Saudi-Iraqi Relations, 1921-1958

During the period of state formation in the 1920s, Saudi Arabia and Iraq embarked on two different paths with competing visions for managing the border. This generated mistrust on both sides, leading to a gradual process of estrangement that lasted through the 1950s and beyond. Nevertheless, the two countries had a remarkable influence on one another, so that their relations came to have an unforeseen and long-lasting impact on their domestic politics. Ibn Saud made strenuous efforts to preserve the socio-economic ties that united the communities of southern Iraq with the Najd. In turn, those efforts helped encourage a wave of Sunni Arab migrants from Iraq who helped build the Saudi state. Iraqi politicians and clerics attempted to use the issue of Ikhwan raids as a rallying cry for promoting their political agendas. In turn, those attempts contributed to a growing sectarian discourse, undermining the nationalist rhetoric that had flourished during the 1920 Revolution. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have a shared history and their growth as modern nation-states must be understood in that joint context. This study establishes a new narrative and timeline for bilateral relations between the two countries, while examining the word of other Arab and Western scholars in order to excavate the prejudices and biases that have underlined so much of the previous work on this topic. In doing so, it proposes a new way of looking at state formation and boundaries in the Middle East, by showing the ways that regional neighbors left an indelible imprint on each other in this formative period of growth.