‘Wahhabism’ and the Arab Bedouins’ Lack of Commitment to Islam

In a previous article, it was mentioned how the Islamic spiritual state of many of the Bedouins of Arabia was severely problematic. Below are statements by non-Muslims who further confirm this fact.

Sir Lewis Pelly (d. 1892) stated in his book, Report on a Journey to Riyadh in Central Arabia, 1865:

“From what I have since learnt I am inclined to infer that the Mussulman religion has not been accepted by the tribes of Central Arabia as a whole from any very remote date, and that some of them have been converted from idolatry to Wahabeeism without passing through any intermediate phase of Mahomedanism, and this within the last century, or even half century.” (p. 29)

Max Von Oppenheim (d. 1946) was a specialist in Arab Bedouins, and in his book, Die Beduinen, he stated:

“The Bedouins are Muslims. They constantly praise and remember Allah, whose name never parts from their mouths. However, you can barely find among a few thousand of them just a single person who knows how to pray the way Islam mandates. This is especially the case in areas where Wahhabism did not spread. In addition, you can still find remnants of polytheistic mentions in their legends.” (vol. 1, p. 86 of the Arabic translation)

Bertram Thomas (d. 1950) said in his book Arabia felix: Across the empty quarter of Arabia:

“Many other pagan and animistic cults survive and are practised throughout these mountains. All the natives hold them strongly; whereas elsewhere in Muslim Arabia they would be dubbed ungodly at the least.” (p. 41)

H. R. P. Dickson (d. 1959) stated in his book Kuwait and her neighbours:

“Towards the end of the seventeenth century Najd and Arabia generally, with the exception of Oman, Yemen and the Hijaz, were divided into a number of independent districts or townships, each ruled, on the principles of self-government, by a tribal chief under Badawin protection. Religion, in all but its most primitive form, was almost forgotten among the townspeople and had practically ceased to exist among the tribesmen. In fact, according to William Gifford Palgrave,* strange rites and superstitions, closely connected with Sabaeanism, worship of the sun, moon and stars, which had held sway throughout Arabia in pre-Islamic days, still found favour, while circumcision and the sacred rites of marriage had become almost a dead letter.” (p. 111)

Alexei Vassiliev, in his book, The History of Saudi Arabia, stated:

“Wallin, a mid-nineteenth-century Finnish traveller, also focuses on this point:

Like most of the tribes which were not forced to adopt the reformed doctrines of the Wahhabiye (Wahabiyeh) sect during the period of its ascendant power in Arabia, the Ma’aze (Maazeh) [a tribe in western Arabia] are, in general, grossly ignorant in the religion they profess, and I scarcely remember ever meeting with a single individual of the tribe who observed any of the rites of Islam whatever, or possessed the last notion of its fundamental and leading dogmas; while the reverse might, to a certain degree, be said of those Bedooins who are, or formerly were, Wahhabiye (Wahabiyeh).

Some decades later Davletshin, an officer of the Russian General Staff, commented, ‘The nomadic Arabs are not at all notable for being religious and many of their peculiar rites and legends run counter to Islamic teaching.” (pp.  72-73)

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Shaykh Muhammad b. Abdul Wahhab Discourse