4,67 



WAHHAB, ABDU-L-. 



WAILLY, NOEL-FRANCOIS DE. 



463 



Rousseau, the French consul-general at Baghdad did, of looking at the 

 memorable events in Arabia " with a stupid eye, as usual." As early 

 as A.H. 1161 and 1162 (A.D. 1748 and 1749) Ahmed El-Haji, pasha of 

 Baghdad, and formerly grand-vizir, displayed great activity against the 

 adherents of Mohammed Ibn 'Abdu-1-Wahhdb, whose " impious doc- 

 trine sapped the fundamental principles of Isldm, and who set him- 

 self up as the head of a new religion." (Izi, cited above : 'Universal 

 Biographical Dictionary,' Life of Ahmed Pasha El-Hitji.) The simple 

 fact that, if Wahhilbism had become predominant, the sultan would 

 have ceased to be the ' visible ' chief of the believers, leads us to con- 

 clude that the diwan had never looked with a stupid eye on the 

 religious reform in Arabia. 



Mohammed Ibn Sa'ud died in A.H. 1179 (A.D. 1765), and Abdu-1- 

 Wahhab died on the 29th of Shawwal A.H. 1206 (14th of June 

 A.D. 1787). 



The successor of Mohammed Ibn Sa'ud was his son, 'Abdu-1-Aziz, 

 under whom the power of the Wahhsibis was extended over the 

 greater part of Arabia, and became the terror of Turkey. As early as 

 1792-93 the Wahhdbis made a successful campaign against Ghaleb, the 

 grand sheikh of Mecca. 



The provinces of Basrah and Baghdad, adjacent to Nejd, had 

 suffered from the incursions of the Wahhabis from the time of their 

 coming into political power. In 1797 Soliman, pasha of Baghdad, 

 made a fruitless attempt to attack them in the province of El-Hassa; 

 his troops were obliged to retreat, the victorious Arabs overran 

 the neighbourhood of Basrah, and took the holy town of Imam Husein, 

 where they destroyed the famous temple, and robbed it of the immense 

 treasures which had been deposited there by the pious generosity of 

 the sultans of the Osmanlis and the shahs of Persia. Another Turkish 

 army, reinforced by a strong body of Arabs from Irak Arabi, entered 

 Nejd in 1801, and was only five or six journeys from Der'aiyeh, when 

 Thoeni, the sheikh of the Beni Montefik and commander of the Arab 

 auxiliaries of the Turks, was murdered by a fanatical Wahhdbi. It is 

 said that the other chiefs of the Turks were bribed by 'Abdu-1-Aziz, 

 for they retreated suddenly, but were nevertheless attacked on their 

 march, and the whole Turkish army was destroyed. In the same 

 year, 1801, 'Abdu-1-Aziz, at the head of more than 100,000 men, made 

 a fresh expedition ngainst Mecca. Othmdn-el-Medhayfah, the brother 

 of Ghaleb, the sheikh of Mecca, joined the Wahhabis, and having 

 been put at the head of a considerable body by 'Abdu-1-Aziz, he took 

 Tayef, a large town east of Mecca, and Konfodah, a port on the Red 

 Sea. The rest of Hejaz was conquered by 'Abdu-1-Aziz, who took Mecca 

 early in 1803, after an obstinate siege. He would have taken Mecca 

 earlier, but for the arrival of the great caravan of Damascus, com- 

 manded by the pasha of Damascus, which was allowed to remain in 

 Mecca for three days, after which the Wahhabis entered the town 

 without resistance. They killed many sheikhs and other believers 

 who refused to adopt Wahhabism ; they robbed the splendid tombs of 

 the Mohammedan saints who were interred there ; and their fanatical 

 zeal did not even spare the famous mosque, which they robbed of the 

 immense treasures and costly furniture to which each Mohammedan 

 prince of Europe, Asia, and Africa had contributed his share. The 

 fall of Mecca was followed by that of Medina in 1804, and the tomb 

 of Mohammed was robbed and destroyed. 'Abdu-1-Mayn, a brother of 

 Ghaleb, was appointed governor of Mecca, but he soon lost his post ; 

