File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎375v] (759/834)

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only thought was forcible conversion and interference with
others. It is on record that when the Ikhwan first appeared
in the streets of Hofuf, the capital of Hasa, they beat any women
they found in the streets, and shot in cold blood many a citizen
whose only crime was that he was seen smoking cigarettes. At
that time Ibn Saud and Ibn Juluwi (the Emir of Hasa) had
summarily to shoot several of the Ikhwan before they could
bring.them to their senses. Things, however, are vastly changed
now, and both Ibn Saud and his lieutenants have the movement
well in hand. The only possible danger of its getting out of
control lies in the creation of some deep and universal resent
ment of a religious nature. At the present moment such a dan
ger exists in the refusal of King Hussein to allow Nejdis to go
to Mecca. This is the only anxiety Ibn Saud has at the present
moment in his dealings with the Ikhwan. He is anxious about
the future, and made repeated requests to me to warn His
Majesty’s Government about the high feeling that was running
throughout Nejd.
In a general sense, Ikhwanism may be said to be a revival
of Wahhabism. It is, however, in no sense a heresy, but an
ascetic movement among Moslems to revive the Salih school
of Sunnism, as taught by the Imam Ahmed. Ibn Saud is at
the head of the movement, and on one occasion, when I asked
about the Ikhwan, he said, “ I am the Ikhwan.”
According to Ibn Saud, the attack on the Wahhabis by
Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the Egyptian, in 1817, by order of the Sultan,
was not so much because the religion of Nejd offended as that a
personal insult had been offered to the Sultanate of Turkey by
the Emir of Nejd, who ordered her caravan to turn back from
Medina. At the time, however, it was considered by Turkey
to be a political move to make out that Wahhabism was a
menace to orthodox Islam. As we know, the result of Ibrahim
Pasha’s campaign in Nejd in 1817 was the destruction of Dharai-
yah, the capital, and the carrying off of the Emir Mohammad
ibn Saud to Egypt. This crushed Wahhabism for a time, and
rendered Nejd innocuous as a menace to orthodox Islam, as the
Sultan knew it. Wahhabism, however, has existed ever since
throughout Nejd and in parts of Oman, Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , Hasa
and elsewhere, though not in a militant form.
A Short History of Ikhwanism.
The actual date of the new revival under the name of Ikhwan
is difficult to determine. Certain it is that up to five years ago