Wahhabi War

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Ottoman-Saudi War

Sites of major battles during the war.
Date1811 – 15 September 1818
Location
Arabian Peninsula
Result

Ottoman-Egyptian victory

Belligerents

Emirate of Diriyah

  • Al-Qasim

Ottoman empire

Commanders and leaders
Saud al-Kabeer
Abdallah I Executed
 Executed
Sulayman ibn 'Abdallah Executed
Ghaliyya al-Boqammiyyah †		 Mahmud II
Flag of Egypt (1793-1844).svg Tusun Pasha †
Flag of Egypt (1793-1844).svg Muhammad Ali
Flag of Egypt (1793-1844).svg Ibrahim Pasha
Ibrahim Agha †
Strength
20,000 50,000
Casualties and losses
14,000 dead
6,000 wounded[1]

8,000 casualties in the Hejaz campaign [2]

50,000 casualties later on in Asir, Albaha region [3] [4]

Economic loss:

35,000,000 francs [5]

The Ottoman-Saudi War[6][7][8][9][10] (Arabic: الحرب العثمانية-السعودية, romanized: al-ḥarb al-ʿUthmānīyah-al-Saʿūdīyah, Ottoman Turkish: Osmanlı-Vehhabî Savaşları) also known as the Ottoman/Egyptian-Saudi War[11] (1811–1818) was fought from early 1811 to 1818, between Ottoman Empire and the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State, resulting in the destruction of the latter.

Background[]

Although Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, the leader of the Wahhabi movement,[12] had indirectly expressed anti-Ottoman sentiments in his letters, he had decided not to publicly challenge the legitimacy of the empire as a precautionary measure. He also had not publicly acknowledged the Caliphate claim of the Ottomans, an assertion which they proclaimed after they suffered territorial losses at the hands of the Russian Empire in the 1770s. In the movement’s first decades, the Wahhabis were ambiguous in offering a clear political view on the Ottomans. However, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab had theologically repudiated the Ottomans, criticising the religious conditions of Ottoman provinces and he also asserted that Shari'ah (Islamic law) was unenforced by the authorities. The Wahhabis offered an alternative religious and political model to that of the Ottomans and they also claimed Islamic leadership on a different basis.[13]

Political hostilities and distrust would eventually lead the Wahhabis and the Ottomans to declare mutual exchanges of Takfir (excommunication), many years after Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's death.[14] In 1802, 12,000 Wahhabis sacked Karbala in Iraq killing up to 5,000 people and plundering the Imam Husayn Shrine.[15] Saudi forces led by 'Abd al Aziz entered Mecca in 1803 after defeating Ghalib ibn Musa'id, the Sharif of Mecca. The assassination in November 1803 of Saudi Emir ‘Abd al-‘Aziz during prayers in al-Dir‘iyya by an Iraqi; was suspected of being orchestrated by the Ottoman governor of Baghdad, which greatly deteriorated the Saudi-Ottoman relations. Sharif Ghalib had worked hard to dampen the prospects of reconciliation between the Emirate of Diriyah and Ottoman empire.[16] In the ensuing conflict, the Wahhabis had controlled Mecca and Medina by 1805.[15] The Wahhabis also attacked Ottoman trade caravans which interrupted the Ottoman finances.[17]

After a phony war which lasted years, an all-out war erupted between the Ottomans and the Saudis; initiated by the invasion of the Hijaz by the Ottoman Governor of Egypt Muhammad ‘Ali (d.1849), at the orders of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II in 1811. This would herald the beginning of the Wahhabi wars (1811-1818 C.E) which resulted in the destruction of the Emirate of Diriyah.[18] The Saudi amir denounced the Ottoman sultan and called into question the validity of his claim to be caliph and guardian of the sanctuaries of the Hejaz.[19] In response, the Ottoman Empire ordered their ambitious vassal, Muhammad Ali of Egypt, to attack the Wahhabi state. Ali had embarked on an extensive modernisation 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 regardless as the destruction of either would be beneficial to them.[17] Tensions between Muhammad Ali and his troops also prompted him to send them to Arabia and fight against the Wahhabi movement where many died.[20]

Campaigns[]

Painting of Abdullah bin Saud, convicted and executed after losing the war.

Muhammad Ali was ordered to crush the Saudi state as early as December 1807 by Sultan Mustafa IV, however internal strife within Egypt prevented him from giving full attention to the Wahhabis. The Ottoman troops were not able to recapture the holy cities until 1811.[19]

In 1815, one of the main rebels, Bakhroush bin Alass of Zahran tribe, was killed and beheaded by Muhammad Ali forces in Al Qunfudhah.[21] 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, Saudis had to let go off Hijaz. Abdullah ibn Saud was forced to acknowledge himself as the vassal of the Ottoman Empire and obey the Turkish Sultan unquestionably. However, neither Muhammad Ali nor the Ottoman Sultan had confirmed the treaty.[22]

