz, son and successor of Ibn Saud. Thereafter, the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud and the descendants of bin Abdul-Wahhab, the Al ash-Sheikh, have remained closely linked.

Ibn Saud

Abdulaziz ibn Abdul Rahman ibn Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al Saud (Arabic: عبد العزيز بن عبد الرحمن آل سعود‎, ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn ‘Abd ar-Raḥman Āl Sa‘ūd; 15 January 1875 – 9 November 1953), usually known within the Arab world as Abdulaziz and in the West as Ibn Saud, was the first monarch and founder of Saudi Arabia and the House of Saud, the "third Saudi state".

He reconquered his family's ancestral home city of Riyadh in 1902, starting three decades of conquests that made him the ruler of nearly all of central Arabia. He consolidated his control over the Najd in 1922, then conquered the Hejaz in 1925. He extended his dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. As King, he presided over the discovery of petroleum in Saudi Arabia in 1938 and the beginning of large-scale oil production after World War II. He fathered many children, including 45 sons, and all of the subsequent kings of Saudi Arabia.

Early life and family origins

Ibn Saud was born on 15 January 1875 in Riyadh in the region of Najd in central Arabia. He was the son of Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, last ruler of the Emirate of Nejd, the "Second Saudi State", a tribal sheikhdom centered on Riyadh. His family, the House of Saud, had been a power in central Arabia for the previous 130 years. Under the influence and inspiration of Wahhabi Islam, the Saudis had previously attempted to control much of the Arabian peninsula in the form of the Emirate of Diriyah, the "First Saudi State", until its destruction by an Egyptian army in the early 19th century. Ibn Saud's mother was a member of the Sudairi family, Sarah Al Sudairi. She died in 1910.

Muhammad

Muḥammad (Arabic: محمد‎; c. 570 CE – 8 June 632 CE), is the central figure of Islam and widely regarded as its founder. He is known to Muslims as the "Holy Prophet", almost all of whom consider him to be the last prophet sent by God to mankind to restore Islam, which they believe to be the unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, and the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed to him by God, formed the basis of Islamic religious belief.

Born approximately in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age; he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. After his childhood Muhammad primarily worked as a merchant. Occasionally, he would retreat to a cave named Hira in the mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer; later, at age 40, he reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave and received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" (lit. islām) to him is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, similar to the other prophets in Islam.

Muhammad (name)

Muhammad (Arabic: محمد‎) is the primary transliteration of the Arabic given name, مُحَمَّد‎, from the triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D; Praise and becomes conjugated to Muhammad, which means "The Most Praised One". It is the name of the Islamic prophet. Throughout the Muslim world, it is popular to name a male child after him. This name and its variant transliterations are among the most popular names in the world.

Lexicology

The name Muḥammad is the strictest and primary transliteration of the Arabic given name, محمد, that comes from the Arabic passive participle and triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D (Praise); hence Praised, or praiseworthy. However, its actual pronunciation differs colloquially, for example, in Egyptian Arabic: IPA: [mæˈħæmmæd], while in exclusively religious contexts, talking about Islam: IPA: [moˈħæmmæd].

The name has one of the highest spelling variants in the world. Other Arabic names from the same root include Mahmud, Ahmed, Hamed, and Hamid.

Transliterations

Muhammad: The Messenger of God (film)

Muhammad: The Messenger of God is a 2015 Iranian Islamic epic film directed by Majid Majidi and co-written with Kambuzia Partovi. The film is set in the sixth century where the story revolves around the childhood of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The film marks the biggest-budget production in Iranian cinema to date. Development of Muhammad: The Messenger of God began in 2007 and Majidi wrote the first draft of the screenplay by 2009. By 2011, a colossal set created in the city of Qom near Tehran was ready for the majority of the film. Several scenes were filmed in South Africa. Throughout the filming process, Majidi worked with a team of historians and archaeologists for the work on accuracy of the early life of Prophet Muhammad. Post-production works began in Munich during late 2013 and were completed in 2014. The cinematography is done by Vittorio Storaro and film score is composed by A. R. Rahman.

The film was set to have its premiere at the Fajr International Film Festival on 1 February 2015 but was pulled out due to technical difficulties. For the critics, film-makers and journalists, a special screening was held at Cinema Farhang in Iran on 12 February 2015. The film was released both in Iran and at Montreal World Film Festival on 27 August 2015. The film was selected as the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.