Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎11r] (21/42)

Palgrave's Arabia,
199
as it were imprisoned in a suffocating sand-pit, hemmed in by burning
walls on every side; while at other times, while labouring up the
slope, he overlooks what seems a vast sea of fire, swelling under a
heavy monsoon wind, and ruffled by a cross-blast into little red-hot
waves. Neither shelter nor rest for eye or limb amid torrents of light
and heat poured from above on an answering glare reflected below.'
From Ha'jel the travellers proceeded through the district of
Kaseem to Riad, the capital of Fejzul, chief or sovereign of the
Wahabees, and the seat of their government. To enter thus
the lion's den was a hazardous experiment, from which their
friends at Ha'yel would fain have dissuaded them, but they were
resolved to incur the risk.
The rise of the Wahabee sect and power is the most curious
chapter in the history of modern Arabia, and it is the more
curious and interesting because, having been apparently crushed
and utterly ruined by the Egyptian army in 1817-18, the Wahabee
power has not only survived what seemed at the time to be a
death-blow, but is now more firmly established, to all appear
ance, than it was before that blow was struck. Mr. Palgrave,
indeed, seems to think that there is a violent reaction, of opinion
at least, against it in the countries subject to its authority ; but
those who are best acquainted with the East well know how much
of such talk as he heard may be held against an existing Asiatic
government, without even the most remote intention, on the part
of those who hold it, of giving effect, by overt acts, to the opinions
which they express with a freedom very likely to mislead a
stranger.
We have not space for a history of the Wahabees, but a few
sentences; we must give to it in order to make our extracts from
Mr. Palgrave's account of his sojourn at Riad intelligible.
The only power in Arabia which is of any great importance
or is formidable to its neighbours is the Wahabee Principality,
which for more than a century has been established in Nejd, and
has absorbed several of the surrounding districts. In accordance
with what appears to be the tendency of the Arabic mind, or at
all events with the usual formula in Arabia, the Wahabees are a
religious sect, whose fanaticism takes the direction of war and
conquest for the purpose of propagating their peculiar tenets.
Some few years before 1750, a person of the name of Mahomed
Ebn Abdul Wahab, of the tribe Temeem and branch Wahab,
returned to Aredh after an absence of several years, during
which he had studied Mahomedan Theology under the learned
teachers of Bussora and Damascus. He attached himself, it is
said, to the petty court of a chief, Ebn Ma'amer, of Eyanah,
an ancient and considerable town $ now in ruins, which was
not