Wahabis ,Ibn Saud ,Oil, 1945 h O 9

u h Ibn Saud, Wahhabis, and Oil, to 1945

7 o King Saud, 1927, at fifty-one. Wahhabism and the Saud Family a d d In the 1 1700s, a Sunni Mus S slim name Muham ed mmad Wa ahhab (170 03-1791) traveled about th Ottoma Empire compar he an e, ring what he saw w what with Islam w suppo was osed to be according to the Q e Quran. He began a n new movem ment that denounce all influ d ed uences in I Islam that had deve t eloped aft ter the wri iting of the Quran: luxurious living, Su influen ration s ufi nce, nalism, visiting the tomb of saint and ask g bs ts king interc cession of the Prop f phet or the e Imams Wahhab viewed the grantin of godl powers to Muham s. b ng ly mmad (PU UH) and oth hers as a violation o Islam's strict mo v of onotheism Wahhab movem m. b's ment labeled all other Muslims as polyth d heist. They called th y hemselves s "Unitar rians," or simply M Muslims. O Others call them t Wahh led the habi (Wahab Wahh was fo bi). hab orced to flee from M Medina, an in a mo rural nd ore inland area -- in the Nejd- he was adopted b the Sau family. With a -by ud combin nation of camel ridi warrio power a Wahh c ing or and habi religi ious zeal, the

Saud regime spread across Arabia. In 1802 an army of 12,000 Wahhabi warriors attacked the Shi'a in the city of Karbala, slaying 4,000 of the city's inhabitants and smashing Shi'a holy sites. In 1803 they attacked Mecca and, aware of the slaughter in Kabala, the Meccans opened their town to Saud rule. Against images, the Wahhabi warriors smashed opulent graves, and they forbade smoking. After taking power in Medina they smashed grave-sites again, including the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed. In 1813, the Ottoman sultan sent expeditions against Wahhabism. The defeated head of the Saud family was taken in a cage to Istanbul and beheaded. By the late 1800s the Saud family members were refugees in Kuwait. In late 1901, a twenty-year-old member of the Saud family, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud was without a kingdom in Kuwait but with allies. At the age of 28 he rode from Kuwait with from 40 to 60 relatives and retainers, ready for combat. On a moonless night, January 15-16, Ibn Saud and some of his men went over the wall of the compound at Riyadh and prepared for an assault at the main gate at dawn. Ibn Saud and his men killed defenders of the compound. The Rashid family, which had driven out the Sauds and killed the brother of his father, no longer were in possession of Riyadh. Ibn Saud was now in possession of his place of birth -- a kingdom that measured 700 by 700 yards. Ibn Saud was allied with Wahhabi warriors, with Bedouins called the Ikhwan -- in Arabic theBrotherhood. Mounted on camels they helped Ibn Saud secure his position at Riyadh. Ibn Saud was an impressive figure and strong. There was security in alliances, contrary to what the Hebrew prophet Isaiah had claimed. Marriages helped in making alliances, and Ibn Saud made alliances. In 1914, before the war, Ibn Saud allied himself with the Turks, agreeing that he should have relations with no other foreign power and be committed to joining Turkish forces in resisting any aggression. When war came Saud opted for neutrality and kept his options open. Then he allied himself with the British, who offered recognition of the middle of the Arabian Peninsula (namely the Nejd and Hasa) as his and that of his father before him and his descendants after him -- with the

proviso that he and his he not be antagoni o a eirs e istic towa Britain Ibn Sau ard n. ud agreed not to enter into re elations w anoth foreign power an promised with her n nd to come to the ai of Ibn S id Saud shou he be t victim of aggres uld the m ssion. n S 0,000, 1,000 weapo and 20 ons 00,000 ro ounds of Britain lent Ibn Saud 20 ammun nition. Ad dded to thi wasa su is ubsidy of 5,000 pe month. This er . strengt thened Sa agains a territo aud st orial rival, the Hash , him(Hash himite) family, which in 1915 was allied wit Britain's enemy, Turkey. M th Matters became more co e omplicated for Saud in 1916, when the Hashim f d d family bro oke with th Turks and went o he a over to the side of t British -- what b e the h became known as the Ar revolt. Britain b rab . began look king after the intere of bot ests th ibn Sau and his enemy, a the British wou draw t ud s and uld territorial lines that l t were no to his li ot iking -- es specially r regarding Kuwait. T Rashi family, The id howeve remain allied with Turk and su er, ned key upplied by Turkey and the y domina power on the A ant r Arabian Pe eninsula. I May 19 In 919and in 1920, Ibn n Saud m marched against the Rashids. He defea e . ated them in Novem m mber 1921 1, showed dthem clemency an reconci nd iled with t them, mar rrying the widow of e their no dead ruler. His territory now exten ow r nded nort to territ th tory that t the British had given to the H n Hashemite brothers whom th had made kings of e hey s Transjo ordan and Iraq. The Ikhwan d

hren), a ph hoto proba ably from the 1920sThe British respon m nded to a (Breth raid by the Ikhw into Transjorda with a g y wan an ground an air atta that ki nd ack illed all but 8 of 1,500 Ikhwan. Ibn Saud kept his cool and submitted to a Brit 0 . d d tish decisio regarding border The Br on rs. ritish gave him a fre hand in the Heja e ee n az

