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Saudi Arabia
THE RISE OF ABD AL AZIZ, 1890-1926
The founder of the modern state of Saudi Arabia lived much of
his early life in exile. In the end, however, he not only recovered
the territory of the first Al Saud empire, but made a state out
of it. Abd al Aziz did this by maneuvering among a number of forces.
The first was the religious fervor that Wahhabi Islam continued
to inspire. His Wahhabi army, the Ikhwan (brotherhood--see Glossary),
for instance, represented a powerful tool, but one that proved
so difficult to control that the ruler ultimately had to destroy
it. At the same time, Abd al Aziz had to anticipate the manner
in which events in Arabia would be viewed abroad and allow foreign
powers, particularly the British, to have their way.
Abd al Aziz established the Saudi state in three stages, namely,
by retaking Najd in 1905, defeating the Rashidi clan at Hail in
1921, and conquering the Hijaz in 1924. In the first phase, Abd
al Aziz acted as tribal leaders had acted for centuries: while
still in Kuwait, and only in his twenties, Abd al Aziz rallied
a small force from the surrounding tribes and began to raid areas
under Rashidi control north of Riyadh. Then in early 1902, he
led a small party in a surprise attack on the Rashidi garrison
in Riyadh.
The successful attack gave Abd al Aziz a foothold in Najd. One
of his first tasks was to establish himself in Riyadh as the Al
Saud leader and the Wahhabi imam. Abd al Aziz obtained the support
of the religious establishment in Riyadh, and this relatively
swift recognition revealed the political force of Wahhabi authority.
Leadership in this tradition did not necessarily follow age, but
it respected lineage and, particularly, action. Despite his relative
youth, by taking Riyadh Abd al Aziz had showed he possessed the
qualities the tribes valued in a leader.
From his seat in Riyadh, Abd al Aziz continued to make agreements
with some tribes and to do battle with others. He eventually strengthened
his position so that the Rashidi were unable to evict him. By
1905 the Ottoman governor in Iraq recognized Abd al Aziz as an
Ottoman client in Najd. The Al Saud ruler accepted Ottoman suzerainty
because it improved his political position. Nevertheless he made
concurrent overtures to the British to rid Arabia of Ottoman influence.
Finally, in 1913, and without British assistance, Abd al Aziz's
armies drove the Ottomans out of Al Hufuf in eastern Arabia and
thereby strengthened his position in Najd as well.
About this time, the Ikhwan movement began to emerge among the
beduin. The Ikhwan movement spread Wahhabi Islam among the nomads.
Stressing the same strict adherence to religious law that Muhammad
ibn Abd al Wahhab had preached, Ikhwan beduin abandoned their
traditional way of life in the desert and move to an agricultural
settlement called a hijra (pl., hujar). The
word hijra was related to the term for the Prophet's
emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622, conveying the sense that
one who settles in a hijra moves from a place of unbelief
to a place of belief. By moving to the hijra the Ikhwan
intended to take up a new way of life and dedicate themselves
to enforcing a rigid Islamic orthodoxy. Once in the hijra
the Ikhwan became extremely militant in enforcing upon themselves
what they believed to be correct sunna (custom) of the
Prophet, enjoining public prayer, mosque attendance, and gender
segregation and condemning music, smoking, alcohol, and technology
unknown at the time of the Prophet. They attacked those who refused
to conform to Wahhabi interpretations of correct Islamic practice
and tried to convert Muslims by force to their version of Wahhabism.
The Ikhwan looked eagerly for the opportunity to fight nonWahhabi
Muslims--and non-Muslims as well--and they took Abd al Aziz as
their leader in this. By 1915 there were more than 200 hujar
in and around Najd and nearly 100,000 Ikhwan waiting for a chance
to fight. This provided Abd al Aziz with a powerful weapon, but
his situation demanded that he use it carefully. In 1915 Abd al
Aziz had various goals: he wanted to take Hail from the Al Rashid,
to extend his control into the northern deserts in present-day
Syria and Jordan, and to take over the Hijaz and the Persian Gulf
coast. The British, however, had become more and more involved
in Arabia because of World War I, and Abd al Aziz had to adjust
his ambitions to British interests.
The British prevented the Al Saud from taking over much of the
gulf coast where they had established protectorates with several
ruling dynasties. They also opposed Abd al Aziz's efforts to extend
his influence beyond the Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi deserts
because of their own imperial interests. To the west, the British
were allied with the Sharif family who ruled the Hijaz from their
base in Mecca. The British actually encouraged the Sharif family
to revolt against the Ottomans and so open a second front against
them in World War I.
In this situation, Abd al Aziz had no choice but to focus his
attentions on Hail. This caused problems with the Ikhwan because,
unlike Mecca and Medina, Hail had no religious significance and
the Wahhabis had no particular quarrel with the Rashidi clan who
controlled it. The Sharif family in Mecca, however, was another
story. The Wahhabis had long borne a grudge against the Sharif
because of their traditional opposition to Wahhabism. The ruler,
Hussein, had made the situation worse by forbidding the Ikhwan
to make the pilgrimage and then seeking non-Muslim, British help
against the Muslim Ottomans.
In the end, Abd al Aziz was largely successful in balancing the
Ikhwan's interests with his own limitations. In 1919 the Ikhwan
completely destroyed an army that Hussein had sent against them
near the town of Turabah, which lay on the border between the
Hijaz and Najd. The Ikhwan so completely decimated the Sharif's
troops that there were no forces left to defend the Hijaz, and
the entire area cowered under the threat of a Wahhabi attack.
In spite of this, Abd al Aziz restrained the Ikhwan and managed
to direct them toward Hail, which they took easily in 1921. The
Ikhwan went beyond Hail, however, and pushed into central Transjordan
where they challenged Hussein's son, Abd Allah, whose rule the
British were trying to establish after the war. At this point,
Abd al Aziz again had to rein in his troops to avoid further problems
with the British.
In the matter of the Hijaz, Abd al Aziz was rewarded for his
patience. By 1924 Hussein had grown no stronger militarily and
had been weakened politically. When the Ottoman sultan, who had
held the title of caliph, was deposed at the end of World War
I, the Sharif took the title for himself. He had hoped that the
new honor would gain him greater Muslim support, but the opposite
happened. Many Muslims were offended that Hussein should handle
Muslim tradition in such cavalier fashion and began to object
strongly to his rule. To make matters worse for Hussein, the British
were no longer willing to prop him up after the war. Abd al Aziz's
efforts to control the Ikhwan in Transjordan as well as his accommodation
of British interests in the gulf had proved to them he could act
responsibly.
The Al Saud conquest of the Hijaz had been possible since the
battle at Turabah in 1919. Abd al Aziz had been waiting for the
right moment and in 1924, he found it. The British did not encourage
him to move into Mecca and Medina, but they also gave no indication
that they would oppose him. So the Wahhabi armies took over the
area with little opposition.
Data as of December 1992
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