Military organization of the first Saudi state(1744-1818) Historical study

Abstract

Wahhabism is the intellectual legacy of Ibn Taymiyyah, who lived in the thirteenth century, as well as the Hanbali doctrine of thought, which was later adopted by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, after his agreement with the Prince of Diriyah, Muhammad ibn Saud ibn Muqrin, on the basis of which the first Saudi state was established in 1744 AD, which was named The Diriyah Agreement, and as a result of that agreement, Najd became a center for launching the reformist call that Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab came with, whose principles rejected the status quo in Najd during the eighteenth century; Its advocates saw that it came to correct the religious and social conditions in central Arabia, as the situation at that time had returned to polytheism and ignorance as a result of the spread of religious ignorance and their division into several conflicting groups, in addition to the large number of tribal wars inside Najd and the depression of trade and economy, and therefore the reform movement worked to purify Najd Manifestations of heresy and polytheism And everything that contradicts the style of Wahhabi Salafi religiosity. Therefore, the Wahhabis took strict measures against the opponents; Thus, jihad was declared after the new call added religious legitimacy to all those who refused to join the principles of the new reform adopted by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and thus there was an urgent need to form an army that would carry the banner of religious jihad, and here the Wahhabi military formations began to appear and become armies despite being jihadi erratic and somewhat temporary; It later swept the entire Arabian Peninsula, which pushed the Ottoman Empire through its governor in Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, the task of stopping that expansion, and since that time a series of Wahhabi wars began, which ended with the fall of the Wahhabi capital of Diriyah in 1811 AD