530 
WAHABEES. 
Supported at 3 feet distance, upon chairs 
3| inches broad. 
1st. Two 56 weights upon a steel¬ 
yard, 4lbs. equal to 1 cwt. 
Ton. Cwt. Qrs. 
Equal to 1 8 0 deflexion '06 in. 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
ditto 
2d. Four 56 weights — 2 16 0 
3d. Six 56 ditto = 440 
4th, Eight 56 ditto r 5 12 0 
5th. Nine 56 ditto = 660 
6 th. Nine 56 ditto > 
and 2 libs. $ 
After these weights were removed from the end of the 
steel-yard, the rail returned to its original straight line. 
11 in. 
•2 in. 
■35 in. 
47 in. 
6 11 1 
ditto -57 in. 
Ton. Cwt. Qrs. 
7th. Ten 56 weights = 7 0 0 deflexion -93 in. 
When these weights were removed, the rail returned 
nearly to a straight line, but not entirely so; the bend was 
however so small, that it could not be measured accurately. 
Ton. Cwt. Qrs. 
8 th, Eleven 56 ditto = 7 14 0 deflexion 22 ins. 
When these were removed, the rail remained bent '24 
inches. 
2d Rail.—3 feet long—dimensions same as the 9 feet rail. 
Ton. Cwt. Qrs. 
f bent and re- 
1st. Eight 56 weights = 5 12 0 < turned again to 
t straight lines. 
2d. Nine 56 ditto \ _ a ~ o 5 ^ ent & nearly 
and 7 lbs. j £ returned. 
C bent and re- 
3d. Ten 56 ditto = 7 0 0 < mained bent 
(about 5 inch. 
In testimonium veritatis, 
(Signed) “ Michael Langridge, 
John Buhmshaw, 
John Biddulph, jun.” 
WA'GONAGE, s. Money paid for carriage in a waggon. 
WA'GONER, s. One who drives a waggon.. 
By this, the northern wagoner had set 
His sevenfold team behind the stedfast star. 
That was in ocean waves yet never wet. Spenser. 
WAGRAM, a village of Germany, in Lower Austria, on 
the river Rusbach, celebrated for the great battle which here 
took place between the Austrians and the French, in July 
1809; 16 miles north-east of Vienna. 
WAGSTADT, or Bilowes, a small town of Austrian 
Silesia; 17 miles south-by-east of Troppau. 
WA'GTAIL, s. [ motacilla , Latin.] A bird.—Spare 
my grey beard, you wagtail! Sha/cspeare. 
WAGUR, a district of Hindostan, province of Cutch, of 
which it forms the eastern boundary. The exterior is elevated 
and woody, and intersected by a number of small streams, 
which fall into the Runn. The inhabitants are Mahometans, 
and noted for their predatory habits. 
WAHABEES, or Wahabies, appellations that distin¬ 
guish a formidable body of warlike sectaries, who sprung up 
in Arabia about a century ago, commenced their career as 
reformers of the Mahometan religion, and made extensive 
migrations and conquests. According to Niebuhr, the 
founder of this sect, was one Abd ul Wehhab, (Abdoul- 
wehhbah, or Ubdool Wahab,) a native of Aijaene (Ujuna), a 
town in El Ared (Ool Urud),one of the two districts of 
Nedsjed, in Arabia. This man, in his youth, is said to have 
studied at home (or at Medina) those sciences which are 
chiefly cultivated in Arabia ; he afterwards spent some time 
at Bosra, and made several journeys to Bagdad, and through 
Persia. After his return to his native place, says Niebuhr, 
he began to propagate his opinions among his countrymen, 
and succeeded in converting several independent schiecks, 
whose subjects became followers of this new prophet. Those 
schiecks, who had before been in a state of hostility against 
one another, were reconciled by the mediation of Abd ul 
Wehhab, and agreed for the future to undertake no enterprise 
without the advice of their apostle- In process of time, Abd 
ul Wehhab reduced great part of El Ared ; and being after¬ 
wards joined by schieck Mecrami, of Nedsjeran, who was 
also the head of a particular sect, he, or rather his son Maho¬ 
met, as he succeeded his father, was enabled to reduce the 
Sunnite schiecks, and as they acted, in concert, to subdue 
many of their neighbours. After the death of Abd ul Weh¬ 
hab, his son retained the same authority, prosecuted his 
father’s views, and sustained the supreme ecclesiasticl cha¬ 
racter in El Ared. 
