WAIIIlAB, ABDU-L-. 



WAHHAB, ABDU-L-. 



466 



tellect. Wagner himself designates his music as " the Music of the 

 Future :" whether it will really be adopted by " the Future," or 

 whether it will pass away, among other dreams of misdirected genius, 

 lime only can show. 



WAHHAB, 'ABDU-L-, a Mohammedan sheikh, who flourished in the 

 12th century of the Hejira, the 18th century of the Christian era, and 

 the founder of the WAHABEES, or WAHHA'BI'S, a Mohammedan sect 

 in Arabia. Th origin of this sect is intimately connected with the 

 following circumstances. When Sultan Selim I. had conquered Egypt 

 aud deposed the last kalif of Cairo, Al-muta-wakkel in A.H. 922 (A.D. 

 1517), he was acknowledged as successor of the kalifs by Berekiat, the 

 grand sherif of Mecca, who presented him with the keys of the Ka'bah. 

 From this time the sultans of the Osmanlis were the protectors of the 

 Mohammedan faith, though only recognised as such by the Sunnites; 

 they were the guardians of the holy cities, Mecca and Medina ; and 

 they had the privilege and the duty of protecting the numerous cara- 

 vans of hstjis, or pilgrims, which annually travel to Mecca. A Turkish 

 pasha resided at Jidda, and sometimes also at Mocha, and while the 

 fertile provinces of Hejaz and Yemen in Western Arabia seemed to 

 obey the Sultan, the pashas of Baghdad and Basrah made frequent 

 attempts to establish the Turkish authority in the province of El- 

 Hassa in Eastern Arabia. The Mohammedan religion had generally 

 departed from its primitive purity, and was particularly corrupted 

 among the Turks. The Mohammedans had introduced novelties into 

 their religion, which were rather calculated to please the senses, and 

 which found favour among people who have always loved to follow the 

 bent of their imagination. Mohammed gradually received honours 

 like God himself ; virtuous men became saints, and the miracles they 

 were said to have performed were eagerly believed by the people ; 

 many austere rules of the Kora"n were forgotten or left to the extra- 

 vagances " of a few derwishes and fakirs ; " and the places of worship 

 were adorned by the princes and the rich with the artra and luxuries 

 of the East, while the poorer Mohammedans indulged their passion for 

 religious buildings by erecting a rude tomb to some unknown saint, 

 surmounted by a cupola of painted brick-work. To this we must add 

 that the Kordn ceased to be the sole source of religious knowledge, 

 and that traditions concerning Mohammed were considered by his 

 disciples as pure and trustworthy as the Kordn itself. Although the 

 Arabs had deviated from the rule of the Kora"n, there was a striking 

 difference between them and the Turks." The Turks used opium and 

 wine ; not satisfied with polygamy, they indulged in various licentious 

 practices, which are strictly prohibited by the Kord,u, and more than 

 once holy hajis of the Turkish caravans had polluted the sacred cities 

 with their scandalous conduct. The caravans especially, those congre- 

 gations of pious men assembled for the purpose of performing one of 

 the most sacred duties of their faith, presented a revolting aspect to 

 the simple and uncorrupted believers among the Beduins of the desert. 

 Their leaders gave full licence to debauchery, and although it was gene- 

 rally their riches which tempted the Beduins, and excited them to pre- 

 datory attacks, it often happened that the Son of the Desert unsheathed 

 his sword, indignant at the pride and vices of men who, from the 

 moment they reached Mecca, proudly assumed the holy title of 'haji.' 



