Modern Islamist Movements: History, Religion, and Politics (27 page)

Ibn Muammar did not expel Ibn Abd al-Wahhab from al-Uyaynah and did not completely end his support of this Muslim leader.31 Ibn Muammar capit- ulated to Sulayman Ibn Muhammad’s demands and ordered two horsemen to lead Ibn Abd al-Wahhab away from al-Uyaynah to the town of Dir)iyah.32

Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud

In Dir)iyah, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud, an important political leader in that city, forged a momentous and historic religious and political partnership which, after a series of events, eventually led to the formation of the modern state of Saudi Arabia.33 After Muhammad ibn Saud’s wife and two of his brothers received emissaries from Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and accepted his message as a result of these conversations, Muhammad ibn Saud placed Ibn Abd al-Wahhab under his protection and then accepted the Muslim leader’s message himself.34 Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud made an agreement that as long as Muhammad ibn Saud complied with the principles of tawhid and the rest of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s message, he would support Muhammad ibn Saud’s endeavors to bring the province of Najd and its environs under his control.35 Thus, while Muhammad ibn Saud would provide Ibn Abd al-Wahhab with political, military, and financial support, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers would attempt to offer Muhammad ibn Saud, his supporters, and the people he would conquer Islamically-based beliefs and practices that were truthful, clear, strident, and unyielding.36 In 1744, these two men made a public declaration of their loyalty to God and to each other.37 This agreement established the beginning of the first Saudi state which was to last from 1744 until 1818.38

The Wahhabi Movement and the Origins of the Modern Saudi State

After the death of Muhammad ibn Saud, his son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad (1721–1803), who, together with his soldiers and allies continued to be equipped with Wahhabi ideas, continued to extend the power of the Saud lineage and Wahhabism by conquering the Arabian city of Riyadh in 1773 and making it their capital, and then conquering the Arabian cities of Kharj and Qasim by 1792, which was the year of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s death.39 By the time of his passing, his ideas had so permeated the thought and practice of the members of the Saud lineage and their military that Wahhabi ideas were the defining religious, political, and ideological dynamic behind the military and political expansion of the Saud family’s influence.

As the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance continued its military, religious, and political expansion between 1802 and 1804, the soldiers in this allied force conquered the key cities of Ta)if, Mecca, and Medina in the western Arabian peninsula during that time period. Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad was murdered in 1803 at the age of 82. After his death, Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz (b. 1748), who was the great grandson of the original Saud who had established the Saud dynasty previously, became the leader of the Saud family’s military.40

During this early part of the nineteenth century, the house of Saud’s military conducted raids into Iraq and Syria; the small number of these raids which succeeded resulted in only short-term occupations of some towns and cities in those regions.41 The house of Saud’s military expanded its reach in the Arabian peninsula until Muhammad Ali (1769–1849), the Ottoman governor-general and ruler of Egypt, played a key role in the takeover of Mecca and Medina in 1812 and the destruction of this first Saudi state in 1818.42

The Egyptians then became dominant political leaders of central and western Arabia and attempted to eliminate the influence of the Saudis and Wahhabis through violence and other means.43 Through the aggressive actions of the Egyptians, the first Saudi state had been largely debilitated, with its military decimated and its administrative apparatus crushed.44 After the first Saudi state came to an end, the peasants, merchants, and artisans of Najd longed for the periods of the first Saudi state (and the times preceding it) which they believed had brought relative peace and security.45

The members of Najd’s upper classes viewed the house of Saud as heroes because their successful battles had brought them valuable possessions, while the members of the Wahhabi ulema inside and outside of Najd encouraged people to remember the first Saudi state’s accomplishments and their efforts in maintaining the strength and “truth” of Islam.46 In addition to those groups’ opposition to Ottoman-Egyptian rule, many residents of Najd endeavored to oust the rule of the foreigners and reestablish an environment which promoted stable economic, social, political, and religious life.47 Toward this end, members of a resurgent Saudi-Wahhabi alliance based largely in Najd began in the early 1820s to engage in a series of virulent battles against the Ottoman-Egyptian rulers, which led to the fall of Riyadh in 1843 and a significant evacuation of the Ottoman Egyptians from various parts of the Arabian peninsula.48 During the period of this second Saudi state, from 1843 until 1865, Faisal ibn Turki, the leader from the house of Saud during this period, brought many benefits to Najd including unity, a renewal of Wahhabi beliefs and practices, increased consolidation of Najd’s tribes, a strengthened military, and relative stability, all of which helped maintain the Saudi lineage’s leadership role in politics and kept Wahhabism’s place in Arabian society vibrant.49 This second state dissipated with Faisal ibn Turki’s death in 1865.50

