File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎376r] (760/834)

the term “ Ikhwan ” was practically unknown. It is also certain
that the few members of the sect, though existing in the town
ship of Artawiyah, always a fanatical spot, played no part in
the recovery of Nejd by Abdul Aziz, the present Imam, in 1902.
It was only after 1913, when Ibn Saud, the present ruler, recover
ed Hasa from the Turks, that the movement first came under his
notice. In 1914-1915 the term came into general use and began
to spread to an alarming extent. It was then that Ibn Saud
decided to turn his attention to Ikhwanism as a means of
strengthening and consolidating his power over the many dis
ruptive elements with which he had to contend in Nejd and
his new dominions generally. To-day the principal religious
leader of the Ikhwan is Sheikh Abdul Karim el Mughrabi. This
individual was, at one time, Chief Alim to the late Salih Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
el Sadun, Sheikh of the Muntafiq. He later became Alim to
Mizal Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , father of the present Ibrahim Bey el Sadun. He
left the latter’s service, however, and departed to Nejd, where he
established himself as Alim in the Wahhabi town of Artawiyah.
Among other Ikhwan leaders we have Ibn Abdul Latif (Qadi
of Riadh) and Sheikh Isa (Qadi of Hasa).
That Ibn Saud has been forced to associate himself with the
movement and become its leader, there is, I think, little doubt.
Probably, in the first place, he thought to make use of it to
strengthen his position, but in the end he found he was forced to
spread its doctrines and become its leader, lest he should go under
himself. It would appear that in 1915 or 1916 Ibn Saud
found that Ikhwanism was definitely getting control of affairs
in Nejd. He saw that he had to decide between being a temporal
ruler and crushing Ikhwanism, or becoming the leader of a new
kind of Wahhabism. He decided on the latter course as being
the less risky.
Having once taken them up, he saw that it was vital to get
the members of the new cult under proper control. There was
a danger of their running amuck both in the direction of Hejaz
and Iraq. He issued his famous order in 1916 that all Bedouin
of Nejd and Arabia must join the movement and must pay him
zikat as their recognized leader. This led to much fighting
and was incidentally one of the reasons which led to the resis
tance of the Ajman tribes in Hasa in 1915. It may be said that
Ibn Saud, during the years 1916-17-18, was engaged in one
continuous series of wars with his recalcitrant tribesmen and
was rarely able to visit Riadh. In 1918 he had already
forced all the Bedouin of Nejd (except the Ajman) to adopt
Ikhwanism and to recognize him as their Imam. In order to