Such was the state of the Isktm, when, in the beginning of the last 

 century, a Mohammedan sheikh conceived the project of reforming 

 the religion of Mohammed, and restoring it to its primitive purity* 



This sheikh was 'ABDU-L-WAHHAB ('the servant of Him who gives 

 (us) every thing '), who, according to Burckhardt, was born at El- 

 Hauta, a village five or six days' journey south of Der'aiyeh, the 

 capital of the province of Nejd, on the road from this town to the 

 district called Wttdi Dowdsir. In the life of 'Abdu-l-Wahha'b, in 

 the ' Universal Biographical Dictionary,' his birth-place is called 'Al- 

 Aynah, in Nejd ; and in the ' Aunals of the Turkish Empire,' by Izi, 

 Constantinople and Skutari, A.H. 1198 (A.D. 1784), p. 207, in fine, it is 

 called Aiyineh, which seems to be El-Ayeyneb, near Der'aiyeh. Scott 

 Waring calls it Ujunu, a bad orthography for Ajana. 'Abu-1-Wahhdb 

 was born at the beginning of the 12th century of the Hejira, which 

 corresponds to the end of the 17th century of our era. His father 

 vas the sheikh or chief of the Beni Wahhdb, a branch of the great 

 tribe of Temitn, which occupies a considerable part of Nejd. 'Abdu-l- 

 Wahha'b received his education in the schools of Basrah, where he 

 studied divinity. He made the usual pilgrimages to Mecca and 

 Medina, and he lived several years at Damascus, where he had frequent 

 disputations with the divines on religion, but as he displayed great 

 zeal in the abolition of abuses, bis doctrine was considered as schis- 

 matic, and being exposed to persecutions, he fled to Mosul. After 

 some time he returned to Arabia, but the doctrines which he preached 

 to the natives, and his violent attacks on Turkish tyranny and vice, 

 became so many causes for new persecutions, and he led a wandering 

 life till he settled at Der'aiyeh, the residence of the Sheikh MOHAM- 

 MED IBN SA'UD. This intelligent chief listened to the words of the 

 reformer. He became his disciple; he married his daughter; and 

 soon drew his sword to propagate the new doctrine among the tribes 

 of Arabia. Mohammed Ibn Sa'ud thus laid the foundations of a 

 powerful empire on theocratical principles, of which hia descendants 

 remained masters for nearly a century. 



When Sa'ud, the grandson of Mohammed Ibn Sa'ud, conquered 

 Mecca, he ordered a kind of confession of faith to be published, the 

 substance of which is as follows : 



EIOG. D1V. VOL. VI. 



'Abdu-1-Wahh fib's doctrine teaches the salvation of mankind. It is 

 divided into three parts : I., the knowledge of God ; II., the knowledge 

 of religion ; III., the knowledge of the prophet. In the first part, God, 

 it is said, is one Almighty, and we acquire the knowledge of him by 

 adoring him. The second part, knowledge of religion, is threefold, 

 and contains 1, The Isldm, or resignation to the will of God ; 2, 

 faith; 3, good works. The lektm contains five things: 1, The belief 

 that there is only one God, and that Mohammed is his prophet; 2, 

 the five daily prayers ; 3, alms, one-fifth of the annual income ; 4, 

 fasts during the month of Ramazan ; 5, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The 

 faith contains six things, viz. : 1, The belief in God ; 2, in his angels ; 

 3, in his Holy Scripture; 4, in his prophets; 6, in his divine and 

 perfect qualities ; 6, in the day of judgment. Good works are only 

 the consequence of the rule that we should adore God as if he were 

 present to our eyts ; and though we cannot see him, we must know 

 that he sees us. The knowledge of the prophet, which is the most 

 important part of Wahhilbism, is based on very positive principles. 

 Mohammed, the prophet, was a mortal, like all other men, and he 

 preached for all the nations of the world, aud not for one only, the 

 Arabs; no religion is perfect and true in all its parts except his, and 

 after him no other prophet will come; Moses and Jesus were virtuous 

 men, though inferior to Mohammed, notwithstanding he was not of 

 divine nature. Those who do not fulfil their religious duties are to be 

 severely punished. The reformed religion shall be propagated with the 

 sword, and all those who refuse to adopt it are to be exterminated. 