Western Colonialist Countries and the Arabian Peninsula

After Faisal ibn Turki’s death in 1865 a vitriolic power struggle between his sons, Abdallah, Saud, Muhammad, and Abd al-Rahman, ensued. From 1865 until the ascendance in the early twentieth century of Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Faisal al-Saud (1880–1953), hereafter referred to as Ibn Saud, the founder of the contemporary kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there were numerous battles in the Arabian peninsula involving Faisal ibn Turki’s four sons, rival Arabian clans, and the Ottomans.51 During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as fighting continued between various tribes of the Arabian peninsula, several countries attempted to gain influence in that region.52 Britain’s prominence in and around Arabia was being challenged by Germany, France, and Russia. For example, Germany’s government attempted to establish stronger links with the Ottomans in its effort to establish a rail line across Iraq to the Persian Gulf, which would avoid the sea-lanes that were controlled by the British.53 By 1899, the Ottomans granted Germany the right to build a railway from Istanbul to Kuwait, which ran through Baghdad.54 Without the knowledge of either the Germans or the Ottomans, Mubarak al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, who feared the possibility of the Ottomans seizing his territory, signed a secret treaty with Britain in 1896 which banned the Kuwaiti government from granting concessions to any country besides Britain, thus blocking Germany’s desired train link to Kuwait’s ports.55 The British government, hoping to maintain and possibly increase its influence in the Arabian peninsula, formed its own alliances with Arabian tribes.56

The French government, which also wanted to extend its influence and gain access to some of the Middle East’s natural resources, developed plans to build a coaling station in Muscat, Oman, while Russia sought a warm-water port in the Persian Gulf.57 Knowing that the Ottoman Empire, France, and Russia wanted to increase their influence in the Persian Gulf, Britain sent a large naval force to the Gulf in 1903, in an attempt to make a display of its desire to maintain its influence in the region.58 Through these and other British efforts, most of the Arabian peninsula and Persian Gulf became part of Britain’s colonial sphere of influence.

The Expansion of Ibn Saud’s Influence

In the midst of such maneuverings by Western colonial powers, Ibn Saud and his allies conquered Riyadh in 1902, after some significant battles with warring Arabian tribes. This conquest and Ibn Saud’s ongoing military and political successes in Najd constituted the beginning of the third Saudi state,

which currently exists.59 As was the case with the two previous Saudi states, the Wahhabi tradition played a crucial role in the growth and consolidation of Ibn Saud’s authority. One of the institutions which Ibn Saud used to extend his political and religious power in Najd and in other parts of the Arabian peninsula was the mutawwa(a (religious police). The mutawwa(a was comprised of men who were educated in Islamic rituals as well as the Quran, Hadith, and aspects of law. The mutawwa(a attempted to enforce obedience to Wahhabi Islam and the proper performance of related rituals.60 The antecedents of the mutawwa(a may reach as far back as the fifteenth century of the common era.61

In 1902, the mutawwa(a and Ibn Saud made a bay(a or an oath of allegiance with each other.62 Consistent with this oath, between 1902 and 1932, Ibn Saud invested the mutawwa(a with prestige and funded them in return for their enforcement of Wahhabi principles and their assistance in extending Ibn Saud’s power in the Najd and in other areas. In return for the mutawwa(a’s disciplining and punishing those who rejected Wahhabism and Ibn Saud’s rule, he paid the mutawwa(a their salaries in cash and kind.

