ABSTRACT
THE Bedu of Central Arabia are as uncontrollable and inconstant as they are superstitious; and being most susceptible to religious influence every ambitious leader has deemed it wiser to use upon them the sword of Allah instead of his own. Thus in the early days of AI-Islam they followed the false prophet Musailamah; and in the tenth century they flocked under the standard of the Carmathians and, with their leader Abu Taher, entered Mecca in triumph; but when the Carmathians were destroyed thousands of the Shi'ah of An-Najafand Basrah, fleeing the persecution of the Baghdad Khalifs, came down to AI-Hasa, and many of their religious practices, especially the worship of saints and shrines, were introduced among the Bedu, who carried them far into Central Arabia. A sort of polytheism, a heathenism thus became rampant; and the instruments of this polytheism, the Bedu themselves, who made the mission of Ibn Abd'ulWahhab inevitable, and who fought against it during his days under the Ameers of AI-Hasa and the Ameer of Ar-Riyadh Ibn Dawwas, afterward became the most bigoted votaries and the most fanatical protagonists of Wahhabism.
