| The Wahhabi War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Mahmud II Muhammad AliTusun Pasha (WIA)Ibrahim PashaIsma'il Pasha Abu Jabal (WIA)Abidin Bey |  Saud I#Abdallah I  Ghaliyya al-Badry Sheikh Sulayman | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ~10,000 dead or wounded[1][2][3] (Incl. 4,000–5,000 at Al-Safra and 4,700 in Najd) | 9,000 killed | ||||||||
TheOttoman–Wahhabi war, orWahhabi War, was fought from early 1811 until 1818 between theOttoman Empire, its vassal theEyalet of Egypt, and the Wahhabis' Emirate of Diriyah (later known as thefirst Saudi state), resulting in the destruction of the latter.
The war was historically referred to as the "Wahhabi War"[5][6][7][8][9] reflecting the centrality of Wahhabi beliefs to the conflict. TheEncyclopaedia of Islam was unaware of other names as of its 1938 supplement.[10] Modern names include the "Egyptian–Wahhabi war",[11] and the "Ottoman/Egyptian–Wahhabi war."[12][13] The name "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" was only adopted by theKingdom of Hejaz and Nejd in 1932.[14] Modern names like the "Egyptian–Saudi war",[15] and Ottoman–Saudi War[16] would not have made sense before then. Some Saudi figures have been attempting to diminish the role ofWahhabism in their history[17] and avoid using the "Wahhabi" names.
The 18th century was a time ofdecline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire. TheIndustrial Revolution began in Western European, and it created a flood of cheap goods that traditional small Ottoman workshops could not compete with. The closure of these workshops caused unemployment, loss of tax revenue, and currency devaluation in the Ottoman Empire.[18] The technologies of the First Industrial Revolution required large amounts of high quality coal, navigable rivers, and a cool climate. The Ottomans would not be able to successfully compete with the Western European manufacturers without technological advances that were not available for the duration of the Empire. The Industrial Revolution had other negative effects for the Ottomans. It contributed to a rapid decline in the cost of ocean shipping, roughly two thirds between the 1770s and 1820s.[19] This led to goods increasingly travelling by sea rather than overland on Ottoman Imperial trade routes, which were sources of tax revenue for the empire and income forBedouin convoys. The economic pain led to increasing dissatisfaction with Ottoman rule, a "general perception of that time that things were going wrong,"[20] and mounting criticism.
One of the most historically significant critics of the Ottomans in this period wasMuhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, the founder and leader of theWahhabi movement.[21] The term Wahhabi was written, and possibly first used, by Muhammad's older brotherSulayman ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Sulayman opposed his younger brother's movement and convinced manyBedouin tribal chiefs not to follow his brother with his letters. Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was greatly influenced by the works of classical Islamic scholarsIbn Taymiyya andIbn Qayyim,[22] who had a significantly different formulation ofMonotheism (Tawhid) than his predecesors.
MuhammadIbn Abd al-Wahhab opposed what were then mainstream religious practices that dated back to theIslamic Golden Age or before. Many of these were associated withSufism, such as thevisiting andveneration of theshrines andtombs of Muslimsaints. He claimed these amounted toheretical religious innovation or evenidolatry.[23] However, his doctrine was not accepted by other Sunnis or other branches of Islam. The Wahhabis called themselves theMuwahhidun, from his doctrine onTawhid, but the name Wahhabi stuck anyway.
