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Chapter Eiglil

                 to formulate his fundamentalist doctrines in his book Kitab al
                 1 auhld (the Book of the Unity of God). He spoke of the need to purify
                 the minds of Muslims from polytheistic habits of invoking the help of
                 saints, angels, the dead, and prophets. He attacked all philosophical
                 and legal innovations introduced into Islam after the third century
                 ah, and tried to abolish certain abuses. When Muhammad ’Abdul
                 Wahhab tried to urge his views on the citizens of his native town he
                 was banned from there, but he found refuge and an open ear for his
                 reformist religious ideas and a powerful supporter in Muhammad
                 bin Sa'ud of nearby Dara'iyah. Together they convinced the tribes of
                 the area of the new doctrine—or else forced them to accept it in an
                 alliance of the spirit and the sword not unlike in the early days of the
                 expansion of Islam. The movement gained in strength under ’Abdul
                 ’AzFz, the son of Muhammad bin Sa'ud as the “leader of a Beduin
                 Commonwealth”, according to Jacob Burckhardt, one of the earliest
                 European observers of this movement.15
                   By the end of the 18th century the Wahhabis had overrun al Hasa
                 and reached the Gulf coast, having also taken possession of both
                 Karbala’ and Mecca. There were vigorous and numerous attempts to
                 bring all of Eastern Arabia and particularly Oman under their
                 sovereignty. Many tribes needed little persuasion to become fol­
                 lowers of this strict and austere form of practising Islam, which was
                 after all not remote from strict Ibadi observance, while other tribes
                 joined in for political reasons, and others soon found that armed
                 resistance was punished severely.
                   In 1800 Buraimi was seized by a force of 700 cavalry and camel-
                 riders, forcing the Na’Tm and Dhawahir population to capitulate. The
                 Wahhabis built a new fort in the oasis, which served as a vantage
                 point from which to make inroads deep into Oman.16 An obvious
                 means of gaining sovereignty over Oman was to form an alliance with
                 the Qawasim, who were the traditional rivals of the Omani Sultans
                 and merchants. In due course, the Qawasim became staunch allies of
                 the Wahhabis, but they did not consider themselves to be completely
                 under the rule of the Amir at Dara'iyah to whom they paid zakah,
                 since they did not remit the customary one-fifth of the value of booty.
                Partly due to this support by the Qawasim, the Wahhabis est­
                ablished supremacy over the whole Arabian coast of the Gulf by
                1803, and continued to try to conquer all of Oman. After the severe
                but temporary set-backs to Wahhabi domination by the victorious
                campaign of Muhammad 'Ali (the Viceroy of Egypt from 1812), the
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