Abdullah bin Hamoud Al-Turaiqi: His birth, childhood and life 1337- 1418 A.H / 1918- 1997 A.D Historical study

Abstract

This study deals with phases in the life of the first Saudi oil minister Abdullah Al-Turaiqi, who is considered one of the first Arab oil experts, if not the first to specialize  in the field of oil. After he earned a masters degree from a prestigious American university, he returned home to start his career and fulfilled many achievements that made a qualitative leap in the Saudi Arabia. Abdullah Al-Turaiqi grew up in Zulfi, and moved with his father to Kuwait due to his father's business affairs and then moved to India to work with a merchant for two years. Later, he moved to Egypt to finish his secondary and college education. Due to his Academic excellence, he was appreciated and admired by King Abdulaziz, who was keen on educating his people, training them and granting them scholarships. Therefore, Abdullah Al-Turaiqi was one of the first scholarship students sent to America to obtain a masters degree in Geology.  During his time in the USA, he married an American girl called Elinor Ramnitz and had his first male child, whom he named Sakhr. He also married a Lebanese woman named Maha Junblat, with whom he had a girl named Haya.