WAHHĀBĪ (وهابى). A sect of Muslim revivalists founded by Muḥammad, son of ʿAbdu ʾl-Wahhāb, but as their opponents could not call them Muḥammadans, they have been distinguished by the name of the father of the founder of their sect, and are called Wahhābīs.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdu ʾl-Wahhāb was born at Ayīnah in Najd in A.D. 1691. Carefully instructed by his father in the tenets of the Muslim faith, according to the Ḥanbalī sect, the strictest of the four great schools of interpretation, the son of ʿAbdu ʾl-Wahhāb determined to increase his knowledge by visiting the schools of Makkah, al-Baṣrah and Bag͟hdād. The libraries of these celebrated centres of Muḥammadanism placed within the reach of the zealous student those ponderous folios of tradition known as the “six correct books,” and also gave him access to numerous manuscript volumes of Muslim law. Having performed the pilgrimage to Makkah with his father, and visited the Prophet’s tomb at al-Madīnah, he remained at the latter place to sit at the feet of Shaik͟h ʿAbdu ʾllāh ibn Ibrāhīm, by whom he was carefully instructed in all the intricacies of the exegetical rules laid down for the exposition of ethics and jurisprudence.
For some years he resided with his father at Horemelah, a place which, according to Palgrave, claims the honour of his birth; but after his father’s death, he returned to his native village, Ayīnah, where he assumed the position of a religious leader.
In his various travels, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdu ʾl-Wahhāb had observed the laxities and superstitions of those who, whilst they professed to accept the stern unbending precepts of the Prophet of Arabia, had succeeded in stretching the rigid lines of Islām almost to breaking. Omens and auguries, sacred shrines and richly ornamented tombs, the use of intoxicating drugs, the silks and satins of the wealthy, all seemed to the earnest reformer lamentable departures from the first principles of Islām, and unwarrantable concessions to the luxury, idolatry, and superstitions of the age. Having carefully studied the teachings of the Qurʾān and the sacred traditions, he thought he had learned to distinguish between the essential elements of Islām and its recent admixtures, and now, once more in the home of his childhood, he determined to teach and to propagate nothing but the “pure faith” as laid down by the precepts and practice of the Prophet himself. The Muslim world had departed from the worship of the Unity, and had yielded a blind allegiance to Walīs, Pīrs, and Saints, and all because the teachings of the sacred traditions had been neglected for that of learned but ambitious teachers.
To accept any doctrine other than that of those “Companions” who received their instructions from the Prophet’s lips, was simply the blind leading the blind; and, therefore, the Reformer, refusing to join his faith to the uncertain leading-strings of even the four orthodox doctors, determined to establish the right of private judgment in the interpretation of those two great foundations of Islām—the Qurʾān and the Aḥādīs̤.
His teaching met with acceptance, but his increasing influence excited the opposition of the ruler of his district, and he was compelled to seek an asylum at Deraiah, under the protection of Muḥammad ibn Ṣaʿud, a chief of considerable influence. The protection of the religious teacher was made a pretext for more ambitious designs, and that which the zealous cleric had failed to accomplish by his persuasive eloquence, the warrior chief now sought to attain by the power of the sword; and he thus established in his own person that Wahhābī dynasty which, after a chequered existence of more than a hundred years, still exercises so powerful an influence not only in Central and Eastern Arabia, but wherever the Muḥammadan creed is professed. Like other great men before him, the Chief of Deraiah strengthened his position by a matrimonial alliance, which united the interests of his own family with that of the reformer. He married the daughter of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdu ʾl-Wahhāb, and she became the mother of the celebrated Wahhābī chief ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz, who, upon the death of his father (A.D. 1765), led the Wahhābī army to victory, and succeeded in pushing his conquests to the remotest corners of Arabia.
ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz was not only a brave warrior, but a pious Muslim, and it is said that he fell a victim to the scrupulous regularity with which he performed his devotions in public. A Persian fanatic plunged his sharp K͟hurasān dagger into his side, just as he was prostrating himself in prayer in the mosque of Deraiah (A.D. 1803).
But the great military champion of the reformed doctrines was Saʿud, the eldest son of ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz, who during the lifetime of his father led the Wahhābī armies to victory, and threatened even the conquest of the whole Turkish empire. He is said to have been a remarkably handsome man, praised for his wisdom in counsel and skill in war. Having wielded the sword from his youth (for he fought his first battle when a lad of twelve), he was regarded by the wild Arabs of the desert as a fit instrument to effect the conversion of the world, and men from all parts of Arabia flocked round his standard.
Saʿud gained several decisive victories over Sulaimān Pasha, and afterwards, with an army of 20,000 men, marched against Karbalāʾ, the famed city of the East, which contains the tombs of the Shīʿah K͟halīfahs. The city was entered with the Wahhābī cry, “Kill and strangle all infidels which give companions to God,” and every vestige of supposed idolatry, from the bright golden dome of al-Ḥusain’s tomb to the smallest tobacco pipe, was ground to the very dust, whilst the offerings of the numerous devotees, which formed the rich treasure of the sacred shrines, served to replenish the impoverished exchequer of the Wahhābī chief.
The following year the fanatical army effected the conquest of Makkah, and, on the 27th April 1803, Saʿud made his formal entry into the sacred city of the Kaʿbah. The sanctity of the place subdued the barbarous spirit of the conquerors, and not the slightest excesses were committed against the people. The stern principles of the reformed doctrines were, however, strictly enforced. Piles of green ḥuqqas and Persian pipes were collected, rosaries and amulets were forcibly taken from the devotees, silk and satin dresses were demanded from the wealthy and worldly, and the whole, collected into the one heterogeneous mass, was burnt by the infuriated reformers. So strong was the feeling against the pipes, and so necessary did a public example seem to be, that a respectable lady, whose delinquency had well nigh escaped the vigilant eye of the Muḥtasib, was seized and placed on an ass, with a green pipe suspended from her neck, and paraded through the public streets—a terrible warning to all of her sex who may be inclined to indulge in forbidden luxuries. When the usual hours of prayer arrived, the myrmidons of the law sallied forth, and with leathern whips drove all slothful Muslims to their devotions. The mosques were filled. Never since the days of the Prophet had the sacred city witnessed so much piety and devotion. Not one pipe, not a single tobacco-stopper, was to be seen in the streets or found in the houses, and the whole population of Makkah prostrated themselves at least five times a day in solemn adoration. Having carried out his mission with fidelity, Saʿud hastened to convey the news of his success to the Sult̤ān of Turkey in the following characteristic letter:—