Muhammad Ibn al-Wahhab cofounded of the Emirate of Diriyah inNajd (CentralArabia) by signing theDiriyah pact and joining forces withMuhammad bin Saud Al Muqrin and what became known as theHouse of Saud. In the years that followed, he gained supporters and his movement grew. By 1765, the movement counted the majority of people in Najd as its followers. Although he had indirectly expressed critiques on theOttoman dynasty in his letters, he had decided not to publicly challenge the legitimacy of the empire as a precautionary measure. He did not acknowledge theircaliphate claims, an assertion made by SultanAbdul Hamid I after the Ottoman defeat in the 1770sRusso-Turkish war, to portray himself as theleader of theMuslim world.[24]
Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab died in 1792, but his ideology and teachings are viewed as responsible for the war that occurred later. However, this did not imply that he personally sought a conflict with the Ottomans, as classical Wahhabi doctrines did not view the establishment of a caliphate as a necessity upon individual Muslims. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was rather alarmed by what he claimed was the erosion of religious morality in neighboring Ottomanvilayets and found fault with theadministrative functioning of the Ottoman Empire, which he criticized for not properly enforcingSharia (Islamic law) in its territories.[25] This included an economic criticism, as Ottoman economic decline led to taxes that the Wahhabis argued against on religious grounds.[26] The Wahhabis believed that they offered an alternative religious and political model to that of the Ottomans and had a separate claim to Islamic leadership.[27] They called for social reform based on their doctrines. These differences eventually led the new small state to take action against the vast neighboring empire that its founders had avoided.
Political hostility and distrust would eventually lead the Wahhabis and the Ottomans to declare mutual exchanges ofTakfir (excommunication), many years after Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's death.[28] By the 1790s, the Wahhabis had consolidated their rule over most regions of Central Arabia. Growing Wahhabi influence alarmedGhalib ibn Musa'id, theSharif of Mecca, who responded by starting a war with the Wahhabis in 1793. Intending to form a military coalition to defeat them, he corresponded withOttoman authorities inIstanbul. He sought to create hostility towards the Wahhabis by portraying them asdisbelievers (a declaration that they wereapostates). Similar efforts were made by the ruler of Baghdad. These reports, along with Wahhabi expansion, eventually succeeded in turning the Ottoman bureaucrats against the Wahhabis. There became significant hostility towards the movement.
In 1797,Sulayman the Great, the Ottoman governor of Iraq, invadedDiriyah with around 15,000 troops in co-ordination with Ghalib. They laid siege toAl-Ahsa for a month. However, re-inforcements led bySaud ibn 'Abd al-Azeez would force the Ottomans to retreat. After three days of skirmishes, Sulayman the Great and the Wahhabis came to a peace settlement which was to last for six years. However, the peace would be broken in 1801, when a caravan of pilgrims protected by a Wahhabi convoy was plundered nearHail; upon orders from the Mamluk administration inBaghdad. This attack would completely break down the already deteriorating Wahhabi-Ottoman diplomatic relations, and the Wahhabi's Emirate of Diriyah sent a large-scale expedition towardsIraq.[29]
There were multipleWahhabi raids on Najaf. In 1802, 12,000Wahhabis sacked Karbala in Iraq killing up to 5,000 people and plundering theImam Husayn shrine.[30] Wahhabi forces led byAbdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud entered Mecca in 1803 after defeating Ghalib and forcing his surrender. The assassination in November 1803 of Abdulaziz during prayers inal-Dir'iyya by an Iraqi; was suspected of being orchestrated by the Mamlukgovernor of Baghdad, which greatly deteriorated Wahhabi-Ottoman relations. Ghalib had worked hard to dampen the prospects of reconciliation between the Emirate of Diriyah (later thefirst Saudi state) and the Ottoman Empire.[31] In the ensuing conflict, the Wahhabis gained control ofMecca andMedina by 1805.[30] After his assassination, Abdulaziz was replaced as his sonSaud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1748–1814). He also held the titles Emir and Imam of Diriyah. He denounced the Ottoman sultan and called into question the validity of his claim to becaliph and guardian of the sanctuaries of theHejaz.[32] Under his rule, theWahhabis also attacked Ottoman trade caravans which led to further deterioration of Ottoman finances.[33]
