{{short description|1727–1818 state ruled by the House of Saud}} {{Expand Arabic|topic=hist|الدولة السعودية الأولى|date=February 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox country | conventional_long_name = Emirate of Diriyah | native_name = {{native name|AR|إِمَارَةُ الدِّرْعِيَّةِ}} | common_name = First Saudi state | year_start = 1744 | year_end = 1818 | event_start = Diriyah established | event1 = Diriyah pact | date_event1 = 1744 | event_end = Siege of Diriyah | p1 = Sheikhdom of Diriyah | p2 = Habesh Eyalet{{!}}Hejaz Eyalet | flag_p2 = Flag of the Ottoman Empire (1844–1922).svg | p3 = Bani Khalid Emirate | p4 = Omani Empire | flag_p4 = Flag of the Imamate of Oman (1954–1959).svg | p5 = Qasimid State | p6 = Principality of Abu 'Arish | s1 = Ottoman Egypt | flag_s1 = Flag of Egypt (1844-1867).svg | s2 = Mu'ammarid Imamate | flag_s2 = | image_flag = Flag of the First and Second Saudi State (1744-1891).svg | flag_type = Flag | image_map = File:The First Saudi State Greatest Extent.png | map_width = 250px | capital = Diriyah | common_languages = Arabic | title_leader = Emir | year_leader1 = 1744–1765 | leader1 = Muhammad bin Saud | year_leader2 = 1765–1803 | leader2 = Abdulaziz bin Muhammad | year_leader3 = 1803–1814 | leader3 = Saud bin Abdulaziz | year_leader4 = 1814–1818 | leader4 = Abdullah bin Saud | status = Emirate | religion = Sunni Islam | demonym = | government_type = Monarchy | area_km2 = | area_rank = | GDP_PPP = | GDP_PPP_year = | HDI = | HDI_year = | flag_p3 = Flag of Bani Khalid Emirate.svg | flag_p1 = Green Flag.svg | currency = Diriyah Riyal | map_caption = Map of the first Saudi state in 1810.<br />Legend: <div style="text-align: left;"> {{legend|#6b8c57|First Saudi state (mainland)}} {{legend|#8eb576|Autonomous regions}} {{legend|#c1e1ad|Vassal states}} </div> | image_map2 = | image_map2_caption = | s3 = | today = {{unbulleted list|{{Flag|Saudi Arabia}}|{{flag|Qatar}}|{{Flag|Kuwait}}|{{Flag|UAE}}|{{Flag|Bahrain}} }} }} {{History of Saudi Arabia}} The '''first Saudi state''' ({{Langx|ar|الدَّوْلَةُ السُّعُودِيَّةُ الْأُولَىٰ|ad-dawla as-suʿūdiyya al-ʾūlā}}), officially the '''Emirate of Diriyah''' ({{Langx|ar|إمارة الدرعية|ʾimāra ad-dirʿiyya}}),<ref>James Norman Dalrymple Anderson. ''The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia''. Stacey International, 1983. p. 77.</ref> was a polity that existed on the Arabian Peninsula between 1744 and 1818.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anishchenkova |first=Valerie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkrEEAAAQBAJ&dq=%2522First+Saudi+state%2522+1744+&pg=PA40 |title=Modern Saudi Arabia |date=2020-06-01 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4408-5705-8 |pages=40 |language=en |quote=The first Saudi state was the Emirate of Diriyah, established in 1744}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Almogren |first=Nawaf Bin Ayyaf(Nawaf Bin Abdulaziz Bin Ayyaf) |title=Diriyah narrated by Its built environment : the story of the first Saudi State (1744-1818) |date=2020-01-01 |hdl=1721.1/127856 |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/127856}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kostiner |first=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7-RZx_QIOsC&dq=%2522First+Saudi+state%2522&pg=PR9 |title=The Making of Saudi Arabia, 1916-1936: From Chieftaincy to Monarchical State |date=1993-12-02 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-536070-7 |language=en |quote=The first two Saudi states (1744-1818 and 1821-91)}}.</ref> The emir of a Najdi town called Diriyah, Muhammad bin Saud Al Muqrin, and the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab signed a pact founding a socio-religious reform movement that propagated the Wahhabi religious doctrine under the political leadership of the House of Saud.<ref>{{cite book|author=Madawi Al Rasheed|author-link=Madawi Al Rasheed|title=A History of Saudi Arabia|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-74754-7 |ref=Ras10}}</ref><ref>Metz 1992</ref>

==History== ===Early establishment=== The House of Saud and its allies quickly rose to become the dominant power in Arabia by first conquering Najd, and then expanding their influence over the eastern coast from Kuwait down to the northern borders of Oman. Saud's forces also captured the highlands of Asir, while Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab wrote letters to people and scholars to join the jihad. After many military campaigns, Muhammad bin Saud died in 1765, leaving the leadership to his son, Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, whose forces captured the Shia holy city of Karbala, in Ottoman Iraq, in 1801. Here they destroyed the shrine of the saints and monuments and killed over 5,000 civilians.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/karbala|title=Karbala|website=iranicaonline.org|access-date=14 November 2017}}</ref> In retribution, Abdulaziz was assassinated by a young Shia in 1803, having followed him back to Najd.

Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab died in 1792. In 1803, eleven years after his death, the son of Abdulaziz bin Muhammad, Saud bin Abdulaziz, sent out forces to bring the region of Hejaz under his rule.<ref>[http://www.islamlife.com/religion2/component/content/article/69-later-scholars/672-biography-of-imam-muhammad-bin-abdul-wahhab Sauds's campaign for Hejaz and the two holy cities] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914081717/http://www.islamlife.com/religion2/component/content/article/69-later-scholars/672-biography-of-imam-muhammad-bin-abdul-wahhab|date=14 September 2010}}, ''Islam Life'' online magazine</ref> Taif was the first city to be captured, and later the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina followed. This was seen as a major challenge to the authority of the Ottoman Empire, which had exercised its rule over the holy cities since 1517.

===Decline of sovereignty=== The task of weakening the grip of the House of Saud was given to the powerful viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, by the Ottomans. This initiated the Ottoman–Saudi War, in which Muhammad Ali sent his troops to the Hejaz region by sea. His son, Ibrahim Pasha, then led Ottoman forces into the heart of Najd, capturing town after town. Saud's successor, his son Abdullah I, was unable to prevent the recapture of the region.<ref name="ibnsaud">[http://www.ibnsaud.info/main/9456.htm Abdullah bin Saud's capture] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106111328/http://ibnsaud.info/main/9456.htm|date=6 January 2010}}, King Abdullah Ibn Saud Information Resource</ref> Finally, Ibrahim reached the Saudi capital at Diriyah. He placed it under siege for several months until it surrendered in the winter of 1818. Ibrahim then shipped off many members of the House of Saud to Egypt and the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Abdullah I was later executed in the Ottoman capital, with his severed head thrown into the waters of the Bosporus, marking the end of what became known as the first Saudi state.<ref name="ibnsaud"/> However, both the followers of the Wahhabi movement and the remaining members of the House of Saud stayed committed. In 1824 they founded a second Saudi state which lasted until 1891. Before the unification of modern Saudi Arabia, several emirates and kingdoms were established in the region, eventually paving the way for the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.<ref name="ibnsaud" />

==Legacy== In 2022, the Saudi government designated 1727, the year Muhammad I assumed leadership of the Sheikhdom of Diriyah, as the official beginning of the first Saudi state. They also designated February 22 as Saudi Founding Day, an annual holiday to celebrate the nation's founding.<ref name="Bunzel">{{cite journal |last1=Bunzel |first1=Cole M. |title=Refounding the Kingdom: Saudi Arabia from Islamism and Wahhabism to ‘Moderate’ Islam |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |date=2 November 2025 |volume=61 |issue=6 |pages=927–941 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2025.2482632}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-21 |title=Saudi Arabia celebrates 3 centuries of glorious history on Founding Day |url=http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/617365 |access-date=2023-03-08 |website=Saudi Gazette |language=English}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Saudi Arabia|Asia}} * History of Saudi Arabia * Unification of Saudi Arabia * Sheikhdom of Diriyah * Second Saudi state * Third Saudi state

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|author1=William Facey|author2=Philip Hawkins|title=Dirʻīyyah and the first Saudi state |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CkzBAAAAIAAJ|access-date=26 December 2011|date=10 March 1997|publisher=Stacey International|isbn=978-0-905743-80-6|ref=Fac97}}

{{Authority control}}{{coord|24|44|N|46|34|E|type:county|display=title}} {{Saudi Arabia topics}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Diriyah, Emirate of}} Category:18th-century establishments in the Arabian Peninsula Category:19th century in the Arabian Peninsula Category:1744 establishments in Asia Category:1818 disestablishments in Asia Category:Anti-Ottomanism Category:Diriyah Category:Former Arab states Category:Former countries in West Asia Category:Former emirates Category:Former monarchies of West Asia Category:History of Saudi Arabia Category:History of the Arabian Peninsula Category:House of Saud Category:Ottoman Arabia Category:States and territories established in 1744 Category:States and territories disestablished in 1818