SAUDI ARABIA - Profile - Abdullah Ibn Abdel Aziz.

Now the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah heads the conservative wing of the royal family while the Sudairi Seven represent the progressive wing. But after 9/11 (see Parts 1-3 of this survey), as the royal regime came under extremely heavy pressure from the US and various other quarters including radical Wahhabis of Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda, Abdullah has been compelled to consider socio-economic reforms and now he is engaged in dialogues with both conservative and reformist currents in Saudi Arabia.

Born in Riyadh in 1924, Abdullah like Fahd received his primary education at the hands of selected Wahhabi religious scholars and later got training training in religion, chivalry and politics at the royal court. His upbringing was particularly influenced by his maternal uncles, from among the tribal heads of the Shammar confederation, especially from the father of his mother, Al 'Aas Mudney Ibn Shraim who was a famed elder shaikh of the Shammar tribes.