them; so he got a blackboard and made some drawings of his own, and the drawings of his own were even ruder than those shown us of the stone era. The CHAIRMAN.-Perhaps I had better now close the meeting. I will only say that I am fully in accord with what has been said by one of the speakers as to the human race. I think man, when he came forth from the hand of his Creator, was by no means in a state quite savage. On the contrary, if he had been a savage I do not think he would have got any further, but I think the essence of humanity of the best type was within him, though his higher powers and the actual thoughts of his mind would be, naturally, developed at a later stage. The meeting then adjourned. ORDINARY MEETING.* THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, ESQ., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following elections took place :— ASSOCIATES:- Rev. Charles Estcourt Boucher, M.A.; Rev. Albert Henry Hodges. The following paper was read by the Secretary in the absence of the Author : THE WAHĀBÎS: THEIR ORIGIN, HISTORY, By Rev. S. M. TENETS, AND INFLUENCE. HE rise of innumerable heresies as the result of philosophical speculation, the spread of mysticism among the learned classes, and the return to many heathen superstitions on the part of the masses made Islam ripe for reform at the middle of the last century. Add to this that there was a general decadence of morals under the Ottoman caliphate and that there had been a lull in the period of Moslem conquest. Except for a temporary revival of missionary activity on the part of the Moslems in China and the spread of Islam among the Baraba Tartars, the eighteenth century saw little advance for the Crescent. Instead of conquest there was controversy. Over one hundred and fifty heretical Moslem sects are enumerated by writers of that period. Each of them agreed with the words of Mohammed, ascribed to him in the tradition: "My people will be divided into seventy-three sects; every one of which will go to hell except one sect" (Mishkat, book i * Monday, February 18th, 1901. The 18th century. chap. vi, part 2). All these sects differed either in their ideas of Allah and his prophet's revelation or split hairs on free will and destiny. The Abadiyah held that Ali was divine. The Safatites taught the grossest anthropomorphism. While Sufism, which arose in Persia, was so thoroughly pantheistic that it seems incredible to find monotheists carried away by its teaching. The four orthodox imams were at agreement concerning most doctrines and differed chiefly in their genuflections and more or less lax interpretation of moral precepts. The germs of idolatry left by Mohammed in his system bore fruit. Saint-worship in some form or other was common all over Arabia, as well as in other Moslem lands. The Shiahs had made Kerbela the rival of Mecca and Medinah as a place of pilgrimage. There were local shrines of "holy near every village. The whole world of thought was honeycombed with superstitions borrowed from every conceivable source; even Buddhism gave its rosary to Islam, and they had already passed it on to the West. The oldtime simplicity of life and morals had given way to pride of life and sensuality. Burckhardt testifies regarding Mecca itself (which has always been to the pious Moslem the cynosure of his faith) that, just before the time of the Wahabi reformation, debauchery was fearfully common, harlotry and even unnatural vices were perpetrated openly in the sacred city. Almsgiving had grown obsolete: justice was neither swift nor impartial; effeminacy had displaced the martial spirit; and the conduct of the pilgrim caravans was scandalous in the extreme. Such was the condition of Arabia when Mohammed bin Abd el Wahab bin Mussherif was born at Wasit* in Nejd, 1691 A.D. Before his death this great reformer, earnest as Luther and zealous as Cromwell, saw his doctrines accepted and his laws obeyed from the Persian Gulf to the Yemen frontier. As the result of his teaching, there sprang up, in the course of half a century, not only a new, widely extended, and important Moslem sect, but an independent and powerful state. Abd el Wahab was an incarnate *Palgrave says he was born at Horemelah (in his Travels) while in the article on Arabia (9th ed. Encyclop. Britannica) he mentions Ayinah. This place is also given by Burckhardt, but he adds that it is uncertain. From a direct descendant of Abd el Wahab, an Arab at Bahrein, I learn that there is not the least doubt that he was born at neither of these places, but at Wasit; some maps give Waseit. whirlwind of Puritanism against the prevailing apostacy of the Moslem world. The sect which he founded and which took its popular name from him was a protest against Moslem idolatry and superstition. It stood for no new doctrine, but called back to the original Islam. Wahābîism was an attempt at an Arabian reformation. "Yet so far from giving any progressive impulse to the Mohammedan cult, it has proved the most reactionary element in the history of Islam."