When Shah Faisal Was Shot: Im Not Seen Shah Friend And My Father So Much Pain

These are the words of Dr. May Yemeni, daughter of Ahmed Zaki Yemeni, Saudi ruler King Faisal’s Minister of Petroleum, in 1975.
Dr. May Yemeni, speaking to the BBC in 2017, said, I saw and felt the pain, anguish and anguish on my father’s face. My father was standing next to his dear friend and teacher when he was shot.

It was March 25, 1975 (12 Rabi al-Awwal in the Hijri calendar this year) when Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was meeting people on the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, and a Kuwaiti delegation was also waiting to meet him in the waiting room.

Faisal bin Musaed, King Faisal’s nephew, was busy talking to the Kuwaiti delegation. When the time came for the delegation to meet, King Faisal moved forward to kiss his nephew, Faisal bin Musaed.

At that moment, the nephew suddenly pulled out a revolver from his holster and fired three shots at King Faisal. The first bullet fired by the assassin hit King Faisal in the shoulder, the second in the ear, and he survived the third bullet.

Dr. May Yemeni’s father, Ahmed Zaki Yemeni, was also near King Faisal at that moment and was introducing him to the delegation.

After the attack, King Faisal was immediately taken to the hospital, but due to deep wounds and excessive bleeding, his life could not be saved and he died.

Just a few miles from where King Faisal was shot, 18-year-old May Yemeni was waiting for him in her father’s apartment.

She said, I was waiting for him in a room full of books in my father’s apartment when my father entered the apartment, his face showing signs of severe pain. He went into another room without meeting me. I was just thinking about following him into that room when I heard him shouting in a very loud voice, something like this had never happened before.
Dr. May Yemeni said, When King Faisal was shot, my father went with him to the hospital and supervised all the matters. My father even confirmed King Faisal’s death.

She says, The news of King Faisal’s death spread very quickly in Riyadh. The streets, neighborhoods, roads and squares all became empty, silent and deserted. A strange, painful silence fell everywhere.

According to the information available about Faisal bin Abdulaziz, he was born on April 14, 1906 in Riyadh. He was the third son of King Abdulaziz. His mother, Bartha bint Abdullah, belonged to the religious family of Abdul Wahhab and was married after King Abdulaziz conquered Riyadh. Faisal was only six months old when his mother died. He was raised by his maternal grandparents and was also responsible for his early education.

In 1919, the British government invited King Abdulaziz to London, but he could not go due to personal commitments, but it was decided that his eldest son, Prince Turki, would go in his place, but Prince Turki had died due to the Spanish flu. So now the lot fell in the name of Prince Faisal and he became the first member of the Saudi family to visit England. His visit lasted five months and during this time he also saw France.

His father often entrusted him with important responsibilities and believed that Faisal was perfectly capable of handling these responsibilities. He was sent with armed forces to control the province of Asir in 1922, which was a successful strategy, and in 1926 he was made viceroy of the Hejaz and also served as interior minister.
After the death of King Abdulaziz in 1953, his eldest son Saud was made king, while Faisal became crown prince.

King Saud did not have as much control over the affairs of the kingdom as his father had, nor did he have any significant experience in domestic or foreign policy. The royal family soon realized this and that is why pressure was put on King Saud to make Prince Faisal prime minister and give him more powers. By then, Gamal Nasser had overthrown the king in neighboring Egypt and there were fears that the same might happen here.

However, the power struggle between King Saud and King Faisal continued, and in December 1960, Prince Faisal resigned as prime minister, although he remained crown prince. Some time later, he regained family support and became prime minister for a second time.

He finally demanded that the king hand over power to him. The scholars issued not one but two fatwas in his favor, urging King Saud to step down in their favor for the good of the country. The royal family supported the fatwa, and Faisal was crowned king of Saudi Arabia on November 2, 1964.

King Faisal a "progressive"?

As soon as he became king, King Faisal first brought together his family members to form a council to choose the future king so that the issue of who should be the next king could be permanently resolved, and then he appointed important members of the royal family to important positions, including all his half-brothers.

He made several popular decisions that won him great popularity among the public. One of them was that Saudi princes should educate their children in the country’s schools instead of sending them abroad. Similarly, he emphasized the education of girls, established the country’s first Ministry of Justice, and laid the foundation stone for the first five-year development plan.

In 1962, he also issued a decree completely abolishing slavery or slave ownership in the country. It should be remembered that until then, it had been going on in one form or another.

Who was Faisal bin Musaed, the one who killed King Faisal?

Faisal bin Musaed was the son of King Faisal’s half-brother Musaed bin Abdulaziz.

Faisal bin Musaed was born on April 4, 1944 and was sentenced to death on June 18, 1975 for the assassination of King Faisal and was beheaded in front of a large crowd in the central square of Riyadh a few hours later.

Not much has been written about Faisal bin Musaed’s life. Faisal bin Musaed went to the United States to study, where he enrolled at San Francisco State College. He also studied at the University of California and the University of Colorado.

After the assassination of King Faisal, it was initially said that he was suffering from ‘mental imbalance’. In a statement after the assassination, the royal cabinet formally declared him ‘insane’. However, doctors certified that Faisal bin Musaed was completely sane after an examination.

Drug incidents are also linked to him, and it is said that once he returned to Saudi Arabia, his passport was confiscated because he was bringing dishonor to Saudi Arabia abroad.
May Yemeni recalled the time of the assassination attempt on King Faisal, saying, "I had never seen my father in more pain than that time. If my father's face comes before my eyes today, I shudder to think how much pain my father was in at that time."

Ahmed Zaki Yemeni served as Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum for 11 years after King Faisal's death.

Ahmed Zaki Yemeni's daughter, May Yemeni, went to the United States to pursue higher education and was the first Saudi to receive a doctorate from Oxford.

May Yemeni received her early education in Baghdad, Mecca, and Lausanne. She received a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, and a MA in Social Anthropology from Oxford University.