For nearly 25 years, Ahmed Zaki Yamani was one of the most powerful and recognizable men on the planet. As both the oil minister for Saudi Arabia and the leading force behind the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), he was the super-star player in the world's biggest business.
Brilliant and enormously charming, a man who could move markets with a few simple words, Yamani was heralded as "the best friend the West had in the Middle East." And even when he became the face of the oil embargoes that threatened to cripple Western economies, his skillful handling of those crises earned him the enormous respect of political leaders in the West. At the same time, he suffered the jealousy of kings and princes back home.
In 1975, he faced sudden death not once but twice. His mentor and lifelong support, the legendary King Faisal, was shot dead at his feet. Nine months later, Yamani himself was kidnapped by the terrorist known as, "Carlos the Jackal," and only narrowly escaped with his life.
In October 1986, with oil markets in turmoil, King Fahd ordered Yamani to raise prices and also, at the same time, to increase production. Yamani was not able to make the king understand this economic contradiction and, as a result, a terse government edict brought his career to an abrupt end. Yamani's sudden firing made front page headlines throughout the world.
Written with Yamani's unprecedented cooperation, Robinson met with him in five countries, often staying with him and his family. In addition, he conducted more than 200 interviews with the people who knew him best.
This gripping and intimate account - co-starring King Ibn Saud, King Faisal, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Colonel Qaddafi, Jimmy Carter, the CIA, James Schlesinger, the Shah of Iran, Ronald Reagan and even Nat King Cole - has been heralded as "the best book ever written about the oil business."
A Number 1 international bestseller, the book was nevertheless banned in Saudi Arabia when it was first published, although thousands of copies were smuggled into the Kingdom. At the time, one Saudi news source wrote that, thanks to this book, Jeffrey Robinson was the most famous American in Saudi Arabia, and the only one who could gain entry without a visa. Unfortunately, the news sources added, once in, he would not be permitted to leave.
The Sunday Times: "Superb... Robinson is in a class of his own."
Today: "A sizzler."
Sunday Express: "Bestselling writer Jeffrey Robinson has taken the lid off Yamani's life. "
Wasington Report: "Robinson provides the reader with a portrait of a man who, while claiming he was nothing more than a simple bedouin, became a deft politician and media personality indelibly associated in the public mind with the rise in OPEC economic power and Saudi Arabia's leading position in global oil production."
Wall Street Journal: "A Fascinating portrait of this master politician."
Columnist Liz Smith: "Oil gagsters were referring to the hot book as "the OPEC version of the Andy Warhol diaries."
Financial Times: "Rich in entertaining anecdote. "
Publishers Weekly: "In crisp, straightforward sentences, Robinson describes how Ahmed Zaki Yamani's close relationship with King Faisal, and his own urbane intelligence, made him the dominant industry figure worldwide."
Houston Post: "Yamani emerges from the book as a man of intelligence and charm, deeply devoted to his family and his Moslem faith, who rose from a Mecca boyhood to become a jet-setting world figure and custodian of one-third of the non-communist world's oil."
Globe and Mail: "Riveting, fast paced."
San Francisco Chronicle: "Robinson weaves a fascinating tale."
Philadelphia Inquirer: "A colorful, well rounded biography."
