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Oman WAHHABI ISLAM AND THE GULF
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were a
turbulent time
for Arabia in general and for the gulf in particular. To
the
southeast, the Al Said of Oman were extending their
influence
northward, and from Iraq the Ottoman Turks were extending
their
influence southward. From the east, both the Iranians and
the
British were becoming increasingly involved in Arab
affairs.
The most significant development in the region,
however, was
the Wahhabi movement. The name Wahhabi derived from
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, who died in 1792. He grew up
in an
oasis town in central Arabia where he studied Hanbali law,
usually considered the strictest of Islamic legal schools,
with
his grandfather. While still a young man, he left home and
continued his studies in Medina and then in Iraq and Iran.
When he returned from Iran to Arabia in the late 1730s,
he
attacked as idolatry many of the customs followed by
tribes in
the area who venerated rocks and trees. He extended his
criticism
to practices of the Twelver Shia, such as veneration of
the tombs
of holy men. He focused on the central Muslim principle
that
there is only one God and that this God does not share his
divinity with anyone. From this principle, his students
began to
refer to themselves as muwahhidun (sing.,
muwahhid), or "unitarians." Their detractors
referred to
them as "Wahhabis."
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab considered himself a
reformer and
looked for a political figure to give his ideas a wider
audience.
He found this person in Muhammad ibn Saud, the
amir (see Glossary)
of Ad Diriyah, a small town near Riyadh. In 1744
the
two swore a traditional Muslim pledge in which they
promised to
work together to establish a new state (which later became
present-day Saudi Arabia) based on Islamic principles. The
limited but successful military campaigns of Muhammad ibn
Saud
caused Arabs from all over the peninsula to feel the
impact of
Wahhabi ideas.
The Wahhabis became known for a fanaticism similar to
that of
the early Kharijites. This fanaticism helped to intensify
conflicts in the gulf. Whereas tribes from the interior
had
always raided settled communities along the coast, the
Wahhabi
faith provided them with a justification for continuing
these
incursions to spread true Islam. Accordingly, in the
nineteenth
century Wahhabi tribes, under the leadership of the Al
Saud,
moved at various times against Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.
In
Oman, the Wahhabi faith created internal dissension as
well as an
external menace because it proved popular with some of the
Ibadi
tribes in the Omani interior.
Wahhabi thought has had a special impact on the history
of
Qatar. Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab's ideas proved popular
among
many of the peninsula tribes, including the Al Thani clan,
before
the Al Khalifa attempted to take over the area from
Bahrain at
the beginning of the nineteenth century. As a result,
Wahhabi
beliefs motivated Al Thani efforts to resist the attempt
of the
Al Khalifa, who rejected Wahhabism, to gain control of the
peninsula. In the early 1990s, Wahhabism distinguished
Qatar
religiously from its neighbors.
Wahhabi fervor was also significant in the history of
the
present-day UAE. The Qawasim tribes that had controlled
the area
since the eighteenth century adapted Wahhabi ideas and
transferred the movement's religious enthusiasm to the
piracy in
which they had traditionally engaged. Whereas Wahhabi
thought
opposed all that was not orthodox in Islam, it
particularly
opposed non-Muslim elements such as the increasing
European
presence in the Persian Gulf.
Data as of January 1993
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