PROFILE : KING KHALID BY MR. A.A. RAVOOF
When Khalid ibn Abdul Azeez ascended the throne of Saudi Arabia on the assassination of his elder half-brother King Faisal in the last week of March, on the Prophet's birth day, many did not know much about him. And the few who knew a little wondered how this reluctant monarch, this man who shunned the limelight of publicity and who as a man of the desert, preferred to spend his time with the Bedouin tribes, cultivating contacts with them, who as a lover of wild life founded a local zoo and who as an ardent shikari, hunted big game and decorated the walls of his palace in Riyadh with tiger heads and elephant tusks, can make a good successor to Faisal who by his sagacity exercised powerful influence on West Asian politics and who by his oil diplomacy, had placed a number of developed western countries at Arab mercy.
But opportunities make a man. Khalid, left to himself, would have had nothing to do with the monarchy. But the House of Saud, consisting of over three thousand princes and two thousand princesses which is really the power behind the throne, very thoughtfully, avert family disputes by settling the question of succession long before tragedy overtakes the ruler.
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