Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia »

Robert Lacey is the author of twenty books, including Majesty, The Year 1000, and the New York Times bestseller The Kingdom. For the last three years he has been living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia sits on one of the richest oil deposits in the world, yet it is also a kingdom whose disaffection produced fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers and whose religious establishment would roll back its values to the time of the Prophet Mohammed. In this immensely important book, journalist Robert Lacey draws on years of access to every circle of Saudi society to give readers the fullest portrait yet of a land straddling the worlds of medievalism and modernism. Moving from the bloody seizure of Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, through the Persian Gulf War, to the delicate U.S.-Saudi relations in a post-9/11 world, Inside the Kingdom brings recent history to vivid life and offers a powerful story of a country learning how not to be at war with itself.

Publishers Weekly

Lacey (The Kingdom) delves into the paradoxes in Saudi society—where women are forbidden to drive but are more likely to attend universities than men—and why this nation yielded most of the terrorist team on September 11, Osama bin Laden and one of the largest group of foreign fighters sent to Guantánamo from Afghanistan. Lacey's conversational tone and anecdotal approach to storytelling and analysis gives us a vivid portrait of personal and political life in Saudi Arabia's public and personal spheres, the traditions that govern everyday life, the country's journey from relative liberalism on the tide of extreme oil wealth in the 1980s to a resurgence of traditionalism. Lacey shows us a land where the governing dynasty gives rehabilitated Guantánamo returnees an $18,000 stipend toward their marriage dowry, and 15 young girls died in a schoolhouse fire in 2002 because they were not properly veiled, and religious police forbade them to escape and prevented firefighters from entering the burning building. Lacey's eye for sweeping trends and the telling detail combined with the depth, breadth and evenhandedness of his research makes for an indispensable guide. (Oct.)

Map: Saudi Arabia and Its Neighbors

Preface: Welcome to the Kingdom

Family Tree: Rulers of the Kingdom

Note on the Islamic Calendar

Pt. 1 Kingdom of God

1 Angry Face 3

2 The Brothers 14

3 Siege 24

4 No Sunni, No Shia 37

5 Vox Populi, Vox Dei 46

6 Salafi Soccer 54

7 Jihad in Afghanistan 62

8 Special Relationship 68

9 Dawn Visitors 78

10 Stars in the Heavens 86

11 Into Exile 97

12 The Dove and the East Wind 105

13 Vacationing Jihadi 114

Pt. 2 Kingdom at War

14 Desert Storm 127

15 Battle for Al-Khafji 141

16 Awakening 148

17 Stopping the Sins 157

18 In from the Cold 167

19 Change of Heart 174

20 Enter the Crown Prince 180

21 The Students 193

22 Infinite Reach 204

23 New Century 214

Pt. 3 Al-Qaeda Comes Home

24 Fifteen Flying Saudis 225

25 Fire 237

26 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula 244

27 Prodigal Sons 253

28 King Abdullah 264

29 Girls of Saudi 274

30 Illegitimate Occupation 284

31 End of the Affair 292

32 Condition of the People 303

Epilogue 316

Time Line 333

Glossary of Names and Arabic Terms 335

Notes 343

Suggested Reading 377

Acknowledgments 381

General Index 389

House of Saud Index 401

Photographic Sources 403