Leaders gather to pay respects to Saudi king

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- In the end, the resting place for the ruler of one of the world's wealthiest nations was a sparse place. King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz was buried yesterday among hundreds of identical graves, in a sprawling cemetery bordered by hovels of concrete and cinder block. A simple rock marked his interment under gravel and dirt. By sunset, only the curious peered inside.

''God have mercy on him," one of the onlookers whispered, then moved on with a friend.

The burial of Fahd, whose long autumn of ill health ended Monday, was an altogether understated affair. Muslim leaders from around the world paid their respects to a king who ruled for 23 years and was a son of Saudi Arabia's founder, but there was no pomp and little ritual.

In organizing the rites, members of the royal family adhered to the traditions of the conservative brand of Islam that has underpinned its rule. They also offered a metaphor for a complex country, where centuries-old customs are buffeted by change and tradition remains the beacon for navigating challenges ahead.

''There's nothing official, no military parade, no popular march," said Ahmed Mohammed Taha, 48, a teacher who watched the burial in al-Oud Cemetery, enclosed by a simple, tan stone wall. ''The way I saw it, that's the way it's supposed to be."

For decades, the Middle East has witnessed funerals as spectacles.

Many left memories that remain indelible: the millions in Iran who surged toward the corpse of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, with some in the mob knocking it to the ground; the scenes of anguish in Egypt as Gamal Abdel Nasser was buried in 1970, ending an era; the anxiety that engulfed Jordan when King Hussein died in 1999; the pandemonium that greeted the return of Yasser Arafat's body to Ramallah last year.

In the Saudi Arabian capital yesterday, Muslim leaders from North Africa to Southeast Asia joined Saudi princes and residents at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque in an affair that was most remarkable for being undistinguished.

Shrouded in a brown cape, Fahd's body was carried into the mosque atop a bier draped in a Persian carpet and placed in the middle of the hall. The thousands there offered prayers for the dead, broadcast live on Arab satellite television stations. As is customary, they were brief.

Non-Muslims were not allowed; Vice President Dick Cheney, French President Jacques Chirac and many of the other foreign delegations will pay their respects to Fahd's successor and half brother, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, today.

The mosque itself was designed in the architecture of the ascetic, a contrast to the opulent and sometimes extravagant lifestyle of many of the royal family's princes.

The largest in Riyadh, it is an unadorned compound, built of simple stone at sharp angles. Date-laden palm trees surround a courtyard of marble and granite. Simple wooden doors lead to the worship hall, where the dignitaries yesterday stood on red carpets trimmed in green.

Under intense security, Fahd's sons slowly carried his body outside and placed it in an ambulance. The body was taken to the cemetery, an expanse of brown interspersed with a few bushes sprouting between rows of thousands of almost identical plots. In traditional robes and checkered head scarves, members of the royal family gathered over the plot, some carrying umbrellas under a sweltering sun. Snipers watched from nearby rooftops.