King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, who assumed the throne of the desert kingdom in 2005, died earlier today in a hospital. According to the BBC, he was suffering from a lung infection.

He succeeded his brother King Fahd in 2005, though Abdullah had effectively been ruling the country as Crown Prince since Fahd’s stroke in 1995.

The New York Times described Abdullah as making “a constant effort to balance desert traditions with the demands of the modern world.” The Times described the king’s halting efforts to promote equality for women.

Abdullah did make changes that were seen as important in the Saudi context. He allowed women to work as supermarket cashiers and appointed a woman as a deputy minister. At the $12.5 billion research university he built and named for himself, women study beside men.

However, he did not fulfill a promise made to Barbara Walters of ABC News in his first televised interview as king in October 2005: that he would allow women to drive, a hugely contentious issue in Saudi Arabia.

Although he ordered the kingdom’s first elections for municipal councils in 2005, a promised second election, in October 2009, in which women would vote, was postponed until September 2011. Then in March of that year, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs announced that the question of women voting would be put off indefinitely “because of the kingdom’s social customs.”

Abdullah has been succeeded by his brother Salman, who is believed to be 79 and has served as Crown Prince and Defense Minister since 2012.

[Photo: Tribes of the World / Flickr ]