Ottoman–Wahhabi war

The war was historically referred to as the "Wahhabi War" reflecting the centrality of Wahhabi beliefs to the conflict. The Encyclopaedia of Islam was unaware of other names as of its 1938 supplement. Modern names include the "Egyptian–Wahhabi war", and the "Ottoman/Egyptian–Wahhabi war." The name "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" was only adopted by the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd in 1932. Modern names like the "Egyptian–Saudi war", and Ottoman–Saudi War would not have made sense before then. Some Saudi figures have been attempting to diminish the role of Wahhabism in their history and avoid using the "Wahhabi" names. ==Background==

The Industrial Revolution and Ottoman Economic Decline The 18th century was a time of decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire. The Industrial Revolution began in Western Europe, 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. 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. 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 for Bedouin convoys. The economic pain led to increasing dissatisfaction with Ottoman rule, a "general perception of that time that things were going wrong," The term Wahhabi was written, and possibly first used, by Muhammad's older brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Sulayman opposed his younger brother's movement and convinced many Bedouin tribal chiefs not to follow his brother with his letters. Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was greatly influenced by the works of classical Islamic scholars Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim, who had a significantly different formulation of Monotheism (Tawhid) than his predecessors. Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab opposed what were then mainstream religious practices that dated back to the Islamic Golden Age or before. Many of these were associated with Sufism, such as the visiting and veneration of the shrines and tombs of Muslim saints. He claimed these amounted to heretical religious innovation or even idolatry. However, his doctrine was not accepted by other Sunnis or other branches of Islam. The Wahhabis called themselves the Muwahhidun, from his doctrine on Tawhid, but the name Wahhabi stuck anyway. Muhammad Ibn al-Wahhab cofounded of the Emirate of Diriyah in Najd (Central Arabia) by signing the Diriyah pact and joining forces with Muhammad bin Saud Al Muqrin and what became known as the House 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 the Ottoman dynasty in his letters, he had decided not to publicly challenge the legitimacy of the empire as a precautionary measure. He did not acknowledge their caliphate claims, an assertion made by Sultan Abdul Hamid I after the Ottoman defeat in the 1770s Russo-Turkish war, to portray himself as the leader of the Muslim world. 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 Ottoman vilayets and found fault with the administrative functioning of the Ottoman Empire, which he criticized for not properly enforcing Sharia (Islamic law) in its territories. This included an economic criticism, as Ottoman economic decline led to taxes that the Wahhabis argued against on religious grounds. 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. 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. From Ideological Conflict to Political Conflict Political hostility and distrust would eventually lead the Wahhabis and the Ottomans to declare mutual exchanges of Takfir (excommunication), many years after Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's death. By the 1790s, the Wahhabis had consolidated their rule over most regions of Central Arabia. Growing Wahhabi influence alarmed Ghalib ibn Musa'id, the Sharif of Mecca, who responded by starting a war with the Wahhabis in 1793. Intending to form a military coalition to defeat them, he corresponded with Ottoman authorities in Istanbul. He sought to create hostility towards the Wahhabis by portraying them as disbelievers (a declaration that they were apostates). 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, invaded Diriyah with around 15,000 troops in co-ordination with Ghalib. They laid siege to Al-Ahsa for a month. However, re-inforcements led by Saud 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 near Hail; upon orders from the Mamluk administration in Baghdad. 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 towards Iraq. There were multiple Wahhabi raids on Najaf. In 1802, 12,000 Wahhabis sacked Karbala in Iraq killing up to 5,000 people and plundering the Imam Husayn shrine. In the ensuing conflict, the Wahhabis gained control of Mecca and Medina by 1805. After his assassination, Abdulaziz was replaced as his son Saud 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 be caliph and guardian of the sanctuaries of the Hejaz. Under his rule, the Wahhabis also attacked Ottoman trade caravans which led to further deterioration of Ottoman finances. In response, Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, ordered Muhammad Ali, governor of Egypt, to attack the Wahhabi state in December 1807. Events within Egypt delayed the expedition until 1811. ==Campaigns==

First Campaign (1811 – 1813) In 1811, Muhammad Ali's Ottoman troops landed in Yanbu under the command of his son Tusun Pasha. They captured the city of Yanbu in a bloodless confrontation where all of Al-Saud's forces surrendered. The Ottoman troops then moved south to attempt to recapture the city of Medina. However, the Ottomans were decisively defeated at the Battle 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. 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 won Battle of Medina in late 1812. A small Ottoman contingent then recaptured the city of Jeddah without a fight a month later. A week after that, in January 1813, Ottoman troops also captured Mecca without a fight. Both cities had been ruled by the Ottomans for centuries and preferred 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. Second Campaign (1813 – 1816) To signal reestablished authority and inspire confidence, Muhammad Ali Pasha decided to visit the area in person in 1813. He arrived in September 1813 in Jeddah 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. 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 up Hijaz. 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. Third Campaign (1816 – 1818) 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 of Qasim and Najd. 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 overrun Rass, Buraida and Unayza. The Ottomans began the Najd Expedition in 1818, involving a series of military conflicts. En route to Dariyya, the Ottoman armies executed everyone over ten years age in Dhurma. 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. The Siege of Diriyah would last until September 1818, with the Ottoman forces waiting for Saudi supplies to run out. It was not until September 1818 that the Wahhabi state formally ended with the surrender of its leaders and the Wahhabi head of state, Emir Abdullah bin Saud, taken captive and sent to Istanbul to be executed. == Aftermath ==

Fate of the Wahhabis and the Destruction in Arabia 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"Wahhabi leader 'Abdullah ibn Saud was transported first to Cairo and then to Istanbul. He was beheaded in December alongside several other Wahhabi Imams, and his corpse was publicly displayed, on the orders of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II. British Intervention by British troops The British 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 from Bombay to consult with Ibrahim Pasha in Diriyah. Following the fall of the first Saudi state, the British empire launched their Persian Gulf campaign of 1819. A formidable force consisting of 2,800 British soldiers and 3 warships fought the Qasimi tribesmen allied to Diriyah. Their city Ras al Khaimah was demolished in 1819. The General Maritime treaty was concluded in 1820 with the local chieftains, which would eventually transform them into a protectorate of Trucial States; heralding a century of British supremacy in the Gulf. Wider Influence of Wahhabism 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 the persecution of Sufis in the following century. The war continues to influence modern Turkey where many Turkish Imams consider Wahhabism to be un-Islamic. Wahhabism also influenced movements aligned with the Ottomans and their successor states such as Islamic neo-traditionalism and Sufism 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. 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. Some Western scholars and commentators also viewed Wahhabism as promoting ahistorical or fanatical views. The historian Bernard Lewis referred to the Wahhabis using Saudi oil wealth to "promulgate bizarre doctrines" and likened the Wahhabi relationship with Islam to that of the Ku Klux Klan with Christianity. He believed it "was a reaction to the general perception of that time that things were going wrong." 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 the International propagation of the Salafi movement and Wahhabism. == See also ==