Suspicious of Abdullah, the Wahhabi Emir, the Ottomans resumed the war in 1816, with the assistance of French military instructors. The Egyptian troops were 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 1816-1818, 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.[22] Saudi armies put up a fierce resistance at Al-Rass where they withstood a siege of 3 months. Faced with the advance of Egyptian Ottomans, Abdullah, the Saudi Emir retreated to Diriya.[23][24]

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 would last until September 1818, with the Ottoman forces waiting for Saudi supplies to run out.[23] On 11 September 1818, Abdullah Ibn Saud would sue for peace, offering his surrender, in ex-change for sparing Diriyya. However, Al Diriyya would be razed to ground under orders of Ibrahim Pasha.[25][26]

It was not until September 1818 that the Wahhabi state ended with the surrendering of its leaders and the head of the Wahhabi state, Abdullah bin Saud, who was sent to Istanbul to be executed.[19] Thus, the Emirate of Diriyah formally ended with the surrendering of its leaders and the head of the Wahhabi state, Abdullah bin Saud, was taken captive and sent to Istanbul. In December, Emir Abdullah ibn Saud was executed with the public display of his corpse, upon the orders of the Ottoman Sultan.[25][23]

The British empire welcomed Ibrahim Pasha's siege of Dariyya with the goal of promoting 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 Dariyya.[27]

Aftermath[]

Sadlier left a record on the aftermath of the former capital of the First Saudi 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"[28]

Most of the political leaders were treated well but the Ottomans were far harsher with the religious leaders that inspired the Wahhabi movement, executing Sūlayman 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 political leaders. The executions were also motivated by Ottoman resentment of Wahhabist views.[19]

After the Destruction of Diriyya, Ibrahim Pasha rounded up the prominent survivors of the Saudi family and the scholarly Al ash-Sheikh whom, many were deported to Egypt. As per Ottoman estimates, over 250 members related to the Saudi family and 32 memebers related to the Al ash-Sheikh were exiled. Ottomans were far harsher with the religious leaders that inspired the Wahhabi movement, than with the members of the Saudi family. Prominent scholars such as the Qadi of Dir'iyya, Sulayman ibn 'Abd Allah (the grandson of Muhammad 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. Other ulema such as Abd 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 other Qadis and scholars were hunted down and executed. Abd al Aziz ibn Hamad al Mu'ammar managed to settle in Bahrain, where the ruler welcomed him. Few scholars managed to escape to the remote Southern corners of Arabia. The executions reflected the deep Ottoman resentment of Wahhabi movement and also how seriously they viewed its threat. Altogether, the Najdis lost about two dozen scholars and men from the ulema families in the aftermath of the invasion. However, the suppression of Wahhabites in Central Arabia ultimately proved to be a failed campaign.[29][19]

Later, Ibrahim Pasha and his troops went on to conquer Qatif and el-Hasa. Remnants of Saudi fortifications were demolished across Najd. Emir's relatives and important Wahhabi leaders were made captives and sent 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.[22] In 1820s, Prince Turki ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammed ibn Saud , gathering growing support from tribes and groups that opposed the Turkish occupation, would lay Siege to Riyadh in 1823. By August 1824, Saudi forces would capture Riyadh in a Second Siege, thus establishing the Second Saudi State with Riyadh as its capital.[30]