By rewarding the mutawwa(a materially and symbolically, Ibn Saud created a cadre of Wahhabi specialists, who enforced Wahhabi Islam and were loyal to Ibn Saud and dependent on his resources. In return, the mutawwa(a helped guarantee Ibn Saud the political and religious submission of the Arabian population under the aegis of obedience to God.63 The mutawwa(a were expected “to flog all persons who were caught smoking, wearing fine adornment or procrastinating in their religious duties… . They were also responsible for the collection of zakat [mandatory financial donation] for the central government.”64 The enforcement of moral discipline and the collection of zakat through the work of the mutawwa(a were powerful instruments that helped consolidate Ibn Saud’s rule.65

As Ibn Saud extended his influence in Najd and the Arabian peninsula, another apparatus that he utilized was the ikhwan or brotherhood which was a military organization whose ideology was based on Wahhabi principles. Before the ikhwan formed as a military force that was committed to Wahhabi principles and to the expansion of Ibn Saud’s power, many of them had become grounded in the mutawwa(a’s Wahhabi teachings.66 Many members of the ikhwan had been desert nomads in the Arabian peninsula before joining that military force. Ibn Saud turned them into a large and highly regimented group which engaged in raids and other military actions, whenever it was necessary to quell rebellions or extend his power. Their allegiance to Wahhabi principles and to Ibn Saud provided the kind of thorough-going cohesion that helped Ibn Saud unite the tribes of Saudi Arabia and maintain stability in that kingdom. He funded the mutawwa(a and the ikhwan, which was one of the factors that encouraged their allegiance to him.67 While the mutawwa(a educated the people of the Arabian

peninsula in Wahhabi principles and, at times, imposed these ideas on people forcefully, the ikhwan used physical means to extend the reach of Wahhabi principles and Ibn Saud’s authority.68

Yet, while Ibn Saud attempted to utilize the mutawwa(a and the ikhwan together with his personal dynamism and persuasiveness to create cohesion among the tribes of the Arabian peninsula, pre-existing tribal differences simmered. Some of these underlying conflicts came to the surface during the revolts of some of the members of the ikhwan between 1927 and 1930.69 A number of the ikhwan who engaged in these revolts against Ibn Saud and the Saud tribe had been at war with the Sauds on previous occasions and may have resented the increasing power of Ibn Saud and his tribe.70 The members of the ikhwan who engaged in the revolt also declared a long list of grievances against Ibn Saud and his regime, which included their opposition to: (1) what they perceived as Ibn Saud’s alliance with Egypt and Great Britain; (2) Ibn Saud’s importation of the telegraph, the telephone, and automobiles into the Arabian peninsula (all of which the revolutionar- ies considered to be antithetical to Islam); and (3) the imposition of a centralized tax system.71 As the hostilities developed into open warfare between Ibn Saud and his allies within and outside of the ikhwan, on the one hand, and Ibn Saud’s enemies (many of whom were members of the ikhwan’s “anti-Saud” faction), on the other, the British shifted their alliances between groups in order to maximize their leverage within the region.72 As a result of Ibn Saud’s clever tactical maneuvers and other factors, by 1930 he succeeded in quelling the revolt of the ikhwan.73

The Modern Saudi State Takes Firm Root

Having defeated the rebellious ikhwan by 1930 and having acquired the title of “King of Saudi Arabia” by 1932 (with this new nation-state having been given the name “Saudi Arabia” in the same year), Ibn Saud was then in a strong position to unify the burgeoning Saudi state, utilizing Wahhabism as well as his own religious, political, and military prowess.74 Referring to the early 1930s and subsequent periods, Alexei Vassiliev writes,

The new kingdom of Saudi Arabia extended over most of the Arabian peninsula, absorbing several feudal-tribal groupings that had previously been dependent on the Ottoman Empire. The creation of a centralized state corresponded to the overall interests of the feudal-tribal nobility, the merchants and the majority of the population, ensuring security and putting an end to tribal feuds. However, centralization brought growing taxes and strengthened the military-bureaucratic machinery, which substantially restricted the nomads’ traditional “democratic” freedoms. The preaching of a “purified”