and the Nejd. In 1924-25, Ibn Saud and his W e n d Wahhabi w warriors d drove Sha arif Hussein ibn Ali, the father of the H Hashimite brothers in Iraq an Trans nd jordan, from the holy citie of Mecc and Me , e es ca edina. Wit the end of the th d calipha in Turk Huss ate key, sein had w wanted rec cognition as caliph of all Muslim his fam ms, mily, the H Hashim, c claiming to be desce o endants of the Prop phet Muham mmad, Bu on Janu ut uary 8, 192 ibn Sa was pr 26, aud roclaimed King of t d the Hejaz a Sultan of Nejd. Hussein fled to Cy and n . yprus and then wen to nt Transjo ordan whe his son was kin ere n ng. rines in Mecca and Medina p M d provided i Saud w a mo ibn with odest inco ome. The shr In 1926 he called a confer 6 d rence in M Mecca, and delegatio of Mu d ons uslims from various areas of the Musli world c s im came. He introduce the del ed legates to his Wahha ulama. He charm the d abi . med delegates, and, thereafter, pil lgrimages to s Mecca were regu and g ular grew in siz The Sa family restored the ze. aud y allegian of sur nce rrounding tribes thr g rough ma arriages. T keep his new To kingdom united, he marri a daug , ied ghter from every tri as wel as from the m ibe ll influen ntial cleric familie more t cal es-than twen wives, although never mo nty h ore than fo at one time. Me our eanwhile, t Ikhwa warrior wanted to extend the an rs d d their W Wahhabism beyond Arabia, a ibn Sa saw th as trou m and aud his uble and tr ried to restr rain them. The Ikhw were unhappy with ibn Saud. The believe wan y ey ed that the had been insuffi ey iciently re ewarded fo their co or ontributio to ibn on Saud's conquests. No Ikhw had b wan been made a govern in any Hejaz cit nor y ty. Ikhwan raids acr n ross ibn S Saud's fron ntiers had embarra d assed ibn S Saud, and d

King Abdul Aziz (Ibn Saud) attending official dinner with Sir WinstonChurchill, Lake Qaroun, Egypt, 17 Feb 1945 u f k y 4

the Bri itish respo onded aga with th air fo ain heir orce, pursu uing the I Ikhwan ba ack into ibn Saud's territory. T Ikhwa had cre n t The an eated a di isturbance at Mecca e a. They di isliked ibn Saud's a n association with the Christian English and his n e h

import tation of devilish de d evices like the telep e phone. In 1929, Ikhw wan revolted. The ula ama exerc cised their moral au r uthority and sided w Saud with d rather t than the Ikhwan, w I whom they declared to be in v y d violation of Islamic c princip ples. Ibn Saud crush Ikhwa resistance and b S hed an built a Nat tional Gua ard. In 1932 ibn Saud gave his name to the region in Arab that he had unif 2 d s ns bia e fied, calling it Saudi Arabia, an he declared hims King o Saudi A A nd self of Arabia. Wahha abism rem mained a st tate sanct tioned doc ctrine, and, because of Mecc ca, Wahha abism gain influe ned ence from India and Sumatra to North Africa an d a h nd the Sud dan. The Wahhabi ( Salafi as they pr W (or refer to be called) c e continued to d adhere to simple short pr e, rayers, un ndecorated mosques, and the uprootin d e ng of grav vestones in order to prevent w n o what they saw y

atrous ven neration. T They avoi ided the k kind of ost tentatious spiritual s lity as idola that ha become a part of Christian when Christian united with the ad e f nity nity d e Roman Empire. Moreover they for n r, rbade the name of t Proph the het Moham mmed (pbuh)to be i inscribed in mosqu and th forbad the ues, hey de celebra ation of th Prophet birthda Moham he t's ay. mmed had claimed no godly d d y powers His orig s. ginal follow wers had not seen h as a g him god, and t Wahha the abi did not want him celebrat like a g t m ted god. Oil and the U.S. in Saudi Arabia n S u

King Abdul Aziz (Ibn Saud) confers with the then President of the UnitedStates, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on a cruiser in the Suez Canal, 15 Feb 1945 z r s d s a

In 1932 the newly formed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was austere and in debt. Its main income was its tax on pilgrims to Mecca, and this was in decline because of the Great Depression. In 1933, Saudi Arabia and the United States established diplomatic relations, and that year the kingdom granted a concession to Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) to explore and to produce oil. A commercially significant amount of oil had been discovered in Iran around 25 years earlier and in Iraq four years earlier. The Saudis were not very hopeful, but they had made their agreement with a U.S. company, which had the advantage of not being British -- Britain being the dominant power in the region and not well liked by Saud. A U.S. company was chosen also because of King Saud's impression of Americans, rising from a missionary doctor from the United States who tended people in the area, including King Saud and a handful of other Americans he had met in his kingdom. In 1938, while searching for water, United States geologists in Saudi Arabia found oil instead -- much of it. The largest known source of oil in the world was discovered. Needing people who knew how to develop and operate oil fields, ibn Saud invited U.S. oil companies to his kingdom, the king's government facing criticism by some who believed that inviting foreigners to the kingdom was un-Islamic. Many inSaudi Arabia remained hostile to foreigners. The monarchy clung to practicality and set up a joint enterprise with a number of U.S. oil companies. In 1939 King Saud opened the valve for the first flow of Saudi oil to a naval oil-tanker, and in 1944 the joint enterprise was renamed the Arabian AmericanOil Company (Aramco).