Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Wahhabi Islam & the Al-Sauds
In 1703 a seemingly insignificant man was born in the insignificant oasis village of Al-
Uyaynah in the Wadi Hanifa of central Arabia. Yet this man - Mohammed ibn Abd al-
Wahhab - would ultimately transform the lives of all the inhabitants of the Arabian Penin-
sula. After a period of itinerant religious scholarship, Al-Wahhab returned to Al-Uyaynah
and preached his message calling for the purification of Islam and a return to the original
values proclaimed by the Prophet Mohammed.
Al-Wahhab's reformist agenda was initially successful and he converted the local sheik
to his message. But the severe punishments Al-Wahhab meted out to those he accused of
sorcery, adultery and other crimes unnerved the local authorities and he was banished into
exile. Al-Wahhab sought refuge in Dir'aiyah, 65km from Al-Uyaynah, where he was
granted protection by Mohammed ibn al-Saud, the local emir. Al-Wahhab provided reli-
gious legitimacy to the Al-Sauds who in turn provided political protection for Al-Wahhab.
Together they built a power base that relied on the formidable combination of politics and
religion.
With growing anger throughout Arabia that the holy cities of Mecca and Medina were
under Ottoman control, the Saudi-Wahhabi emirate expanded rapidly. Upon his death, Al-
Saud was succeeded by his son Abdul Aziz, who captured Dir'aiyah's rival city in central
Arabia - Riyadh - in 1765. In 1792 Al-Wahhab died but the inexorable expansion of the
Saudi-Wahhabi emirate continued.
In 1803 the Saudi-Wahhabi army finally marched on the holy cities of the Hejaz and
defeated Sherif Hussain of Mecca. The Saudi-Wahhabi emirate was recognised by the
Mecca authorities, whereupon this first Saudi empire stretched from Al-Hasa in the east,
to Hejaz in the west and to Najran in the south.
The Birth of Saudi Arabia
It didn't last long. The Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II ordered his over-powerful Viceroy of
Egypt, Mohammed Ali, to retake Hejaz in the sultan's name. Supported by many Arabian
tribes who resented domination by the Saudi-Wahhabis, Mohammed Ali's armies success-
fully captured Mecca and Medina in 1814 and conquered the Saudi-Wahhabi stronghold
of Dir'aiyah on 11 September 1818. Mohammed Ali topped off his triumph by executing
Abdullah ibn al-Saud (Abdul Aziz's successor).
Although the Al-Sauds would wrest back control of Riyadh for long periods, they spent
the rest of the 19th century fighting the Ottomans, rival tribes and themselves to no appar-
ent gain. The decisive battle for the future of modern Arabia came in 1902, when a
21-year-old Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman ibn al-Saud (Ibn Saud) and his small band of
