"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٣‎٧‎٥] (١٢٦٢/٨٩٢)

2375
B
iy ^utawwa^ used apparently in the sense of " pledged to obedience,"* seems
to have been borrowed from the Wahhabis, who applied the term to their
propagandists ; but the Mutawi'ah, though they resemble the Wahhabis
in proscribing tobacco and requiring the punishment of those who smoke,
are genuine and even fanatical Ibadhiyah. The Mutawi ; ah hold that the
Khalifah ^Ali was not a Muslim at all, but a Kafir ; and they consider
the re -institution of an elective religious Imamate in ^Oman to be neces
sary, especially for the purpose of reforming public morals. Two points
of morality emphasised by the Mutawi^ah are that marriages should not
be contracted without the ceremony of Nikah and that the veiling of
women ought to be more rigidly practised.
The Mutawi^ah first attracted notice about the year 1841, when Mutawwa'
Saijid Hamud of Sohar placed some of their leaders in charge of his movemente
principal forts to hold them against the Wahhabis; and again, in 1845, ^0.^037
some of the Mutawi^ah took part in the opposition which was offered
to the proceedings of a Wahhabi agent at Baraimi. The revolution of
1868, which carried Saiyid ^Azzan-bin-Qais into power at Masqat, was
essentially Mutawwa' in its character; and the fanatical proceedings of
tlie sect from 1868 to 1871 are noticed in the history of the ^Oman
Sultanate. The short-lived regency of ^Abdul ■'Aziz, in 1875, was
distinguished by a Mutawwa' attempt to reform public morals at Masqat;
and the rebel attack on Masqat in 1877 was primarily a Mutawwa- 7 enter
prise. In 1883 a Mutawwa' rising against the Sultan's authority took
place, of which one object was understood to be the supersession of the
reigning Sultan by an Imam; and in 1895 the town of Masqat was
captured, and for a time held, by the leaders of the Mutawi'ah and their
adherents, whose professed purpose it was on this occasion to remove the
He facto secular head of the state. In 1903 an actual attempt was made
by the Mutawwa' party to set up an Imam in the Eustaq valley, in
competition with the ruling Sultan; but the movement collapsed for want
of support. The political ambition of individuals, the desire for change,
and the hope of booty had probably as much effect in producing these
disturbances as any religious motive properly so called.
The MutawPah, whose numbers it is impossible to estimate, are most Leaders of
numerous in the turbulent district of Sharqiyah, where most of the the Muta-
movements above mentioned have originated. Their religious head, until
Ms death in 1871, was the priest S a'id-bin-K half an, Khalili, who '*
first emerged from obscurity in the Mutawwa' government of the Sohar
principality about 1841 and afterwards became the chief adviser of
; Azzan-bin-Qais; and the most influential tribal leader on the Mutawwa'
side was Salih-bin-'Ali, head of the Hirth tribe, who took a conspicuous
part in all the Mutawwa' movements between 1868 and 1896, in which
latter year he was killed. The principal 'Ulama of the Mutawi'ah in
1905 were 'Abdullah-bin-Hamad, Salimi, and Muhammad-bin-
Shaikhan, Salimi, both of Sharqiyah; and the place of Salih-bin-'Aliwas
ffled by his son 'Isa.
/Mutawwa' has also the meaning, in ordinary Arabic, of "a militarj volunteer."
" is not quite plain whether the term Mutawwa' is applied to every member of the
8eck here dealt with, or only to the leaders of the same.