Abd el Wahhab condemned minarets and tombstones
because neither were in use during the first years of Islam. The
minarets therefore were everywhere thrown down, and when the holy places
of Hejaz fell into the hands of his followers the tombs of saints which
had for centuries been revered as objects of pilgrimage were levelled to
the ground. Even the Prophet's tomb at Medina was laid waste and the
treasures it contained distributed among the soldiers of Ibn Saoud. This
roused the indignation of all Islam, and turned the tide of the
Wahhabite fortunes. Respectable feeling which had hitherto been on their
side now declared itself against them, and they never after regained
their position as moral and social reformers.
Politically, too, it was the cause of their ruin. The outside Mussulman
world, looking upon them as sacrilegious barbarians, was afraid to visit
Mecca, and the pilgrimage declined so rapidly that the Hejazi became
alarmed. The source of their revenue they found cut off, and it seemed
on the point of ceasing altogether. Then they appealed to
Constantinople, urging the Sultan to vindicate his claim to be protector
of the holy places. What followed is well known. After the peace of
Paris Sultan Mahmud commissioned Mehemet Ali to deliver Mecca and Medina
from the Wahhabite heretics, and this he in time effected.
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