Iffat Al-Thunayan - Marriage With Faisal

Marriage With Faisal

In 1931, Prince Faisal met Iffat for the first time while she was undertaking a Makkah pilgrimage with her aunt. Prince Faisal, who served as deputy for the Hijaz province, took Iffat back to Turkey with her aunt.

Because neither spoke the other's language, they taught each other. Four of their children learned Turkish at home. Iffat became a fluent Arabic-speaker but never lost her Turkish accent.

The couple had nine children – five sons and four daughters. Iffat was the mother of Mohammed, Bandar, Saud, Turki, Abdul Rahman, Lulwah, and Haifa. Their sons are very educated and are alumni of Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, Sandhurst, and Cranwell. She contracted foreign tutors to educate her daughters. The daughters later received additional education in Switzerland. In stark contrast, only 6 of the 107 children of Faisal's older brother – Saud— even completed high school.