'Abdu-l-Wahha'b not only forbade the adoration of Mohammed and 

 of saints, but he also ordered their splendid tombs to be destroyed, 

 and he declared tradition to be an impure source. He made several 

 other prohibitions concerning social and religious abuses, such as the 

 habit of using wine, opium, and tobacco, the use of the rosary for 

 prayers, and he preached strongly against those unnatural practices 

 which were and are still so frequent among the Turks. 



The doctrine of 'Abdu-1-Wahhdb was no new religion : it was 

 Mohammedanism reduced to a pure deism, and so little did it deviate 

 from the Kordn, that even to the present day many theologians of 

 Syria and Egypt do not venture to say that it is schismatic. Yet 

 this reformer maintained that there had never been any man directly 

 inspired by God, and that there was no scripture or book whatsoever 

 which was entitled to be called divine. Hence it follows that accord- 

 ing to 'Abdu-l-Wahha'b there is no revealed religion ; and if he calls 

 the Mohammedan a divine religion, it is not because he believed that 

 it had been transmitted directly from God to man, but merely on the 

 ground of its perfection. 



The reformed Mohammedanism made rapid progress, especially 

 among the nomadic Arabs or Beduins, who had never adored Moham- 

 med as a divine person, nor viewed the Kora"n as a divine book, 

 although they considered themselves to be as orthodox Mohammedans 

 as any of the other nations which have adopted the Isldm. 



The inhabitants of the towns were less inclined to -adopt Wah- 

 luibism, but Mohammed Ibn Sa'ud nevertheless succeeded in conquer- 

 ing the greater part of Nejd, of which he was the temporal chief, while 

 'Abdu-l-Wahha'b was the spiritual chief. The system of government 

 established by these two men was strictly conformable to the political 

 prescriptions of the Kora"n, and very like that of the first kalifs. The 

 chief authority lay in the hands of the temporal chief, but this autho- 

 rity was confined to the direction of important affairs ; the governors 

 of the provinces and the under-governors were kept in strict obe- 

 dience to the orders of the prince, but their authority over the Arabs 

 was not very great. The ulema of the capital, Der'aiyeh, who gene- 

 rally belonged to the clan or family of Sa'ud, formed a council 

 or ministry for religious and legislative affairs, and in time of war 

 the governors used to assemble in Der'aiyeh for the purpose of 

 concerting the plan of the campaign. Trade and agriculture were 

 well protected. The revenues of the Wahhdb empire were com- 

 posed of: 1, One-fifth of the booty taken from heretics ; the remain- 

 ing four-fifths were for the soldiers. 2, the tribute, called ' alms ' in 

 the Kordn : it was a certain part of the property, which varied 

 according to the nature of the property ; for fields watered by rain 

 or rivers it was one-tenth of the yearly produce ; for fields watered 

 artificially, .one-twentieth only; merchants paid one and a half per 

 cent, of their capital. The Beduins, who had always been tax-free, 

 disliked these 'alms' very much, but they were indemnified by the 

 frequent occasions of plunder. 3, Revenue from the chief's or prince's 

 own estates, and from the plunder of rebellious towns. The punish- 

 ment for a first rebellion was a general plunder, one- fifth of which 

 belonged to the fiscus; in case of a second rebellion, all the grounds 

 belonging to the town were confiscated and became the property of 

 the reigning chief ; and as such rebellions were very frequent, the 

 chief acquired immense estates. The greater part of them were after- 

 wards confiscated by Mehemet Ali, the pasha of Egypt. Except a few 

 hundred men who formed the prince's life-guard at Der'aiyeh, the 

 Wahhdtis had no standing army, but assembled when the prince 

 designed some expedition. Two or three great expeditions were made 

 every year. 



The name of the Wahhdbia soon became known in the Turkish 

 provinces adjacent to Arabia. The Turkish government was nob 

 aware that this sect had as much warlike and religious energy as the 

 Arabs under the first kalifs. but it is unjust to accuse the diwan, as 



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