 Ghaleb, who had fled to Jidda, having bribed the chief of the Wah- 

 hilbis, and succeeded in being appointed governor on promising to 

 adopt Wahhilbism, which he did. Previously to the fall of Medina, 

 and as early as 1803, 'Abdu-1-Aziz was murdered by a fanatical Shiite, 

 a native of Persia ; his successor was his eldest son, Sa'iid, whose com- 

 plete name was Sa'ud Ibn 'Abdu-1-Aziz. Ghaleb, anxious to obtain his 

 former dignity and independence, intrigued against Sa'ud. In the 

 hope of kindling a general war between Turkey and Arabia, from 

 which he might derive advantage, he persuaded Sa'ud to forbid the 

 khotbah, or public prayers, to be said in the name of the sultan. 

 Sa'ud gave the order, and from that moment the sultan, in the eyes of 

 the people, ceased to be the protector of the holy towns and the 

 visible chief of their religion. 



If during the course of the Thirty Years' War a Protestant army 

 had taken possession of Rome and put a married priest on the seat of 

 St. Peter, the scandal and confusion produced by such an event 

 among the Roman Catholics could not have been greater than the 

 horror and general consternation which spread throughout the East 

 when the people heard that the tomb of the prophet had been 

 despoiled, and that the first temple in the Mohammedan world was in 

 the hands of heretics. The pilgrimages were stopped : from 1803 to 

 1809 no great caravan ventured to cross Arabia; and from the Atlantic 

 to the banks of the Ganges and the frontiers of China every pious 

 Mohammedan felt deeply grieved at the thought that henceforth he 

 would be prevented from performing a duty which he considered most 

 sacred. Persia was unable to give aid, and the diwan, absorbed by 

 the danger to Turkey from the wars in Europe, was compelled to 

 resignation. 



In the time that followed the conquest of Mecca and Medina, Sa'ud, 

 the greatest chief of the Wahhabis, established his authority in the 

 remainder of Arabia, except Hadhramaut and Omdn, where he found 

 a formidable adversary in the Inuitu of Maskat. Sa'ud conquered the 

 whole province of El-Hassa, the islands of Bahrein, and several Arabic 



towns on the coast of Persia. The Gulf of Persia was then infested 

 by Arab pirates, who, after Sa'ud had taken possession of the greater 

 part of the coasts, were either Wahhdbis or at least made common 

 cause with them. The British commerce in those seas was greatly 

 injured by these pirates, who were severely chastised by the British 

 forces under Captain Wainwright, the commander of the fleet, and 

 Colonel (afterwards General) Sir Lionel Smith. The British troops acted 

 in concert with the forces of the Imdm of Maskat, and the war was 

 finished early in 1809. 



The very existence of Turkey being menaced by the Wahhabis, who 

 overran Syria and concluded an alliance with Yusuf, the rebellious 

 pasha of Baghdad, the diwan at last found a man who was able to 

 subject these terrible enemies. This man was Mehemet Ali, the late 

 pasha of Egypt. 



Mehemet 'Ali made his first preparations in 1809. To save his army 

 from marching round the northern gulfs of the Red Sea, he ordered 

 the timber for a flotilla of twenty-eight vessels to be got ready at 

 Bulak, the port of Cairo, whence it was carried on camels to Suez, 

 where the ships were constructed. The commander of the expedition 

 was Tuzun-Bey, the second son of Mehemet Ali, then eighteen years 

 old, who was seconded by Ahmed Agha, surnamed Napoleon or Bona- 

 parte. Tuzun-Bey entered Arabia in 1811 ; in 1812 he was beaten by 

 the Wahbdbis near Medina, but he took this town in the course of the 

 same year, a con quest which was mainly due to the impetuous courage 

 of Thomas Keith, a Scotch renegade, known as Ibrahim Agha, who 

 took the outworks of Medina by storm. Mecca was taken in 1813, and 

 Ghaleb, notwithstanding he had favoured the Egyptian invasion, was 

 made prisoner, and sent to Salonica in European Turkey, where he 

 died in 1816. 



