145 
CHAPTER X. 
Remarks on the Wehhabis.— Their Religious Principles. — Their still more 
remarkable Military Expeditions. — Arms. — jCapital City. — Organization. — 
Considerations. 
The history of the Wehhabites may one day be of 
the greatest interest, on account of the influence it is 
possible for them to have in the balance of the states 
that surround them, if they relax from the austerity of 
their principles, and adopt a more liberal system; but 
if they persist in maintaining the rigour prescribed by 
their reformer, it will be almost impossible for them to 
make the nations who have some principles of civiliza- 
tion adopt their doctrine, and to extend their dominion 
beyond the limits of the desert that surrounds them , 
Their history would in that case be insignificant to the 
rest of the world. I shall present here the information 
I obtained concerning these reformers exactly as I 
learned it from themselves, and from the other inhabi- 
tants of the country, and shall only add to it the ob- 
servations I made upon the spot, after the events of 
which I was an eye-witness. 
The Scheik Mohamed ibn Abdoulwehhab was born 
in the environs of Medina. I never could learn the 
name of the place, or the exact period of his birth, 
which I have placed about the year 1720. He pursued 
his studies at Medina, where he staid several years. 
Endued with an uncommon mind, he soon learned 
the minute practices of devotion introduced by the 
doctors, as also certain superstitious principles, which 
led him more or less astray from the simplicity of the 
Vol. II. T 
