16. Hossein Kazemzadeh, a Persian writer who made the Hajj pilgrimage in 1910–11, is the source of this population estimate. Peters,
17. “held a moisture…and sweat”:
18. “hodge-podge…earth”: Peters, op. cit., p. 288. “You see rich people…the bushes”: Ibid., p. 275.
19. Ibid., p. 303.
20. Ibid., p. 288.
21. Ibid., p. 106.
22. Covered with bags: Interview with Nadim Bou Fakhreddine, April 26, 2006 (RS). “a small shop”: Interview with Hassan Mahowil Mahmoud Al-Aesa, August 10, 2005. “fruit off a donkey”: FO 371/170190, T. E. Bromley, Damascus to London, December 9, 1963. That his company was founded in 1931: Saudi Binladin Group advertisement,
23. Al-Aesa interview, op. cit.
24. “He knew how…schooling”: Interview with Gerald Auerbach, March 10, 2005. Al-Aesa interview, op. cit.
25. Al-Aesa interview, op. cit. His account of these years is corroborated by the Jeddah historian Sami Saleh Nawar, director of Naseef House, who has interviewed other former colleagues of Mohamed Bin Laden from this period.
2. THE ROYAL GARAGE
1. More than fifty-two battles: Al-Rasheed,
2. “like a father…this sentiment”: FO 141/1094, January 14, 1946. “Praise be…in my territory”: Ibid. “My honor”: DOS 59/7212 Dhahran to Washington, June 14, 1946. “You drink…your colleagues”: Van der Meulen,
3. What Abdulaziz told Philby: Howarth,
4. One American diplomat in Jeddah estimated in a cable dated April 3, 1950, that there were “not more than 2,000 slaves” in the kingdom and that Abdulaziz owned “some 200.” A second American diplomat, on October 2, 1951, quoted a “reliable” estimate of 50,000 slaves in Saudi Arabia. Those numbers would seem to provide a very rough boundary of the population; the inherent difficulty of such estimates was compounded by the ambiguous position of many slaves in Saudi households, where some enjoyed considerable status and were indistinguishable from free servants.
5. Quoted in “The House of Saud,” Algeria Productions, 2004.
6. “Here we are…be modern”: “Travels to Arabia,” op. cit. Negotiating with Islamic scholars about radio knobs:
7. Philby’s degree and service: “Travels to Arabia,” op. cit. “stocky, bearded…out of step”: Howarth,
8. Philby’s contract:
9. Telephone interview with Tim Barger, March 7, 2006. Barger recorded some of his father’s recollections for a private oral history project; he later worked in Jeddah, where he became acquainted with Salem Bin Laden. American report, 1935: DOS 59 “The Bin Ladin Construction Empire,” Jeddah to Washington, September 25, 1967.
10. Quoted in Abdulrahman Alangari,
11. Materials at the surviving portions of the palace, which houses the King Abdulaziz Foundation, report that construction began in 1934 and ended in 1939. The Saudi historian Madawi Al-Rasheed writes that the palace was started in 1936 “out of the first cheque paid by the oil company” and was finished in 1937.
12. “had a vision…the royalty”: Interview with Mohamed Ashmawi, November 26, 2005 (RS). “many royal orders”: “Mohamed bin Awad Binladen: From a Building Laborer to the Owner of the Biggest Construction Company in the Middle East,”
13. The figures of $38 million and $13 million are from DOS 59/7207 Murray to Acheson, January 27, 1945. This is the oft-quoted memo laying out American strategy in Saudi Arabia for decades to come; the December 22, 1944, memo quoted here, “A strong…airfields,” is from 59/7211 and probably was an earlier draft by Murray.
14. Bronson,
15. DOS 59/7209 Jeddah to Washington, December 27, 1948.
16. Export figures:
17. Stegner in
18. Interview with Hassan Mahowil Mahmoud Al-Aesa, August 10, 2005.
19. Bin Mahfouz biography is from www.binmahfouz.info, the family’s official Web site, and from the author’s visit to Khraiker, March 17, 2007. Naming compact between Bin Laden and Bin Mahfouz is from an interview with a person close to the Bin Laden family. Documents submitted to an American court by the Bin Ladens in a civil lawsuit show that Aysha was born during the Hijra year 1362, which corresponded almost exactly to the Georgian calendar year of 1943. Salem’s Hijra birth year is not given. A longtime friend and employee of Salem’s, Bengt Johansson, said that Salem’s passport read that he was born in 1946, but that Salem said that his true birth year was probably 1944 or 1945.
20. Interview with Al-Aesa, op. cit.
21. Debts of $20 million and $40 million is from a conversation held by an American diplomat with Sayyid Hussain Al-Attas, a Hadhrami banker in Jeddah DOS 59/7211, August 16, 1949. The $250,000 kitchen and $600,000 trip to Paris: 59/7212, July 30, 1949, citing a conversation with a Bechtel Corporation executive. “construction projects…enormous family”: FO 371/82638 “Annual Review for 1949.”
3. SILENT PARTNERS
1. Suleiman’s biography: Al-Rasheed,
2. “reputed to be a silent partner”: Department of State 59, “The Bin Ladin Construction Empire,” Jeddah to Washington, September 25, 1967. Suleiman’s palace cost $3 million: DOS 59/5467 Jeddah to Washington, April 12, 1953. Bahareth was Suleiman’s secretary: DOS 59/5471 Jeddah to Washington, October 4, 1953.
