HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 255 



Bagdad, and various other schools of the principal 

 cities in the East ; and being- convinced, by what he 

 had observed during- his travels, that the primitive 

 faith of Islam had become totally corrupted in prac- 

 tice, and that by far the greater part of Turks and 

 Persians were heretics, he determined to assume 

 the character of a reformer. His manners were 

 naturally grave and austere ; while his talents and 

 learning secured for him the respect of his country- 

 men, among whom he made several converts by 

 means of his writings and his reputation for wisdom. 



The religion and government of this sect may be 

 very briefly defined, as a Mohammedan puritanism 

 joined to a Bedouin phylarchy, in which the great 

 chief is both the political and religious leader of the 

 nation. In their creed they are perfectly orthodox. 

 The unity of God is the fundamental principle of 

 their faith. They believe in the Prophet, but re- 

 gard him as a man essentially mortal, though gifted 

 with a divine mission. They reject the fables and 

 false glosses of the Koran, acknowledging only the 

 traditions of the Sonnees. As they consider all men 

 equal in the sight of God, they hold it sinful to in- 

 voke the intercession of departed saints, or to honour 

 their mortal remains more than those of any other 

 person. Hence chapels, cupolas, and monuments, 

 where reverence was paid to their memory, they 

 condemned as an abomination, and forbade them to 

 be visited. To swear by Mohammed is criminal ; 

 and they accuse the Turks of idolatry when they 

 give him the title of lord in their prayers, or revere 

 him in a manner which approaches adoration. 



In morals they were pure and rigid ; they repro- 

 bated the use of spirituous liquors and other exhil- 

 arating substitutes ; they condemned all sensual 

 indulgences, the neglect of justice and almsgiving, 

 the common practice of fraud and treachery, usury, 

 games of chance, and the other vices with which 

 even the sacred cities were polluted. In the true 