In 1814 Sa'ud died, and was succeeded by his eldest son 'Abdullah. 

 The death of Sa'ud was the forerunner of the ruin of the Wahhabis. 

 In 1815 the Egyptians suffered a defeat at Zohrdn, but they obtained 

 a signal victory at Bissel. Tuzun-Bey paid six dollars for every head 

 of a Wahhabi ; and having obtained 6000 heads, he ordered them to 

 be piled up in a pyramid. Peace was concluded during the course of 

 the same year (1815) on unfavourable conditions to 'Abdullah, who 

 sent an ambassador to Cairo named 'Abdu-1-Aziz, a learned sheikh, 

 whose further negociations wera interrupted by the sudden outbreak 

 of fresh hostilities. 



The commander of the new Egyptian expedition was the celebrated 

 Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehemet Ali, who entered Arabia iu 1816. 

 After an obstinate resistance, the Wahhdbis retreated to Der'aiyeh in 

 1818, where 'Abdullah was besieged by Ibrahim. The siege was long, 

 but it was carried on by Ibrahim with skill, boldncs.s, and admirable 

 perseverance till the month of December 1818, when 'Abdullah sur- 

 rendered. He and several of his family were sent to Constantinople, 

 and after having been promenaded through the streets for three days 

 they were beheaded, and their bodies were exposed to the outrages of 

 the mob. The greater part of the territories conquered by the Wah- 

 habis fell under the authority of Mehemet Ali. Thus the power of 

 the Wahhdbis was broken, and though they were not exterminated, 

 they have not since been able to make head against the Egyptian 

 power. 



WAILLY, NOEL-FRANCOIS DE, one of the most esteemed of 

 French grammarians, was the son of a municipal officer at Amiens, 

 where he was born on the 31st of July 1724. At first he was intended 

 and educated for the priesthood, but he was withdrawn from that 

 vocation by his attachment to general literature, and a more than 

 common aptitude for the study of living languages. In order to 

 pursue this study he went to Paris, where he obtained a preceptor's 

 place in the school conducted by M. de Pre"tot, one of the best edu- 

 cators of that day, who became his patron. In 1754 he published his 

 ' Principes ge"ne"raux et particuliers de la Langue Franfaise,' which 

 was at once received as an original work of real value. It raised the 

 author to an eminent position among grammarians, and introduced 

 him to the friendship of Beauzde, Duclos, the Abbe" Girard, and Mar- 

 montel. This celebrated book went through several editions during 

 his lifetime, and was repeatedly revised by the author. M. de Wailly 

 had dedicated his Grainmire to the University of Paris, by whom it 

 was considered as one of the best elementary treatises, aud its use 

 urgently recommended to public schools in preference to those of 

 Restaut and Olivet. Some critics however have alleged that it still 

 exhibits serious deficiencies and peremptory decisions peculiar to the 

 author. Restaut, in his grammar, had not treated the syntax as a 

 distinct subject, a separate division ; and, like all his predecessors, 

 had adopted the Latin form of declension with the nouns, which De 

 Wailly felt to be irrelevant, as the article alone clearly pointed out the 

 distinction of cases. He likewise greatly simplified the theory of the 

 article and pronouns. His grammatical reforms were also extended 

 to the French verbs ; but in this case his innovations were not so 

 favourably received by the learned. His opinions on the subject of 

 orthographical reform were considered to be impossible in practice, 

 however well founded in themselves. It was somewhat on the phonetic 

 principle, which has been, with similar ill success, endeavoured to be 

 introduced into the English language. His other works were, ' Prin- 

 cipes de la Langue Latine,' of which the ninth edition was published 

 in 1773; 'De 1'Orthographe, au Moyens simples et raisonnds de 

 diminuer les imperfections de notre orthographe ; ' ' Introduction a. la 



