Saudi, Inc.: The Arabian Kingdom's Pursuit of Profit and Power

A history of the most profitable company in the world, Saudi Aramco, and the story behind the family that ruthlessly maneuvered to control this multi-trillion dollar enterprise. The Saudi royal family and Aramco leadership are, and almost always have been, motivated by ambitions of long-term strength and profit.  They use Islamic law, traditional ideology, and harsh justice to maintain stability and their own power, but underneath the _thobes_ and _abayas_ and behind the religious fanaticism and illiberalism lies a most sophisticated and ruthless business enterprise.  Today, that corporation is poised to pull off the biggest IPO in history. Over more than a century, fed by ambition and oil wealth, _al Saud_, as the royal family is known, has come from next to nothing to rule as absolute monarchs, a contrast with the world around them and modernity itself.  The story starts with Saudi Arabia's founder, Abdul Aziz, a lowly refugee embarking on a daring gambit to reconquer his family's ancestral home?the mud-walled city of Riyadh. It takes readers almost to present day, when the multinational family business has made _al Saud_ the wealthiest family in the world and on the cusp of a new transformation.  Now _al Saud_ and its family business, Aramco, are embarking on their most ambitious move: taking the company public and preparing the country for the next generation.