This war had formed the basic hatred of the Wahhabi movement amongst the Ottomans, and continues to influence modern Turkey where-in many Turkish Islamic preachers consider Wahhabism to be un-Islamic. The Saudis, who would form the nation a century later, considered it as the first struggle for independence from the oppressive Ottoman Empire, and continued to view Turkey with suspicion. The current state of Saudi-Turkey relations are still influenced by this hostile past. To the present day, both Saudi and Turkish nationalist writers accuse each other of engaging in systematic campaigns to rewrite history.[31][32][33][34][35]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Vasiliev, Alexei (October 2000). The History of Saudi Arabia. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814788097. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  2. ^ The era of Muhammad Ali, pp. 131-pg. 132 by Abd al-Rahman al-Rafei.
  3. ^ The Ottoman campaign on Asir, by Muhammad bin Abdullah Al Zulfa.
  4. ^ https://www.alriyadh.com/438205.
  5. ^ History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (The First Saudi State), Volume 3, pp. 134-135, Prof. Dr. Munir Al-Ajlani, member of the Arab Scientific Academy in Damascus, professor of history of law at the Syrian University.
  6. ^ Emine Ö. Evered (2012). Empire and Education under the Ottomans: Politics, Reform and Resistance from the Tanzimat to the Young Turks. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 9780857732606.
  7. ^ Meredith Reid Sarkees, Frank Wayman (2010). Resort to War: 1816 - 2007. SAGE Publications. p. 198. ISBN 9780872894341.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  8. ^ Richard Engel (2016). And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East. Simon and Schuster. p. 40. ISBN 9781451635126. The Ottomans pushed back with the 1811–18 Ottoman Wahhabi War, led by the Ottoman's viceroy in Egypt.
  9. ^ Valerie Anishchenkova (2020). Modern Saudi Arabia. ABC-CLIO. p. 42. ISBN 9781440857058. 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.
  10. ^ James Wynbrandt (2010). A Brief History of Saudi Arabia. Infobase Publishing. p. 352. ISBN 9780816078769. Egyptian-Wahhabi war
  11. ^ John Victor Tolan, , Henry Laurens (2013). Europe and the Islamic World: A History. Princeton University Press. p. 454. ISBN 9780691147055. Egyptian Saudi War (1811-1818) (also known as the Ottoman-Saudi War)CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  12. ^ "Wahhabism". Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 19 November 2012. 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.
  13. ^ Crawford, Michael (2014). "Chapter 8: Wahhabism, Saudi States, and Foreign Powers; Wahhabi View of the Ottomans". Makers of the Muslim World: Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. Oneworld Publications, 10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR, England: One World Publishers. pp. 94–96. ISBN 978-1-78074-589-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  14. ^ Crawford, Michael (2014). "Chapter 8: Wahhabism, Saudi States, and Foreign Powers; Wahhabi View of the Ottomans". Makers of the Muslim World: Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. Oneworld Publications, 10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR, England: One World Publishers. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-78074-589-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  15. ^ a b Bowen, Wayne H. (2008). The History of Saudi Arabia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0313340123. OCLC 166388162.
  16. ^ Crawford, Michael (2014). "Chapter 8: Wahhabism, Saudi states, and Foreign Powers". Makers of the Muslim World: Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. Oneworld Publications, 10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR, England: One World Publishers. pp. 90–92. ISBN 978-1-78074-589-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  17. ^ a b Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot. A History of Egypt From the Islamic Conquest to the Present. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007.
  18. ^ Crawford, Michael (2014). "Chapter 8: Wahhabism, Saudi States, and Foreign Powers". Makers of the Muslim World: Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. Oneworld Publications, 10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR, England: One World Publishers. pp. 92, 96. ISBN 978-1-78074-589-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  19. ^ a b c d e Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Salafies, "Unbelievers and the Problems of Exclusivism". Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 16, No. 2. (1989), pp. 123-132. (Text online at JSTOR)
  20. ^ Fahmy, K. (2012). Mehmed Ali: From Ottoman Governor to Ruler of Egypt. Oneworld Publications. p. 30. ISBN 9781780742113.
  21. ^ Giovanni Finati (1830). Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Giovanni Finati, Native of Ferrara: Who, Under the Assumed Name of Mahomet, Made the Campaigns Against the Wahabees for the Recovery of Mecca and Medina; and Since Acted as Interpreter to European Travellers in Some Parts Least Visited of Asia and Africa. J. Murray.
  22. ^ a b c Borisovich Lutsky, Vladimir (1969). "Chapter VI. The Egyptian Conquest of Arabia". Modern History of the Arab Countries. Moscow: Progress Publishers, USSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of the Peoples of Asia. ISBN 0714701106.
  23. ^ a b c Commins, David (2006). The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU: I.B Tauris. p. 37. ISBN 1-84511-080-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  24. ^ Simons, Geoff (1998). Saudi Arabia: The Shape of a Client Feudalism. Hound Mills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS: MacMillan Press Ltd. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-349-26728-6.CS1 maint: location (link)
  25. ^ a b M Zarabazo, Jamal Al-Din (2005). The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abul-Wahhaab. Riyadh: The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Dawah and Guidance, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. pp. 54–55. ISBN 9960-29-500-1.
  26. ^ Commins, David (2006). The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU: I.B Tauris. pp. 37–39. ISBN 1-84511-080-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  27. ^ Simons, Geoff (1998). Saudi Arabia : The Shape of a Client Feudalism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-349-26728-6. 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.CS1 maint: location (link)
  28. ^ Simons, Geoff (1998). Saudi Arabia: The Shape of a Client Feudalism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. pp. 153–154. ISBN 978-1-349-26728-6.CS1 maint: location (link)
  29. ^ Commins, David (2006). The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU: I.B Tauris. pp. 37–38, 40, 42–43. ISBN 1-84511-080-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
  30. ^ Simons, Geoff (1998). Saudi Arabia : The Shape of a Client Feudalism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-349-26728-6.CS1 maint: location (link)
  31. ^ "Turkophobia is behind the Saudi-washing of Ottoman history". TRT World. 5 September 2019.
  32. ^ "Saudi's MBC launching new drama series 'exposing Ottoman tyranny'". Ahval.
  33. ^ AL-TORIFI, TALAL (23 July 2020). "Turks defrauding history with Ottoman monuments narrative". Arab News. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020.
  34. ^ AL-TORIFI, TALAL (21 July 2020). "Turkey repeating Ottoman Empire's crimes against Arabs". Arab News. Archived from the original on 5 January 2021.
  35. ^ AL-SULAMI, MOHAMMED (24 March 2021). "Book by Saudi author unravels Ottoman atrocities in Madinah". Arab News. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021.
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