In response, Ottoman SultanMahmud II, orderedMuhammad Ali, governor ofEgypt, to attack the Wahhabi state in December 1807.[32] Ali had embarked on an extensive modernization program that included a significant expansion of Egypt's military forces. The Ottomans had grown increasingly wary of Ali's reign. Ordering him to go to war with the Wahhabi state would serve their interests in either victory or defeat as the destruction of either's forces would be beneficial to them.[33] Tensions between Ali and his troops also contributed to his decision to send them toArabia and fight against the Wahhabi movement, where many would die rather than be able to challenge his rule in Egypt.[34] Events within Egypt delayed the expedition until 1811.[32]
In 1811, Muhammad Ali's Ottoman troops landed inYanbu under the command of his sonTusun Pasha. Theycaptured the city of Yanbu in a bloodless confrontation where all of Al-Saud's forces surrendered.[35] The Ottoman troops then moved south to attempt to recapture the city ofMedina. However, the Ottomans were decisively defeated at theBattle of Al-Safra in 1812 during their initial attempt to reach the city. 5,000 Ottoman troops were killed by the Wahhabis who successfully repelled them from the area. The Ottomans were forced to retreat back to Yanbu.[36] Muhammad Ali Pasha then sent an additional 20,000 troops to help recapture Medina. The Ottoman forces successfully reached the city in their second attempt and wonBattle of Medina in late 1812.[37][38] A small Ottoman contingent then recaptured the city ofJeddah without a fight a month later. A week after that, in January 1813, Ottoman troops also capturedMecca without a fight.[39] Both cities had been ruled by the Ottomans for centuries and preffered their rule to the Wahhabis. At the end of the first campaign, the five major cities of Western Arabia (Hejaz) had returned to Ottoman rule. However, Wahhabi power remained intact to the east.[40]
To signal reestablished authority and inspire confidence,Muhammad Ali Pasha decided to visit the area in person in 1813. He arrived in September 1813 inJeddah with 2,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 8,000 camels. The camels carried a large amount of supplies and ammunition for the Ottoman army.[40] He set about recapturing the remaining areas of Western Arabia. His troops marched east and were successful in many tribal areas. However, these minor fights tired the troops and they were initially unable to regain control ofTurubah in 1813 when they attempted a siege of the city. In early 1814, a force led byAbidin Bey not only failed to recaptureAl-Bahah, but was put under seige at the city of Taif when it retreated. The Ottomans were able to break theSiege of Taif, but were then only able to recapture and hold the city ofAl Qunfudhah for around a month. In 1815, one of the main rebels, Bakhroush bin Alass ofZahran tribe, was killed and beheaded by Muhammad Ali's forces inAl Qunfudhah.[41] In the spring of 1815, Ottoman forces inflicted large-scale defeat upon the Saudis, forcing them to conclude a peace treaty. Under the terms of treaty, the Wahhabis had to give upHijaz. Abdullah ibn Saud was forced to acknowledge himself as the vassal of the Ottoman Empire and obey its Sultan unquestionably. However, neither Muhammad Ali nor the Ottoman Sultan had confirmed the treaty.[42]
Suspicious of Wahhabi Emir Abdullah, the Ottomans resumed the war in 1816, with the assistance of French military instructors. The Ottoman-Egyptian force was led by Muhammad Ali's elder son,Ibrahim Pasha, and penetrated into the heart of Central Arabia, besieging the chief centres ofQasim andNajd. Waging a war of extermination between 1816 and 1818, the invading armies pillaged various towns and villages, forcing the inhabitants to flee and seek refuge in remote regions and oases. By 1817, the armies had overrunRass,Buraida andUnayza.[42] Saudi armies put up a fierce resistance at Al-Rass where they withstood a siege of 3 months. Faced with the advance of the Ottoman-Egyptian army, Emir Abdullah retreated to his Emirate of Diriyah.[43][44]
