Early Life
Prince Talal was born in 1931. He was the twentieth son of King Abdulaziz. His mother was an Armenian, Munaiyir, whose family escaped from Armenian massacres experienced in the eastern Anatolia under the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Munaiyir was presented by the emir of Unayza to Ibn Saud in 1921 when she was 12 years old and Ibn Saud was 45. Their first child was born when she was 15 years old, a son named Talal. Following tradition, Munaiyir became known as Umm Talal, "mother of Talal". However, in 1927, the three-year-old Talal died. In 1931, Talal was born and named in honor of his late brother, following the Bedouin tradition. It is unknown when Abdulaziz divorced his fourth wife and formally wed Munaiyir. She is reported by her family to have remained illiterate all her life and convert to Islam. Munaiyir was regarded by British diplomats in Saudi Arabia as one of King Abdulaziz’s favourite wives. She was as known for her intelligence as for her beauty. She died in December 1991.
Prince Talal is the full brother of Prince Nawwaf. During the reign of King Saud, Prince Nawwaf and Prince Talal became bitter enemies, even to the point of contesting their inheritances.
Read more about this topic: Talal Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)