256 HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 



spirit of fanaticism, they were as zealous about the 

 inferior as the weightier matters of the law. Next 

 to the war which they declared against saints and 

 sepulchres, their indignation was principally turned 

 against dress and luxury : they strictly forbade the 

 wearing of silk and the smoking of tobacco ; and cut 

 from their heads the only tuft of hair which their 

 early Moslem discipline had left them. Among 

 other unwarrantable acts which they abolished, was 

 that of praying over the rosary, and lamenting the 

 dead, thinking it impious to mourn for the soul of a 

 brother in heaven. They did not, however, so far 

 strip themselves of all superstition as to abolish the 

 ceremonies of ablution and the Meccan pilgrimage, 

 or even those of kissing the black stone and throw- 

 ing pebbles at the devil. 



The doctrines of Abdel Wahab, it will be seen, 

 were not those of a new religion ; though they were 

 so represented by his enemies, and have been de- 

 scribed as such by several European travellers.* 

 His sole guide was the Koran and the orthodox tra- 

 ditions ; and his efforts were entirely directed to 

 remove corruptions and abuses, and restore the faith 

 of Islam to its original purity. Whether this great 

 reformer, when he preached to his countrymen in 

 the villages of Nejed, had any idea of establishing a 

 new dynasty to reign over the proselytes of Arabia, 

 is much to be doubted. Neither his birth, nor the 

 strength of his tribe, could authorize him in enter- 

 taining such a design. But it cannot be denied that 

 his doctrines had a favourable effect on the people, 

 by suppressing the infidel indifference which uni- 

 versally prevailed, aud which has generally a more 



* The tenets of the Wahabees were erroneously stated by 

 Rousseau ( 1808) in his " Description of the Pashalic of Bagdad ;" 

 and in a Memoir of this Sect in the " Mines de I'Onent." What 

 is said of them in Niebuhr and Valentia is not very correct. 

 The best and fullest account of them is given by Burckhardt, 

 Mons. Corancez, and Mengin (Append, tome ii). 



