When people talk about Royal families, they mostly talk about European families. The royal family of Monaco, Britain, Dutch’s royal family and so on. But the Saudi Royal family should be mentioned in the same group as them.
In Fact, the Saudi royal family, called House of Saud is much bigger. Some estimates are that the Saudi royal family is composed of 15,000 members. However, majority of wealth and power is possessed by a group of 2,000 members.
The most influential member of the family is the King of Saudi Arabia. King Salman is the current King. The monarchy is hereditary now, but with a royal degree in 2006, the family decided the future king to be chosen by a committee of Saudi princess.
The House of Saud has gone through three phases. Those are the First Saudi State, the Second Saudi State, and the modern nation of Saudi Arabia.
The main characteristic of the first Saudi state was the expansion of Wahhabism. The second state was marked with continuous infighting. Modern Saudi Arabia is considered one of the most influential countries in the Middle East.
