54
assistance, but with the help of the tribal militia Ikhwan wedded to the
puritanical Wahhabi interpretations, Ibn Saud was able to expand his con-
trol over vast swaths of Arabian Peninsula and proclaim the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia in 1932. The commercial discovery of oil in 1938 added
financial clout to his religious claims.
The historical legacy, oil wealth and domestic political arrangement
resulted in Saudi Arabia emerging as a pre-eminent Islamic power since
the demise of the Ottoman Empire. The formation of the Mecca-based
Muslim World League in 1962 was aimed at propagating the Saudi version
of Islam to the outside world through a host of charity and relief activities.
Some regional developments also facilitated this trend. More populous
countries such as Egypt and Turkey were wedded to secularism while the
Shah of Iran embarked upon a modernization drive which necessitated
sidelining and even suppressing the ulema (Moaddel 1986 ; Faghfoory
1987 ). As discussed elsewhere the demise of pan-Arabism in the June War
of 1967 and the oil crisis of 1973 added to Riyadh’s diplomatic ascen-
dance, and the formation of OIC with Jeddah as headquarters was one
such outcome.
However, the Saudi monopoly proved to be brief as it was challenged
by the Ayatollah Khomeini–led Islamic revolution in neighbouring Iran.
By depicting it as ‘Islamic’, not a Shi’a, revolution, Khomeini and his fol-
lowers challenged the predominant Sunni narrative of Islam. Tehran’s
support for various Shia groups in Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen
since the 1980s has to be looked within this context. Besides the leader-
ship competition, before long Saudi Arabia and Iran were also presenting
themselves as the torchbearers and leaders of Sunni and Shia Islam respec-
tively. As would be discussed in a later chapter, this rivalry precipitated in
sectarian tensions and violence in different parts of the region. Though
the anti-Saudi and anti-Islamic backlash in the wake of the September 11
terrorist attacks compelled Riyadh to mellow down some of its positions
and policies, Islam continues to be the salient feature of the Saudi society,
culture, politics and foreign policy.
India’s historical trajectory has also been interwoven with Islam. The
new faith came to its shores shortly after the death of Prophet Mohammed
and, according to some accounts, during the time of the Second Caliph
Umar (r. 634–644 AD). A few Arab merchants introduced the faith to
the local rulers and population in the south-western coastal regions of
India (Malik 2008 ). In some ways, this was a continuation of centuries
of pre-Islamic mercantile exchanges between the Malabar traders and
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR