Saudi Arabia makes February 22 a holiday to mark Founding Day

Royal decree states that February 22 every year will be an official country-wide holiday

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz. AFP

READ MORE: What is Saudi Arabia's Founding Day?

Saudi Arabia on Thursday announced that February 22 will now be an annual holiday to mark the founding of the state.

The decree, issued by King Salman through the official Saudi Press Agency, said that the move commemorates the history of the state running back hundreds of years.

It is separate from Saudi National Day, which is marked on September 22.

The move is “out of pride in the well-established roots of this state and the close connection of its citizens with its leaders since the era of Imam Muhammad bin Saud three centuries ago”, the decree said.

Muhammad bin Saud, the emir of Al Diriyah, is considered the founding father of the first Saudi state in the mid-1700s and to which the recent leadership can draw a direct line.

Al Diriyah was founded by Prince Mani’ Al Muraydi, 12th generation grandfather of King Abdulaziz.

After Muhammad bin Saud's first Saudi state there were several rulers before the foundation of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.