The Ottomans began theNajd Expedition in 1818, involving a series of military conflicts. En route to Dariyya, the Ottoman armies executed everyone over ten years age inDhurma. Ibrahim's forces would march towards Diriyya during the early months of 1818, easily routing Saudi resistances and arrive at the capital by April 1818. TheSiege of Diriyah would last until September 1818, with the Ottoman forces waiting for Saudi supplies to run out.[43] On 11 September 1818, Abdullah Ibn Saud would sue for peace, offering his surrender, in exchange for sparing Diriyah. However, the city would be razed to ground by order of Ibrahim Pasha.[45][46] It was not until September 1818 that the Wahhabi state formally ended with the surrender of its leaders and the Wahhabi head of state, EmirAbdullah bin Saud, taken captive and sent to Istanbul to be executed.[32]
George Forster Sadleir left a record on the aftermath of the former capital of the Wahhabi state:
"The site of Deriah is in a deep ravine north-west of Munfooah, about ten miles distant. It is now in ruins, and the inhabitants who were spared, or escaped from the slaughter, have principally sought shelter here ... Munfooah ... was surrounded with a wall and ditch which the Pacha ordered to be razed .... Riad is not so well peopled .... The inhabitants were at that time in a more wretched state than at any prior period since the establishment of the power of the Wahabees. Their walls, the chief security for their property, had been razed ... The year's crop had been consumed by the Turkish force"[47]
Wahhabi leader'Abdullah ibn Saud was transported first toCairo and then toIstanbul. He was beheaded in December alongside several other WahhabiImams,[48] and his corpse was publicly displayed, on the orders of the Ottoman SultanMahmud II.[45][43] Other than 'Abdullah, most of the political leaders and members of theSaudi family were treated well. After theDestruction of Diriyah, Ibrahim Pasha rounded up the prominent survivors of the Saudi family and the scholarly Al ash-Sheikh many of whom were deported to Egypt. Per Ottoman estimates, over 250 members related to the Saudi family and 32 members related to the Al ash-Sheikh were exiled.
The Ottomans were far harsher with the religious leaders that inspired theWahhabi movement, executingSūlayman ibn 'Abd Allah Aal-Shaykh and other religious notables, as they were thought to be uncompromising in their beliefs and therefore a much bigger threat than the political leaders. Prominent scholars such as theQadi ofDir'iyya, Sulayman ibn 'Abd Allah (the grandson ofMuhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab) were tortured, forced to listen to guitar (knowing the Najdi prescriptions and customs that prohibited music) and executed by a firing-squad. Otherulema such asAbd Allah ibn Muhammad Aal Al-Shaikh and his nephew Abd al Rahman ibn Hasan Aal Al-Shaikh would be exiled to Egypt (the latter would return to Najd in 1825, to revive and lead the Wahhabi movement). Some otherQadis and scholars were hunted down and executed. Abd al Aziz ibn Hamad al Mu'ammar managed to settle inBahrain, where the ruler welcomed him. Few scholars managed to escape to the remote Southern corners ofArabia. The executions reflected how seriously the Ottomans viewed the Wahhabi threat, and were also motivated by deep Ottoman resentment of Wahhabi views.[32] Altogether, the Najdis lost about two dozen scholars and men from theulema families in the aftermath of the invasion.
Later,Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt and his troops went on to conquerQatif andel-Hasa. Remnants of Wahhabi fortifications were demolished acrossNajd. The Emir's relatives and important Wahhabi leaders were taken captive and exiled to Egypt. In December 1819, Ibrahim Pasha returned to Egypt after formally incorporating Hejaz into the Ottoman Empire. However, they were unable to totally subdue the opposition forces and Central Arabia became a region of permanent Wahhabi uprisings[42] and the attempted suppression proved to be a failure.[49][32] In the 1823, PrinceTurki ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammed ibn Saud, gathed growing support from tribes and groups that opposed the Turkish occupation, and laid Siege toRiyadh. By August 1824, Al-Saud had captured Riyadh in a Second Siege, and established the Emirate of Nejd (later known as theSecond Saudi State) with Riyadh as its capital.[50]
TheBritish Empire welcomed Ibrahim Pasha's siege of Diriyah with the goal of promoting their trade interests in the region. Captain George Forster Sadleir, an officer of the British Army in India, was dispatched fromBombay to consult with Ibrahim Pasha in Diriyah.[51] Following the fall of the first Saudi state, theBritish empire launched theirPersian Gulf campaign of 1819. A formidable force consisting of 2,800 British soldiers and 3 warships fought theQasimi tribesmen allied to Diriyah. Their cityRas al Khaimah was demolished in 1819. TheGeneral Maritime treaty was concluded in 1820 with the local chieftains, which would eventually transform them into a protectorate ofTrucial States; heralding a century of British supremacy in theGulf.[52]
