Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, the powerful US ally who joined Washington's fight against al-Qaida and sought to modernise the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom with incremental but significant reforms, including nudging open greater opportunities for women, has died, according to Saudi state TV. He was 90.
Abdullah's death was announced on Saudi state TV saying the king died after midnight on Friday. His successor is his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman, who has recently taken on the ailing Abdullah's responsibilities, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Abdullah was born in Riyadh in 1923, one of the dozens of sons of Saudi Arabia's founder, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. Like all Abdul-Aziz's sons, Abdullah had only rudimentary education. Tall and heavyset, he felt more at home in the Nejd, the kingdom's desert heartland, riding stallions and hunting with falcons. His strict upbringing was exemplified by three days he spent in prison as a young man as punishment by his father for failing to give his seat to a visitor, a violation of Bedouin hospitality.

Abdullah was selected as crown prince in 1982 on the day his half-brother Fahd ascended to the throne. The decision was challenged by a full brother of Fahd, Prince Sultan, who wanted the title for himself. But the family eventually closed ranks behind Abdullah to prevent splits.

Abdullah became de facto ruler in 1995 when a stroke incapacitated Fahd. Abdullah was believed to have long rankled at the closeness of the alliance with the United States, and as regent he pressed Washington to withdraw the troops it had deployed in the kingdom since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The US finally did so in 2003.

When President George W. Bush came to office, Abdullah again showed his readiness to push against his US allies.
Abdullah had more than 30 children from around a dozen wives.
culled from the huffington post

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