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Wahhābi Sect.1—A puritan sect of Muhammadans. The sect was not recorded at the census, but it is probable that it has a few adherents in the Central Provinces. The Wahhābi sect is named after its founder, Muhammad Abdul Wahhāb, who was born in Arabia in A.D. 1691. He set his face against all developments of Islām not warranted by the Korān and the traditional utterances of the Companions of the Prophet, and against the belief in omens and worship at the shrines of saints, and condemned as well all display of wealth and luxury and the use of intoxicating drugs and tobacco. He denied any authority to Islamic doctrines other than the Korān itself and the utterances of the Companions of the Prophet who had received instruction from his lips, and held that in the interpretation and application of them Moslems must exercise the right of private judgment. The sect met with considerable military success in Arabia and Persia, and at one time threatened to spread over the Islamic world. The following is an account of the taking of Mecca by Saud, the grandson of the founder, in 1803: “The sanctity of the place subdued the barbarous spirit of the conquerors, and not the slightest excesses were committed against the people. The stern principles of the reformed doctrines were, however, strictly enforced. Piles of green huqqas and Persian pipes were collected, rosaries and amulets were forcibly taken from the devotees, silk and satin dresses were demanded from the wealthy and worldly, and the whole, piled up into a heterogeneous mass, were burnt by the infuriated reformers. So strong was the feeling against the pipes and so necessary did a public example seem to be, that a respectable lady, whose delinquency had well-nigh escaped the vigilant eye of the Muhtasib, was seized and placed on an ass, with a green pipe suspended from her neck, and paraded through the public streets—a terrible warning to all of her sex who might be inclined to indulge in forbidden luxuries. When the usual hour of prayer arrived the myrmidons of the law sallied forth, and with leathern whips drove all slothful Moslems to their devotions. The mosques were filled. Never since the days of the Prophet had the sacred city witnessed so much piety and devotion. Not one pipe, not a single tobacco-stopper, was to be seen in the streets or found in the houses, and the whole population of Mecca prostrated themselves at least five times a day in solemn adoration.”

The apprehensions of the Sultan of Turkey were aroused and an army was despatched against the Wahhābis, which broke their political power, their leader, Saud’s son, being executed in Constantinople in 1818. But the tenets of the sect continued to be maintained in Arabia, and in 1822 one Saiyad Ahmad, a freebooter and bandit from Rai Bareli, was converted to it on a pilgrimage to Mecca and returned to preach its doctrines in India. Being a Saiyad and thus a descendant of the Prophet, he was accepted by the Muhammadans of India as the true Khalīfa or Mahdi, awaited by the Shiahs. Unheeded by the British Government, he traversed our provinces with a numerous retinue of devoted disciples and converted the populace to his reformed doctrine by thousands, Patna becoming a centre of the sect. In 1826 he declared a jihād or religious war against the Sikhs, but after a four years’ struggle was defeated and killed. The sect gave some trouble in the Mutiny, but has not since taken any part in politics. Its reformed doctrines, however, have obtained a considerable vogue, and still exercise a powerful influence on Muhammadan thought. The Wahhābis deny the authority of Islamic tradition after the deaths of the Companions of the Prophet, do not illuminate or pay reverence to the shrines of departed saints, do not celebrate the birthday of Muhammad, count the ninety-nine names of God on their fingers and not on a rosary, and do not smoke.

1 This article consists entirely of extracts from the article on the Wahhābi sect in the Rev. T. P. Hughes’ Dictionary of Islām.