he region where, during the lifetime of the
Prophet, Moseilama had threatened a considerable division among his
followers. Wahab was an ambitious fanatic, who aimed, nevertheless, at
reforming the national religion. He was aided by powerful princes of
the province of Nejed; and, within a short time, the tenets he
maintained spread throughout the peninsula. His fundamental principle,
like that of Mohammed, was the unity of God. The Koran he regarded as
divine, rejecting all the glosses which ignorance and infatuation had
put upon it, and holding in utter contempt all the traditions and tales
concerning its author, which the devout of every generation had eagerly
received. The reverence, approaching to adoration, which the Arabs
were wont to pay to the name of Mohammed, all visits to his tomb, and
all {293} regard to the tombs and relics of Arab saints, he denounced;
and the costly ornaments with which a mistaken piety had enriched these
sacred spots, he thought might be appropriated to ordinary purposes.
Wahab would not suffer the common oath of, by Mohammed, or by Ali, to
be used among his followers, on the very rational ground that an oath
is an appeal to a witness of our secret thoughts, and who can know
these but God? The title of Lord, generally given to the Prophet by
his followers, Wahab rejected as impious. He was commonly mentioned by
this zealous reformer and his adherents by his simple name, without the
addition of "our Lord, the Prophet of God." All who deviated in any
degree from the plain sense of the Koran, either in belief or practice,
were infidels in their esteem; upon whom, therefore, according to its
directions, war might be made. Thus was the martial spirit of the
early Saracens again called into exercise; and with the ardour that
characterized the days of the immediate successors of the Prophet, they
were prepared at once to assail the consciences and the property of men
not exactly of their own faith.

At the call of their leader, they assembled first in the plain of
Draaiya, some 400 miles east of Medina, armed and provided at their own
expense for war. Bagdad and Mecca in vain attempted to {294} suppress
them; the seraglio itself was filled with their formidable war-cry; the
sultan trembled on his throne; and the caravans from Syria suspended
their usual journeys. The imperial city suffered from their ravages in
its usual supplies of coffee; and the terror of their name was widely
spre