'Persian Gulf Gazetteer, Part I: Historical and Political Materials: Précis of Nejd Affairs, 1804-1904.' [‎6r] (11/68)

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the aggressions of foreign rnlei But Islam had no such charms for the people
of Nejd. Moreover, the subsequent transfer of the Caliphat from Hejaz to
Syria, and finally to Baghdad, loosened the ties which hound the people of
Arabia to the creed of Islam. Ultimately all the provinces on the Persian
Gulf, and Nejd in its largest sense, were dissevered from the Caliphat of
Baghdad. Prom that date the people of Arabia have been left to work out their
own destiny; and until the reign of the late Mahomed Ali over Egypt no
attempt was made to march a military force into the interior. Western Asia
has been convulsed by Crusaders from the west and Tartars from the east, but
Arabia has been effectually shut out from foreign invasion. Meantime, each
district in Arabia grouped itself around its own Chiefs and nobles, and passed
through centuries of feud and rivalry in all the liberty of misrule. But still
the great demarcation which prevailed before the advent of Mahomet continues
down to the present day, and the old antagonism is still at work between the
peoples of Nejd, Hejaz, and Oman.
8. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that when Abdul Wahab
Seiigious conditio* ojNejd at t\e advent of appeared, every trace of Islam had passed
Aidui wahab. away from Nejd. At the beginning of
the eighteenth century the people of Nej d followed their old ancestral faith,
and worshipped the Jinn in cavernous recesses, or beneath the shade of large
trees, and invoked the dead and sacrificed at their tombs. Traces of the
doctrines of Moseilemah still remained, together with remnants of old Sa-
baean institutions; but the Koran was unread, the five daily prayers were
forgotten, no one cared where Mecca lay, and tithes, ablutions, and pilgrimages
were unknown. The religious dogma which was taught by Abdul Wahab that
there was but one God, and that he was the God above all the Jinn or local
gods, was received by the people of Nejd with alternate persecution and
approval, much in the same manner that it had been originally received eleven
centuries previously by the people of Hejaz. Still, howerer, the doctrines of
Abdul Wahab must have had a peculiar charm for the people of Nejd,
inasmuch as they were not only opposed to the practices of the men of Hejaz,
but were in accordance with the special character of the people of the central
highlands. This Abdul Wahab taught that the Prophet, who was invoked by
the men of Hejaz, was only a man ; and perhaps, he may have added that as
such he was no better than the Prophet who had been originally followed by
the men of Nejd. He also taught that wearing silk clothes and smoking
tobacco were great sins; and both were foreign to the national character, al
though both were practised by the men of Hejaz. Moreover, the contempt for
ornaments, decorations, and ceremonies of every kind, even to the absence of
mats from the mosques, and the neglect to take off the shoe before saying
prayers, all of which are peculiar to the Wahabis, are at the same time
expressions of an austerity which is in perfect accordance with the rude simpli
city of the people of Nejd, and an expression of antagonism against the luxury
and magnificence of the people of Hejaz.
9. Abdul Wahab died about 1760, but it is difficult to say whether he,
o tj j c • ; or his son Mahomed, should be regarded
Separation of the Political and Spiritual power ji r i n .
about 1760 . as the tounder of the sect of Wahabis.
It is certain, however, that about this time
some opposition was excited against the new doctrines, not because of their
austere and puritanical character, but because of the national opposition of the
people of Nejd to the doctrines of Islam, which, in their original purity, were
involved in the new tenets. Under these circumstances, Mahomed bin Abdul
Wahab took refuge with the Arab Chief of Deriah, named Saud. He so
lemnly promised that, if Saud would espouse the cause of God and make
his sword the sword of Islam, he should become before his death the sole
monarch of Nejd and the first potentate in Arabia. Saud accepted the offer,
and professed Islam in all its purity under the direction of the Wahabi;
and he gave himself out as the apostle of the new doctrine and sword of
faith. Saud reigned for many years, and left to his sons the undisputed sove
reignty of Inner Arabia, and a name which was respected throughout the
Arabian Peninsula. Meantime, Mahomed bin Abdul Wahab supported the
sword of Saud by his words and writings, but never interfered with the affairs
of State, and died in 1787 at the advanced age of ninety-five.