the crisis of modernisation and islamicisation 317The Wahhàbis had the political aim of achieving independence
from the Ottoman Empire. Muœammad ibn Abdel Wahhàb broke
away from the Ottomans and established an independent state in
central Arabia and the Persian Gulf. But that was not to be tolerated
by the Turks. To curb the movement, the Porte called upon the
Turkish viceroy in Egypt, Muœammad Ali, with an assignment to
reclaim Arabia. In a war that lasted from 1811 to 1818, Muœammad
Ali’s army defeated the Wahhàbis and brought Central Arabia back
to the Ottoman’s rule. Despite the military defeat, the Wahhàbiyyah
movement awakened the nostalgic feeling of many Muslims to the
early days of the puritan Islam and to the possibility of establishing
a state based on Islamic norms.
The Wahhàbiyyah came back to life and served as the theological
foundation on which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in
- In the first quarter of the twentieth century the founder of the
al-Saud dynasty, Abdel-Azìz ibn-Saud, rose to power, brought to an
end the reign of the al-Rashìd family in Ha"il in the north of Arabia
in 1921, captured Makkah, the seat of the self-declared “king of
Arabia” Sharif Hussayn in 1924 and proceeded to occupy al-Medìnah
and nearby Jeddah in 1925. In 1932 he declared himself the new
king of Arabia under the title Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a name and
a dynasty that has remained until today. He introduced radical
reforms to the new kingdom. It was, however, the discovery of oil,
beginning with concessions given to the Arabian American Oil
Company in 1932, which has changed the economic, social and polit-
ical map of the Kingdom until the present time. The teachings of
the Wahhabism are still practiced in Saudi Arabia by the populace,
and declared the official line of religion by the royal dynasty.
The IdrìsìMovement
The Wahhàbiyyah movement inspired further similar movements in
North Africa. They all had a similar message and purpose, the awak-
ening of the people through the restoration of Islam. In Morocco,
Ahmad ibn-Idrìs (1760–1836), emerged as a flùfìreformer who called
for the necessity to educate people and enlighten them about the
rules of their religion. Travelling extensively in North Africa and Yemen,
teaching and preaching, he came to the conclusion that Muslim
Ulama"were too busy with fiqh, jurisprudence and Sharì"ah to teach