The Wahhabi Movement [part1]

The Wahhabi Movement [Part1]

Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, born in 1703 in the town of Uyaynah in the Najd area, was the founder of the Wahhabi creed. His father, Abdul Wahhab, who was a Qazi (judge) in Najd, banished him for preaching what he and almost all scholars (including his other son, Sulaiman bin Abdul Wahhab) called heresy. Ibne Wahhab was given refuge in Yamamah where, incidentally, Musailamah Kazzab (the chief of Banu Haneefah who falsely claimed prophet-hood during the time of Hadrat Abu Bark) used to live. In 1740, Ibne Wahhab was approached by the British colonialists, who arranged a meeting between him and Muhammad bin Saud, chief of the A’nnza tribe in Al-Diriyah.

For seven years, Ibne Wahhab continued to preach his heretical ideology under the protection of ibne Saud. In 1747, Ibne Saud publicly accepted the Wahhabi Madhab and declared full support for Ibne Wahhab and his followers. This established what is called Emaarah Qabiliyyah (Tribal Authority) in Al-Diriyah under the political leadership of Ibne Saud and spiritual guidance of Ibne Wahhab.

From 1747 to 1755, the Wahhabi movement began to spread its authority by raiding neighbouring villages and forcefully converting people. In 1757, Muhammad Bin Saud defeated the Amir of the city of Al-Ihsaa and hence became ruler of the whole of Al-Diriyah. He died in 1765 and was succeeded by his son, Abdul Aziz who later married Ibne Abdul Wahhab’s daugther, hence uniting the political and spiritual sides of the movement.

The fact that the current Khalifah was Turkish had been a thorn in Ibne Saud’s side for a long time, who believed it an insult for Arabs to have an Ajami ruler. Two years after Ibne Saud’s death, Abdul Aziz started moving towards ousting the Turkish forces from the Arabian Peninsula. He carried his father’s mission forward by raiding and capturing more villages and towns. In 1787, Abdul Aziz formed what is known as Wilayat ul-A’hed (Inherited Authority). This was done in a large public gathering under the chairmanship of Muhammad ibne Abdul Wahhab, who issued a fatwa deeming it legal under Shariah to establish a hereditary monarchy. In this gathering, Abdul Aziz declared himself Amir-ul-Mo’mineen (while the true Khalifah was actually in Istanbul) and appointed his son Saud as the Khalifah after him. Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab also issued a fatwa of Jihad against the Turkish forces.

In 1788, Abdul Aziz combined forces with the British to form a huge army, and invaded Kuwait. They handed the state over to the British as a gift, who had failed to invade Kuwait on several previous expeditions. By now, the Saudi family ruled most of the Arabian Peninsula. Between 1788 and 1791, this army of Wahhabi followers and British soldiers managed to overthrow and occupy Kuwait, Medinah, Iraq and part of Damascus. Thousands of Shias as well as followers of other Sunni Madhahib (Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi’i) were slaughtered because they refused to accept the Wahhabi creed. Wahhabis called these people Mushrikeen while they had no qualms about the fact that most of their own forces consisted of British Crusaders.

Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab died in 1792 but his son carried on with the obscene mission. The Ottoman Caliphate was under attack on several different fronts but by 1810, the Wahhabi threat could no longer be ignored. In 1811, Muhammad Ali Pasha, the governor of Egypt under the Caliphate, declared war against the rebel forces of Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad and sent out an army under the command of his son, Tosoun Pasha. In 1812, Tosoun defeated Abdul Aziz and liberated Medinah.

In 1815, Pasha’s second son, Ibrahim, marched out with a second army and by 1816, managed to liberate Damascus, Iraq and Kuwait. Within a year after that, the Saudis were forced back to their stronghold of Al-Diriyah. In 1818, Ibrahim Pasha’s army laid siege to Al-Diriyah and the rebels surrendered. The Saudi family, however, was under the protection of British soldiers in Jeddah and Abdul Wahhab’s son fled to Riyadh with most of his followers. This ended the first phase of the Saudi/Wahhabi rebellion.

In 1824 the Wahhabi followers started gathering and reorganising their movement under the leadership of Abdul-Rahman bin Abdul Aziz. This was a very slow phase and there were no major expeditions carried out for 40 years. By 1865, they were in a position to take action, and they focused their attentions on Riyadh, which is very close to Al-Diriyah. This time round, however, they faced much tougher resistance from the villages in the Riyadh area and the friction resulted in tribal warfare which lasted for 25 years.

Since the main bulk of the Turkish forces were occupied with the attacks on the borders of the Islamic Khilafah by the British Crusaders and their allies, the governor of the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Rasheed dealt with the uprising. He managed to crop this second rebellion and forced Abdul-Rahman and the Wahhabi fanatics into exile in 1891. They dwelled temporarily on the borders of the desert in the Empty Quarter (Al-Rebi’ Al-Khaali), before settling in Kuwait. This ended the second rebellion of the Saudi/Wahhabi alliance. Abdul-Rahman bin Abdul Aziz died between 1892 and 1900 and his son Abdul Aziz bin Abdul-Rahman succeeded him.

In 1901, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman, who was now twenty one years old, left Kuwait determined to regain power over all of the territory once occupied by his forefathers. He, along with forty followers, managed to enter Riyadh in the middle of the night by scaling the city walls and took refuge in the house of a political ally, a man who had served his father before he was sent into exile. The man’s wife provided information about the whereabouts of the Amir of Riyadh, a man named Ajlan. In the morning, when Ajlan left the mosque after attending Fajr prayers, they assassinated him. This demoralised Ajlan’s garrison and they surrendered Riyadh, being fully aware that the Saudis enjoyed full support by the British and that the Turkish forces were completely occupied with fending off the European incursions on the Islamic borders.

***Part 2 coming soon