Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud lived in exile for most of his ounger years. After fleeing with his family to Kuwait to escape from the marauding Al-Rashid tribe, he returned at the turn of the twentieth century to Riyadh and regained control of the central Arabian plain called the Najd. Over the years the Wahhabi cult had survived even though their tribal protectors, the Sauds, had been away. When they returned, the Wahhabis and the House of Saud joined forces once again, this time to establish Saudi Arabia as a modern nation-state.
The Sauds and Wahhabis had a long history of partnership. Originally the Wahhabis agreed to sanctify the royal family as long as they were allowed free reign to practice their austere and severe form of Islam. It was a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship since the Sauds used them to control their subject population. When Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud returned, they teamed up once again in order to reign with strength over the lawless deserts of the Arabian peninsula, Ibn Saud needed to pacify the Beduin tribes that relied on raiding parties and warfare to feed their families and survive. The Wahhabis closest to him took on the name Ikhwan, meaning “brethren”, to act as missionaries, giving the Pagan Beduin a choice of either converting to Islam and submitting to Ibn Saud or having their throats slit. As many tribes became converts and learned the extremely conservative doctrines of Wahhabi Islam, they abandoned their nomadic lifestyle, learned farming, and settled in towns near oases and wells.
The Ikhwan and Ibn Saud’s next plan was to build an army and re-conquer the Hejaz and once again take control of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Hejaz was, at that time, ruled by the Ottoman caliph Sharif Hussayn, a king of the Hashemite dynasty who claimed direct descent from the prophet Muhammad. Sharif Hussayn was unpopular in the Islamic world. As pilgrims made the journey to the cities of Mecca and Medina, it was common for bandits to raid their caravans and take whatever valuables they could get; rather than policing the Hejaz and punishing the predatory criminals, Sharif Hussayn allowed them to operate freely as long as they gave him a cut of their spoils in return. Upon reaching the holy cities of Islam, the hajjis were further harassed by tax collectors who worked for him as well. So when the Ikhwan built up a massive enough army to raid the Hejaz, there were very few Muslims who did not wish them success in the conquest.
Armed with curved swords and spears, the Ikhwan rode to the mountain town of Taif on camels and horses, where they were welcomed as liberators and saviors. For some unexplained reason, the Ikhwan went on a rampage and killed most of the people who lived there, burned their houses and mosques, and looted whatever possessions they could find that they did not deem to be offenses to the Wahhabi version of Islam. After the siege of Taif, they used the town as a military fortress and camp from which they marched on Mecca and repeated the same same types of atrocities they had just finished. After the military assault, Sharif Hussayn abdicated his throne and his politically inept son Ali took over but soon departed. Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud now reigned over the Hejaz. After demarcating the borders of Transjordan, Iraq, and Kuwait in agreement with the British colonial administrators, the nation of Saudi Arabia was officially born and Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud was crowned by the Ikhwan as its first king.
But King ibn Saud’s plan to pacify the Beduin failed. Now convinced that they were warriors on a mission from Allah, they started organizing raiding parties that crossed over the border into Iraq where they slaughtered the impoverished shepherds who were grazing their flocks. Although the Ikhwan sometimes spared the lives of females, they used their swords to slice open the throats of any male children they captured and all the adult men were put to death. After one raiding party attacked a British police fort just over the border of Iraq, the British retaliated by using low flying airplanes equipped with bombs and machine guns to scatter and kill the bloodthirsty Ikhwan.
The Ikhwan started growing in confidence and eventually decided that King ibn Saud had started to abandon the practice of Wahhabism. When the king called a council with the Ikhwan leaders in Riyadh to discuss the problem of their cross-border raids, the narrow-minded fanatics accused him of such in-Islamic crimes as using infidel technologies like cars and radios. They were angry that he had allowed two of his sons to leave Saudi Arabia and travel overseas and they were furious, most of all, that he had consorted with British Christians for the purpose of political matters and the purchase of military supplies. King ibn Saud eventually convinced them that maintaining good relations with other governments was necessary for the stability of Saudi Arabia. He also agreed that he would give up his Western luxury items if the Ikhwan likewise agreed to give up their rifles which were also tools made for them by the Christian infidels. They agreed to a truce. But while the Najdi Ikhwan who lived close to Riyadh were satisfied with the new understanding, the Ikhwan from the eastern towns returned home and devised a plot to overthrow the House of Saud.
In 1927, the Ikhwan in Mutair and Ajman defied the king’s orders and continued to cross the borders into neighboring countries to slaughter their people. King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud called up his troops and drove in cars and trucks to the eastern towns where the rebellion had been instigated by the tribal leaders al-Duwish and ibn Hithlain. The Battle of Sibilla had begun. King ibn Saud’s Ikhwan troops outnumbered and out-gunned the tribal rebels. With British-supplied machine guns mounted on the king’s vehicles, the eastern Ikhwan’s swords and rifles were a weak defense. The massacre ended almost as quickly as it started. The two tribal rebel leaders, al-Duwish and ibn Hithlain were taken to a rather luxurious prison in Riyadh; their wives and daughters were given to King ibn Saud and his sons for marriage. Eventually the rebel leaders died in jail.
King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud consolidated his control over the Ikhwan. The more warlike members of the sect went on to enlist as soldiers in the Saudi Nation Guard, the army sworn to defend the royal family if the Saudi military ever tried to lead a coup against them. Others went on to become religious scholars and imams. Another faction morphed into the feared and hated Mutawwa, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice otherwise known as the religious police. Their job, to this day, is to patrol the public spaces of Saudi Arabia with sticks used to beat anyone they think is behaving contrary to the laws of Wahhabi Islam.
Darlow, Michael and Bray, Barbara. Ibn Saud: The Desert Warrior Who Created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Skyhorse Publishing, 2012.
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