In the aftermath of the war, there was continual hatred between the Wahhabi movement and the Ottoman Empire. Wahhabi views were likely a factor in thePersecution of Sufis in the following century. The war continues to influence modern Turkey where many Turkish Imams considerWahhabism to be un-Islamic. Wahhabism also influenced movements aligned with the Ottomans and their successor states such asIslamic neo-traditionalism andSufism that were critical of Wahhabism or opposed to aspects of it. Saudi Arabia, which became a nation a century later, considers the war to be the start of their struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire. However, in the 21st century it engaged in a "conscious uncoupling" with Wahhabism. It stopped requiring adherence to the ideology and some Saudi academics called to rewrite the history of the state to begin years before ibn Abd al-Wahhab joined the Diriyah pact.[53] The Saudis continue to view Turkey, as the main successor state of the Ottoman Empire, with suspicion.Saudi-Turkey relations are still influenced by past hostility. Contemporary Saudi and Turkish nationalist writers accuse each other of engaging in systematic campaigns of historical revisionism.[54][55][56][57][58]
Some Western scholars and commentators also viewed Wahhabism as promoting ahistorical or fanatical views.[59][60][61] The historianBernard Lewis referred to the Wahhabis using Saudi oil wealth to "promulgate bizarre doctrines"[62] and likened the Wahhabi relationship with Islam to that of theKu Klux Klan with Christianity.[20] He believed it "was a reaction to the general perception of that time that things were going wrong."[20] However, by the 20th century, many Gulf states saw the adoption of Wahhabi views in the wider Islamic world as necessary for their legitimacy. Without their independence from the Ottomans, their newly discovered oil wealth would have belonged to the wider Empire rather than to them individually. The spread of Wahhabism was also seen as a way to increase their geopolitical influence. As such, they spent large amounts of money on theInternational propagation of the Salafi movement and Wahhabism.
Wahhabi war
Egyptian-Wahhabi war
The episode was followed by the Ottoman/Egyptian–Wahhabi war that lasted from 1811 to 1818 and which resulted in the victory of the former.
Egyptian Saudi War (1811–1818)
The Ottomans pushed back with the 1811–18 Ottoman Wahhabi War, led by the Ottoman's viceroy in Egypt.
Although the Ottomans were able to defeat the First Saudi State in the Ottoman–Wahhabi War (1811–1818), the House of Al Saud was able to restore its rule in Central and Eastern Arabia in a short time.
Wahhabism properly refers to the 18th-century revival and reform movement begun in the region of Najd, in what is today Saudi Arabia, by Islamic religious and legal scholar Muhammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab.
Nor did he acknowledge the Ottoman caliphate. The Ottomans asserted this status only after territorial losses to the Russians in the 1770s. They sought to compensate for growing political and military debilitation by claiming spiritual ascendancy over Muslims everywhere.
Claims that in defying the sultan the Saudi imam intended to supplant the caliph were unfounded. Classical Wahhabism never accepted the need for a universal caliphate, let alone advocated it or claimed it on behalf of the Saudis or the Arabs more generally. It was part of established Sunni thought that the legitimacy of the caliphate derived from enforcement of the shari'a. In his repudiation of the theological stance of the Ottomans and his uninhibited criticism of religious conditions in Ottoman provinces, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab made it plain that God's law remained unenforced there
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The Wahhabi leader, Abdullah Ibn Sa'ud, was defeated and transported first to Cairo then to Istanbul, where together with several Wahhabi imams he was beheaded
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The British in India had welcomed Ibrahim Pasha's siege of Diriyah: if the 'predatory habits' of the Wahhabists could be extirpated from the Arabian peninsula, so much the better for British trade in the region. It was for this reason that Captain George Forster Sadleir, an officer of the British Army in India (HM 47th regiment), was sent from Bombay to consult Ibrahim Pasha in Diriyah.