Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is the most prominent member of the Saudi Royal Family and future King of Saudi Arabia.

Early Life and Education

Prince Mohammed was born to King Salman and Fahda bint Falah, the King’s third spouse, in 1985. The Prince is a direct descendant of the Sudairi tribe which heavily influences and shapes the current political landscape of the Kingdom. The Prince graduated with a bachelor degree in law from King Saud University.

Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Career

Prince Mohammed’s rise to one of the most important positions in the Kingdom has been hasty, and has occupied in several key posts in in the Kingdom during a relatively short time. When his father, at the time the Crown Prince, became Defence Minister, Prince Mohammed moved with him and acted as his “Private and Special Advisor”, in what would be a preview of his later role.

The Saudi Prince was appointed President of the Crown Prince’s Court by the father in the rank of Minister taking over from Saud bin Nayef, who moved to occupy Eastern Province governorship post on 25 April 2014. The Prince was also made State Minister at this time.

Prince Mohammed became Minister of Defence at 30 years of age. The Prince took over the defence ministry portfolio at the same age as his predecessor, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, who was the first to occupy the office at the same age and served in the position until he became crown Prince in 2011.

Prince Mohammed was appointed Minister of Defence and named the Secretary General of the Royal Court on 23 January 2015 when the father ascended to the throne as the new King of Saudi Arabia. The Prince was also assigned chief of Royal Protocol and special advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques on January 23 2015. In addition Prince Mohammed’s previous duty as Minister of State continued to run concurrently with the new appointments.

Alsalam Royal Palace

The Royal State Palace is a palace in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was designed for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. It was completed in 1982. The palace is 14,000 sq meters in size internally and is spread over a 65,000 sq meter site. The palace has two storeys and a basement.

Donald Leslie Johnson in his 2013 book Makers of 20th-Century Modern Architecture: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook describes Tange’s “formality and monumental scale are statements highly suggestive of the authoritarianism of Samuri culture”, a formalism as “most suitable” for projects such as the palace and suggests Tange’s formalism was influenced by his early years growing up in Imperial Japan.

The palace was used by Tange as the inspiration for his design for the Presidential Complex in Abuja, Nigeria, the two buildings share with the “facade, the hallway and the composition” of the two buildings reading “identically” in appearance