Saudi Arabia (SAU)Western Asia, AsiaMarch 26, 1964
Event Summary
In March 1964 the Saudi royal family and the ulema stripped King Saud of his powers, the decisive act in the decade long struggle between the king and his half-brother Crown Prince Faisal. Saud, whose spending had driven the state toward insolvency, had tried through late 1963 to claw back authority, forming a rival cabinet in Jeddah and threatening to mobilize the Royal Guard; Faisal, backed by a fatwa from the Grand Mufti calling on the king to yield, ordered the National Guard to surround Saud's Nasriyah palace. Saud's attempts to recover power continued, and on November 2, 1964 a second fatwa and the assembled royal elders formally deposed him; Faisal became king, and Saud went into exile, first in Egypt, where Nasser hosted him as a weapon against Riyadh, and finally in Greece, dying in Athens in 1969.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: King Saud bin Abdulaziz, stripped of executive power in March 1964 in favor of Faisal as regent, formally deposed on November 2, 1964, and thereafter exiled, living in Egypt and then Greece until his death in Athens in 1969.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Saud bin Abdulaziz (king, stripped of powers and later deposed and exiled)
Faisal bin Abdulaziz (crown prince, regent from March 1964, king from November 2, 1964)
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh (Grand Mufti whose fatwas sanctioned the transfer and deposition)
The senior princes and ulema (the deciding coalition)
Sources
As the succession struggle peaked, the royal assembly supported Faisal and proposed Saud's deposition, the Grand Mufti issued a fatwa calling on the king to accede to his brother's demands, and when Saud deployed the Royal Guard at Nasriyah Palace, Faisal ordered the National Guard to surround it; outnumbered and outgunned, Saud relented, and on 4 March 1964 Faisal was appointed regent, with a meeting of royal elders and ulema later that year producing a second fatwa deposing Saud.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Faisal of Saudi Arabiaopen source ↗
Saud had continued attempts to regain power, forming a cabinet in Jeddah in December 1963 and ordering Mecca radio to announce it, but forces loyal to Faisal besieged the radio station and blocked the broadcast, and Faisal gave the king an ultimatum; in March 1964 Saud finally relented and named Faisal regent with full executive powers, reducing himself to a figurehead.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Saud of Saudi Arabiaopen source ↗
In 1963 Saud spent long periods abroad for medical treatment and domestic opposition intensified in his absence; the dissidents supported Faisal, in March 1964 all powers were transferred to Faisal as viceroy of the kingdom, and in November of that year Saud was formally deposed, with Faisal becoming king.
A US government area study account records that in March 1964, after months of internal but bloodless struggle among royal factions, Saud was forced to renounce his powers in favor of Faisal, and that on November 2, 1964 the ulema issued a final fatwa deposing Saud and declaring Faisal king, ending nearly a decade of pressure; Saud was forced into exile, living in Egypt and then Greece until his death in Athens in 1969.
SOURCE REVIEWEDGlobalSecurity.org, King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saud (drawing on the Library of Congress country study); exile corroborated by Unofficial Royalty, King Saud of Saudi Arabiaopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Date and coding notes: sources date Faisal's appointment as regent to March 4, 1964 and the formal transfer of all powers to March 1964 generally, while the dataset uses March 26, which falls within the month the arrangements were formalized by decree and fatwa; the definitive deposition and Saud's exile came with the second fatwa of November 2, 1964, so the dataset's exiled fate reflects the sequence's end state rather than the March event alone. The takeover was an intra dynastic palace affair sanctioned by clerical authority, bloodless throughout, with the armed instruments (National Guard versus Royal Guard) deployed for pressure rather than combat. Arc note: Faisal was assassinated by a nephew in March 1975.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: King Saud bin Abdulaziz, stripped of executive power in March 1964 in favor of Faisal as regent, formally deposed on November 2, 1964, and thereafter exiled, living in Egypt and then Greece until his death in Athens in 1969..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; exiled. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Agence France Presse
“Saudi Arabia in royal purge over ’coup plot’,” March 7, 2020
Associated Press
“Saudis’ arrest of 2 princes called a warning to royal family,”, March 8, 2020
New York Times
“Saudi Prince Detains Senior Members of Royal Family,” March 6, 2020
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →