I believe it
is hardly now recognised by Mohammedans how near Abd el Wahhab was to
complete success.
Before the close of the eighteenth century the chiefs of the Ibn Saouds,
champions of Unitarian Islam, had established their authority over all
Northern Arabia as far as the Euphrates, and in 1808 they took Mecca and
Medina. In the meanwhile the Wahhabite doctrines were gaining ground
still further afield. India was at one time very near conversion, and
in Egypt, and North Africa, and even in Turkey many secretly subscribed
to the new doctrines. Two things, however, marred the plan of general
reform and prevented its full accomplishment.
In the first place the reform was too completely reactive. It took no
account whatever of the progress of modern thought, and directly it
attempted to leave Arabia it found itself face to face with difficulties
which only political as well as religious success could overcome. It was
impossible, except by force of arms, to Arabianise the world again, and
nothing less than this was in contemplation. Its second mistake, and
that was one that a little of the Prophet's prudence which always went
hand in hand with his zeal might have avoided, was a too rigid
insistance upon trifles.
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