"مذكرة تاريخية عن العلاقات بين أمراء الوهابية وابن سعود مع شرق شبه الجزيرة العربية والحكومة البريطانية، ١٨٠٠-١٩٣٤" [و‎‎٣] (٦٤/٥)

CONFIDENTIAL.
P.Z. 5620/1934.
India Office.
The Wahabi Amirs and Ibn Saud: their Relations with Eastern
Arabia and with the British Government, 1800 to 1934 .
The difficulties which have recently arisen in connection with the eastern
boundary of the Saudi Kingdom, the claims advanced by Ibn Saud to ancestral
rights east of the blue Line laid down in the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1913,
and the suggestions put forward by him that at some period in the past arrange-
n l ei /j S en t er ed into with his ancestors, the Wahabi Amirs, by the representatives
of H.M. Govemment, which afforded some recognition of those claims, have made
it desirable to examine in some detail the history since 1800 of the connection
of the W ahabi power with the Trucial Sheikhdoms and their hinterland and with
Muscat; the relations between H.M. Government and the Wahabi Amirs and Ibn
Saud himself; and finally the extent to which either the Wahabi Amirs or Ibn
baud in the pre-war period can properly be regarded as Turkish vassals or have
admitted or claimed Ottoman nationality.
2 . The period to be covered falls into the following sections :—
(1) 1745 to 1800.—First development of the Wahabi sect.
( 2 ) 1800 to 1870-71.—From the first expansion of the Wahabis in Eastern
Arabia to the fall of Baraimi and the Turkish occupation of Hasa.
(3) 1871 to 1901.—From the Turkish occupation of Hasa to the capture of
Riyadh by Ibn Saud.
(4) 1901 to 1914.—From the capture of Riyadh to the outbreak of the Great
War.
(5) 1914 to 1934.—From the outbreak of the Great War to the opening of
the Blue lane discussions.
I.—Rise and Development of the Wahabi Power, 1745 to 1800.
Origin of the Wahabi Sect.
3. It is unnecessary to examine in detail the sources and early history of the
Wahabi movement. The sect appears to have been founded by Abdul Wahab and
his son, Mohamed Ibn Abdul Wahab, in the early part of the eighteenth century in
Nejd, and to have advocated a return to the primitive simplicity which prevailed
among the early followers of Islam in the lifetime of the Prophet. The founders
of the sect connected themselves with the Sheikhs of the Saudi family, who then
ruled at Deriyah in Nejd ; and the movement, originally religious in character,
rapidly assumed a political complexion. The Saudi Sheikhs, with the assistance of
the impetus given them by the Wahabi movement, rapidly extended their local
influence under the Amir Mohamed, who ruled from 1745 to 1765, at the expense
first of the neighbouring rulers of Riyadh and then of the Beni Khalid, who had,
since the middle of the seventeenth centufy, been the principal tribe in Hasa.
4. The first Wahabi Amir died in 1765 and was succeeded by his son, Abdul
Aziz, who ruled till his assassination in October or November of 1803. Riyadh
was captured in 1772 and the whole of Nejd came under Wahabi rule. The
province of Hasa was subdued for the first time in 1792 and finally in 1795, and
the power of the Beni Khalid broken. Attempts by the Ottoman Government to
re-establish its control failed, and a truce for six years, under which the Wahabis
remained in possession of Hasa, was concluded in 1799.
The Political Situation in Arabia in 1800.
5. With the conquest of Hasa the Saudis commenced to turn their attention to
the east and south. The occasion is a convenient one briefly to review the political
situation in Arabia in the year 1800. It was as follows :—
6 . Turkey held Iraq; exercised what appears to have been a controlling
influence in Koweit, and maintained a claim to Hasa and its ports. The Hejaz was
also held by a Turkish vassal, the Sherif of Mecca.
Lor. I,
1053-6.
Ross : ISejd,
pp. 38-9.
Lor. 1, 1059.