* This purely Semitic and unique movement, with all its energy, has produced nothing new; it has been directed exclusively toward the repristination of pure monotheism. Our purpose is to sketch (a) the origin and history of the Wahabîs; (b) give an account of the Wahabi doctrine; and (c) of their present condition and influence. The sequel will show that a reformation of the Moslem world by a return to primitive Islam (in theory and practice) is an impossibility, even when aided by the sword. Back to Christ, not back to Mohammed-that is the only hope for the Moslem world. I. ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE WAHABIS.-Mohammed bin Abdul Wahab was instructed from his youth by his father in the religion of Islam according to the straitest sect of the orthodox Sunnis, namely, that of the Imam Abu Abdullah Ahmed bin Hanbal. Arrived at manhood, the serious student of Islam determined to visit other schools than those of Nejd. He went to Mecca, and afterward also to Busrah and Bagdad. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca and visited El Medina, but in neither place did he find the ideal Islam for which his heart was longing. He felt that there was a distinction between the essential elements of Islam and the recent admixtures of dogma and practice. At Ayinah he first posed as a teacher of the truth. affirmed the right of private judgment in interpreting the Koran and the traditions by boldly rejecting the old-time leading-strings of the four orthodox commentators. His teaching met with opposition from the outset, but there were also those who accepted his bold position. He fled from his native town and sought refuge at Deraiah under the protection of Mohammed bin Saood, a chief of considerable influence and great ambition. The reformer and the chief found that they could be mutually helpful in furthering each He Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., in his article, "Has Islam been a Religion of Progress?" (Missionary Review of the World, Oct., 1897). the interest of the other. A marriage alliance, by which the daughter of Abd ul Wahab became the wife of Mohammed bin Saood, sealed their covenant. The preacher with his book and the warrior with his sword now stood on the same platform and were ready to begin conquest. Without Mohammed bin Saood and his powerful dynasty there would have been no Wahabî conquest. It is in the very nature of Islam and all its sects to grasp the sword which the prophet himself received from the hand of Allah. To give the history in detail of the rise of the Wahabî state and its bloody conflicts, first with the Arabs and afterward against the Turks and Egyptians, as well as the history of the two British campaigns from India against the Wahabî pirates of Oman, is impossible in the narrow limits of this paper. By comparing various authorities I have prepared a genealogical table of the Saood dynasty and a brief chronology of the most important dates. Burckhardt's notes for the history of the Wahabîs are most interesting and valuable, but his account does not go beyond the year 1817. After that date we are dependent on Palgrave, who is not renowned for accuracy and frequently contradicts himself. As far as I can learn there is no Arabic history extant. The two accounts of the Wahabîs in the French language are, according to Burckhardt, unreliable. But for the later history of the Wahabîs, and the final collapse of their power, Doughty in his Arabia Deserta gives important data. The following is a brief account of the spread of the Wahabis and their conquests in Arabia:-Their conquests outside of Arabia were not by the sword, but by the cheap lithographic literature of Indian disciples. The reform started on its march of conquest soon after the arrival of Abd ul Wahab at Deraiah. Partly by persuasion and partly by force Saood gained victories over the neighbouring tribes, and even the province of Hassa. Before his death, in 1765, the whole of Nejd was one Wahābî state. Abd-ul-Aziz, his son, and successor, a more able warrior than his father and of equal ambition, assumed the titles of Imam and Sultan. The provinces of Areesh and Nejran, to the south of Mecca, were added to the Wahabi dominions. Ghalib, the Shereef of Mecca, was filled with alarm, and, on his complaint, the Turkish Government sent an army of 5,000 to lay siege to Hofhoof, the capital of Hassa. They were repulsed, and the Wahabis now took the initiative by advancing toward Bagdad and laying siege to Kerbela. The town was stormed, |