152 
The reform of Abdoulwehhab being admitted by 
Ibn Saaoud, was embraced by all the tribes subject 
to his command. This was a pretext for attacking the 
neighbouring tribes, who were successively reduced 
to the alternative of embracing the reform or of perish- 
ing under the sword of the reformer. At the death of 
Ibn Saaoud, his successor Abdelaaziz continued to use 
those energetic means, which could not fail in their 
effect. Upon the smallest resistance he attacked with a 
decided superiority; and consequently all the wealth 
and property of the vanquished passed immediately 
into the hands of the Wehhabites. If the enemy did not 
resist, but embraced the reform, and entered under 
the dominion of Abdelaaziz, the prince of the faithful, 
this still more increased the strength of his party. 
Abdelaaziz being already master of the interior part 
of Arabia, soon found himself in a state to extend his 
views over the adjacent country, and began by making 
an expedition to the neighbourhood of Bagdad in 1801, 
at the head of a body of troops mounted upon drome- 
daries. He advanced upon Imam Hossein, a town at ' 
a short distance from Bagdad, where was the tomb 
of this Imam, grandson of the Prophet, in a mag- 
nificent temple, filled with the riches of Turkey and 
Persia. The inhabitants made but a feeble resistance; 
and the conqueror put to the sword all the men and 
male childrertof every age. Whilst they executed this 
horrible butchery, a Wehhabite doctor cried from the 
top of a tower, " Kill, strangle all the infidels who give 
companions to God." Abdelaaziz seized upon the 
treasures of the temple, which he destroyed, and pil- 
laged and burnt the city, which was converted into a 
desert. , 
Abdelaaziz, upon his return from this horrible ex^ 
