The Quiet Founding of the First Saudi State: Historiography, Statecraft, and Regional Positioning in Diriyah Under Imam Mohammad ibn Saud (1727–1744 CE)

This study examines the first seventeen years of Imam Mohammad ibn Saud's rule in Diriyah, from his accession in 1727 CE (1139 AH) to his alliance with Sheikh Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in 1744 CE. Long treated as a prelude to that alliance, the period is analyzed here as the founding phase of the First Saudi State, as formally recognized by the 2022 Royal Order establishing Founding Day. Combining the analytical-historical method with a structural approach, the study applies a three-level critical framework (external criticism, internal criticism, and contextual analysis) to the Najdi chronicles, a hostile contemporary narrative, and more than twenty regional, archaeological, numismatic, and memory studies published between 2021 and 2026. The results show that Diriyah expanded little in territory during these years yet built a coherent political order under severe structural constraint. That order rested on four elements: a defensive balance toward Banu Khalid and other stronger neighbors; durable local alliances; the careful management of settled–Bedouin relations within a subsistence oasis economy; and a pre-ideological discourse of lineage, security, and justice that converted practical performance into symbolic capital. This strategy of latency kept the ruling house cohesive, preserved the emirate's autonomy, and gave Diriyah the stability that later allowed it to adopt and sustain a broader religious and political project. The findings support the historiographical dating of the Saudi state to 1727, show that the accumulation of legitimacy preceded the growth of coercive and fiscal capacity, and identify the founding phase as the institutional and symbolic reference point of the Kingdom's contemporary national narrative and of Saudi Vision 2030.