148 
Already had the well-informed Mussulmen began 
to despise these superstitions secretly, though they 
seemed to respect them in the eyes of the people. 
But Abdoulwehhab declared boldly, that this species 
of worship rendered to the saints was a very grievous 
sin in the eyes of the Divinity, because it was giving 
him jpmpanions. In consequence of this, his sectaries 
have destroyed the sepulchres, chapels, and the tem- 
ples elevated to their honour. 
In virtue of this principle, Abdoulwehhab forbids 
veneration or devotion to the person of the Prophet as 
a very great sin. This does not prevent him from ac- 
knowledging his mission; but he pretends that he was 
no more than another man before God made use of 
him to communicate his divine word to men, and that 
when his mission was at an end he became an ordina- 
ry mortal. 
It is on this account that the reformer has forbidden 
his sectaries to visit the tomb of the Prophet at Medi- 
na. When they even speak of it, instead of making 
use of the form employed by other Mussulmen, name- 
ly, " Our Lord Mouhhammed," or, " Our Lord the 
Prophet of God," they only say, Mouhhammed. 
The Christians have in general a confused or false 
idea of the Wehhabites, and imagine that these secta- 
ries are not Mussulmen, a denomination which they 
apply exclusively to the Turks,* and confound fre- 
* It is remarkable that the author of the history of the Weh- 
habites, that was printed at Paris in 1810, falls into this error, 
and even many others, which may be easily discovered upon 
comparing it with this work, in which the difference that ought 
to exist between observations taken upon the spot and those ta- 
ken at 4,000 leagues distance, that is to say, at Aleppo, the resi- 
dence of the author of the History, plainly appears.— Note of 
the Editor o 
