was
sedulously fostered. Every oasis had its school, while teachers were
sent to the Bedouin tribes.

Having consolidated the Nejd, Saud was now ready to undertake the
greater task of subduing and purifying the Moslem world. His first
objective was of course the holy cities. This objective was attained in
the opening years of the nineteenth century. Nothing could stand against
the rush of the Wahabi hosts burning with fanatic hatred against the
Turks, who were loathed both as apostate Moslems and as usurpers of that
supremacy in Islam which all Arabs believed should rest in Arab hands.
When Saud died in 1814 he was preparing to invade Syria. It looked for a
moment as though the Wahabis were to sweep the East and puritanize all
Islam at a blow.

But it was not to be. Unable to stem the Wahabi flood, the Sultan of
Turkey called on his powerful vassal, the famous Mehemet Ali. This able
Albanian adventurer had by that time made himself master of Egypt.
Frankly recognizing the superiority of the West, he had called in
numerous European officers who rapidly fashioned a formidable army,
composed largely of hard-fighting Albanian highlanders, and disciplined
and equipped after European models. Mehemet Ali gladly answered the
Sultan's summons, and it soon became clear that even Wahabi fanaticism
was no match for European muskets and artillery handled by seasoned
veterans. In a short time the holy cities were recaptured and the
Wahabis were driven back into the desert. The nascent Wahabi empire had
vanished like a mirage. Wahabism's political role was ended.[5]

However, Wahabism's spiritual role had only just begun. The Nejd
remained a focus of puritan zeal whence the new spirit radiated in all
directions. Even in the holy cities Wahabism continued to set the
religious tone, and the numberless "Hajjis," or pilgrims, who came
annually from every part of the Moslem world returned to their homes
zealous reformers. Soon the Wahabi leaven began to produce profound
disturbances in the most distant quarters. For example, in northern
India a Wahabi fanatic, Seyid Ahmed,[6] so roused the Punjabi
Mohammedans that he actually built up a theocratic state, and only his
chance death prevented a possible Wahabi conquest of northern India.
This state was shattered by the Sikhs, about 1830, but when the English
conquered the country they had infinite trouble with the smouldering
embers of Wahabi feeling, which, in fact, lived on, contributed