In 1925, the house of Saud drove the Hashemite clan from their historic fiefdom of the Hejaz, which includes the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and which their ancestors had ruled since the 10th century, thus inaugurating a rivalry that persists today. But, on June 1, the granddaughter of a cousin of the Saudi king wed the Hashemite crown prince of Jordan. The marriage, like the dynastic unions of pre-20th-century Europe, is thus laden with diplomatic significance, as Harold Rhode explains:
In Muslim culture, bygones are rarely bygones. Muslims are prepared to wait for generations if necessary to avenge their defeats or perceived slights to their honor. Nevertheless, there are ways to mollify such disputes. One of the most important is for senior members of tribes, clans, and family units to sit down and work out a truce. In order to cement this truce, they then marry their sons and daughters to members of their opponents’ clan.
The marriage of Crown Prince Hussein and Rajwa al-Seif is a case in point and a particularly significant one. That such an important branch of the Saudi royal establishment was prepared to let one of its own daughters marry into the Jordanian Hashemite ruling family indicates that, after 100 years of enmity, the Saudi royal family feels secure enough to bury the hatchet and build a familial alliance with its rivals. It also shows that the Hashemites are willing to put aside their unspoken but ever-present claims to Mecca, at least for the time being.
All of this has major ramifications for the political future of the Middle East. . . . The Saudis and Jordanians share the same enemies: radical Sunni Islam, led by the Muslim Brotherhood and the likes of al-Qaeda, and radical Shiite Islam led by the Iranian regime. Thus, an alliance between the Saudis and the Jordanians makes geopolitical and ideological sense.
The rapprochement between the two countries and their ruling tribes also has ramifications for Israel, which shares these same enemies. Although it is rarely made public, the Saudis and the Hashemites view the Palestinian Authority, Hamas (a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood), and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (backed by Iran) as mortal enemies. These three groups are also threats to Israel.
Read more on JNS: https://www.jns.org/jns/saudi-arabia/23/6/7/293437/