As to the religious doctrine taught by Abd ul Wehhab, 
and adopted by his followers, Niebuhr states, that he be¬ 
lieved God to be the only object of worship and invocation, 
and the creator and governor of this world. He forbade the 
invocation of saints, and so much as the mention of Maho¬ 
met, or any other prophet, in prayer, as practices savouring 
of idolatry. He considered Mahomet, Jesus Christ, Moses, 
and many others, respected by the Sunnites under the cha¬ 
racter of prophets, as merely great men, whose history might 
be perused with improvement; at the same time denying 
that any book had ever been written by divine inspiration, 
or brought down from heaven by the angel Gabriel. He 
also forbade, as a crime against Providence, the making of 
vows, in the manner of the Sunnites with a view of obtain¬ 
ing deliverance from danger. This new religion of Abd ul 
Wehhab, according to the account given of it by the schiecks, 
which, however, in some respects, differs from the statement 
of the Sunnites, may be regarded as a reformation of Maho¬ 
metanism, proposing to reduce it to great purity. Experi¬ 
ence must decide whether a religion, so stripped of every 
thing that might serve to strike the senses, can long maintain 
its ground among a people so rude and ignorant as the 
Arabs. Abd ul Wehhab, however, thought it necessary to 
impose some religious observances on his followers; and in¬ 
terdicted the use of tobacco, opium, and coffee; and he 
enacted a variety of civil regulations, with regard to the col¬ 
lection and distribution of the revenues. 
Wehhab’s first proselyte of any importance is said to have 
been Ibn Saaoud, a prince of certain tribes inhabiting the 
country to the east of Medina; and this prince took occasion, 
in the dissemination of his new doctrine, to attack and sub¬ 
jugate the neighbouring tribes. His successor, or, as some 
say, coadjutor, was Abdelaaziz (Ubdool Uzeez), who, pro¬ 
secuting his system, carried in one hand his creed of re¬ 
form, and his sword in the other; and having made himself 
master of the interior of Arabia, extended his military excur¬ 
sions as far as the vicinity of Bagdad; and in the year 1801, 
totally destroyed by fire the town of Imam Hossein, near this 
capital. The men and male children were all put to the 
sword ; while a Wehhabite doctor, from the top of a tower, 
excited the massacre, by calling on the soldiers to kill “ all 
the infidels who gave companions to God.” In 1802, Mecca 
was taken after a trifling opposition by Saaoud, the son of 
Abdelaaziz, who razed to the ground all the mosques and 
chapels consecrated to the prophet or his family. This 
young warrior succeeded to the command of the Wehhabis 
the following year, on the assassination of his father; and, 
in 1804, made himself master of Medina, which had before 
resisted his arms. The conquest of Arabia was now nearly 
completed ; and the sultan Saaoud became a formidable 
neighbour to the surrounding pachas of Bagdad, Damascus, 
and Egypt. 
The constitution of this new sovereignty was singular in its 
kind. The town of Draa’iya, among the deserts, 390 miles to 
the east of Medina, formed a sort of capital, or centre, of the 
governments of the Wahhabees. The various tribes of Arabs, 
scattered widely in tents and barracks over this vast extent of 
country, yielded obedience, both civil and military, to the 
sultan Saaoud. The tenth of their flocks and fruits was paid 
in tribute; an order from the sultan rapidly assembled a 
multitude of armed men, subsisting themselves at their own 
expense, totally unorganized as soldiers, but deriving force 
from their numbers—from their active spirit as sectaries—and 
from 
