This publication organises and presents for the first time an extensive collection of letters from and to the Saudi leader reflecting the evolution over fifty years of his status, authority, style and statesmanship. For the most part, the letters are in both Arabic and English. The first items date from the years after his fabled recapture of Riyadh in 1902, when Abdul Aziz emerged as Amir of Nejd. The last letters are from the year of King Abdul Aziz s death, 1953. In between there are such historical highlights as the resistance to the Turks culminating in their defeat and removal; relations with the Sharif of Mecca; correspondence with Philby; relations with Al-Rashid, tribal raiding and the problems of controlling the Ikhwan; relations with Hijaz; the boundary with Jordan; regional politics with Iraq, Kuwait and Yemen; and in the later years, concerns with customs, oil exploitation and development.
