RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Muslim leaders and Saudi princes bade farewell to King Fahd yesterday, saying prayers in a jammed mosque and then burying him in an unmarked desert grave in keeping with the kingdom’s ultra conservative Wahhabi Islam.

Mourners – all men from the Saudi royal family – crowded into al-Oud cemetery, a desert plain with patches of brush among piles of dirt and small uninscribed stones marking the graves. Snipers kept watch from nearby buildings. The body of Fahd, who died Monday at age 84, was covered in his brown abaya cloak, which was removed before family members lowered the body into the grave in a white shroud.

Mourners packed the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque to say prayers for the man who led this oil-rich country for almost a quarter-century. Fahd’s body was carried in on a wooden plank by his sons and placed in the middle of the mosque amid a crowd of thousands, including his successor, King Abdullah.

After the burial, King Abdullah went to the royal court, where Saudis and foreign dignitaries filed by to express condolences. Today, the new king will hold audiences with Saudis pledging their allegiance to him in a traditional investiture ceremony.

The funeral rites were stark and simple despite the presence of royals, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the emirs of Persian Gulf nations, and the sultan of Brunei, and the presidents of Islamic and Arab powerhouses such as Egypt, Syria, and Pakistan. Iraq’s prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaa fari, also attended.

Non-Muslims were not allowed at the funeral. Heads of state and delegations from Western nations, including Vice President Cheney, Britain’s Prince Charles, and France’s President Chirac, were expected to attend today’s events.

Security was tight throughout the capital, with hundreds of police deploying in and around the mosque during the prayer for the dead. Shops and roads in a 650-foot radius around the mosque were closed and police used dogs and X-ray devices to check cars.

Saudis flocked to express their condolences and their allegiance to King Abdullah, Fahd’s half-brother. King Abdullah took the throne after Fahd’s death in a smooth succession that suggested the sprawling royal family was unified in the need to show stability in the first change in the monarchy in 23 years.

Well-wishers lined up at the palaces of provincial governors across the country to pledge loyalty to King Abdullah, who had been the kingdom’s de facto ruler since Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke in 1995.

Saudi and pan-Arab newspapers were packed with poems and tributes to the late king and vows of loyalty to Abdullah. Businessmen, government agencies, and private individuals took out full page – or even two page – advertisements with their condolences, with large photos of the late monarch.

For now, King Abdullah’s accession smooths over a potential long-term rivalry between him and the circle of Fahd’s full brothers known as the Sudairi Seven, after their mother. All are sons of Saudi Arabia’s founder, Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, but he had numerous wives.

Under Fahd, the Sudairi Seven dominated some of the government’s most powerful posts. While they will stay in their positions, the next generation of royals – Abdul-Aziz’s grandsons – are jockeying for position, with an eye on the still-unclear succession in the years ahead when Abdullah and Sultan’s aging generation moves aside.

One key post that may be the focus of deal making and contention in is the intelligence minister, a powerful position empty since January in which Abdullah may want to install a loyalist.