Hafiz Wahba

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Hafiz Wahba
Personal details
Born15 July 1889
Died1967 (aged 77–78)
Rome
NationalitySaudi Arabian
Alma materAl Azhar University

Hafiz Wahba (15 July 1889 - 1967) was an Egyptian diplomat who was then naturalised in Saudi Arabia. Fuad Hamza and he were the first ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, the former in France and the latter in the United Kingdom.[1] In addition, they were among the advisers whom King Abdulaziz employed to improve the decision-making process of the state.[2]

Biography[]

Wahba was born in 1889.[3][4] He was a graduate of Al Azhar University.[4][5] During the British occupation of Egypt Wahba was sent to exile in Malta due to his alleged involvement in the 1919 revolt against British forces.[6] Then he joined in the pan-Islamic Khilafat movement in India.[5] He worked as a school principal in Kuwait.[7]

Wahba's first official task in Saudi Arabia was that of being a tutor to Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz in 1916.[8] He was part of the Abdulaziz Al Saud's campaign against Hijaz.[9] He also acted as a representative of Abdulaziz and was sent by him to Egypt.[9] However, Wahba's attempts in Egypt failed.[9] When Mecca was captured in 1924 Abdulaziz sent him there together with his two other advisors, Abdullah Suleiman and Abdullah Al Damluji, before he himself entered the region.[10] The same year Wahba was appointed the civil governor of Mecca which he held until 1926.[8] At the same time he was part of the eight-member political committee at the Saudi royal court.[11]

In 1928 Wahba was made the head of education directorate which focused on educational activities in Hijaz region.[6] During his term the directorate sent fourteen Saudi students to Al Azhar in Cairo for higher education.[12] The same year Wahba suggested King Abdulaziz to establish a body to control and eliminate the violent attacks of the Ikhwan to pilgrims which negatively affected the income of the country.[13] This body laid the basis of the Committee for the Promotion of Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong.[13]

Wahba was made Saudi envoy to Vatican.[6] He was assigned for the mission of ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom from 10 November 1930[14] to 1956[15] and again from 15 November 1962 until 13 July 1966.[16] On 7 November 1933 the Saudi-American Treaty was signed by Robert W. Bingham, the then American ambassador to Great Britain, on behalf of the United States and Hafiz Wahba on behalf of Saudi Arabia.[17] Wahba accompanied King Abdulaziz in his meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt on 14 February 1945.[18] His first term as the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom ended due to the diplomatic crisis between Saudi Arabia and Britain following the Suez crisis.[16] In 1955 King Saud asked Wahba to return to Riyadh when the relations between Saudi Arabia and Britain became very tense because of the Buraimi dispute.[19]

In May 1959 Wahba was named one of two representatives of the Saudi government as directors of the Arabian American Oil Company.[20][21] The other one was Abdullah Tariki.[20] They were the first Saudi directors of the company.[20]

Personal life and death[]

Wahba married several times, including a Kuwaiti woman.[22] One of his children from this marriage was Mustafa Wahba who was the long-term secretary general of the Communist Party in Saudi Arabia (CPSA).[22][23] Hafiz Wahba also had two daughters from his marriage to this Kuwaiti woman and another son, Ali, from his other marriage.[22]

Wahba died in Rome in 1967.[24][25] He is the author of various books, including Fifty Years in Arabia (1962) and Arabian Days (1964) both of which were published in London.[8]

References[]

  1. ^ Bernard Lewis; Buntzie Ellis Churchill (10 May 2012). Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-101-57523-9.
  2. ^ Joseph Kostiner (July 1985). "On Instruments and Their Designers: The Ikhwan of Najd and the Emergence of the Saudi State". Middle Eastern Studies. 21 (3): 315. doi:10.1080/00263208508700631.
  3. ^ Jorg Matthias Determann (2012). Globalization, the state, and narrative plurality: historiography in Saudi Arabia (PDF) (PhD thesis). SOAS, University of London.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Khalid Abdullah Krairi (October 2016). John Philby and his political roles in the Arabian Peninsula, 1917-1953 (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Birmingham. p. 355. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Michael Farquhar (November 2013). Expanding the Wahhabi Mission: Saudi Arabia, the Islamic University of Medina and the Transnational Religious Economy (PDF) (PhD thesis). The London School of Economics and Political Science.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c Alexei Vassiliev (1 September 2013). The History of Saudi Arabia. Saqi. pp. 15, 299. ISBN 978-0-86356-779-7.
  7. ^ D. van der Meulen (24 October 2018). Wells of Ibn Saud. Taylor & Francis. p. 195. ISBN 978-1-317-84766-3.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c Susan Rose (25 November 2020). The Naval Miscellany: Volume VI. Taylor & Francis. p. 433. ISBN 978-1-00-034082-2.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mohamed Zayyan Aljazairi (1968). Diplomatic history of Saudi Arabia, 1903-1960's (PDF) (MA thesis). University of Arizona. p. 45. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  10. ^ Mansour Alsharidah (July 2020). Merchants without Borders: Qusman Traders in the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean, c. 1850-1950 (PhD thesis). University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. p. 230. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  11. ^ Madawi Al Rasheed (2010). A History of Saudi Arabia (Second ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 83. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511993510. ISBN 978-0-5217-4754-7.
  12. ^ Ahmed Ibrahim Shukri (1972). Education, manpower needs and socio-economic development in Saudi Arabia (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of London. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Madawi Al-Rasheed (15 March 2013). A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia. Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-521-76104-8.
  14. ^ "Freedom of Information Act Request". Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Hafiz Wahba". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b Roderick Parkes (1966). "Notes on the Main Characters". Bloomsbury Collections. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  17. ^ Fahd M. Al Nafjan (1989). The Origins of Saudi-American Relations: From recognition to diplomatic representation (1931-1943) (PhD thesis). University of Kansas. p. 118. ProQuest 303791009. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  18. ^ "Charles Claftin sees History in the making". Acton Beacon. 17 August 1945. p. 7. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  19. ^ Haya Saleh Alhargan (2015). Anglo-Saudi Cultural Relations: Challenges and Opportunities in the Context of Bilateral Ties, 1950-2010 (PDF) (PhD thesis). King’s College, University of London. p. 125. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Two Sheiks Join Aramco Board; Named to Represent the Government of Saudi Arabia". The New York Times. 22 May 1959.
  21. ^ William E. Mulligan (May–June 1984). "A Kingdom and a Company". Aramco World. 25 (3).
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b c "عاش مع الطريقي طفولة الكويت، السيد مصطفى حافظ وهبة لـ"إيلاف" : لم يكن الطريقي متعالياً ولا مغروراً، وعلى طاشكندي أن يراجع كلامه!!". Elaph (in Arabic). 24 June 2003. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  23. ^ Mohammed Turki A. Al Sudairi (2019). "Marx's Arabian Apostles: The Rise and Fall of the Saudi Communist Movement". Middle East Institute. 73 (3): 455–456. doi:10.3751/73.3.15.
  24. ^ "نفته بريطانيا من مصر فعاد إلى لندن سفيرًا للسعودية" (in Arabic). 13 October 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  25. ^ Nabil Mouline (2014). The Clerics of Islam. Religious Authority and Political Power in Saudi Arabia. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. p. 110. doi:10.12987/yale/9780300178906.001.0001. ISBN 9780300178906.
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