Acronyms that contain the term Wahabites 

wahabites

A warlike Mohammedan reforming sect, considering themselves the only true followers of the Prophet, arose in Arabia about 1750, under the rule of Abd-el-Nahab (Ibn-abdul-Wahab). His grandson Savoud (Saud, or Saood), in 1801, defeated an expedition headed by the caliph of Bagdad. The conquest of Hejaz was next undertaken by the Wahabees. In 1803, Saoud collected a large army, defeated Ghaleb, the ruler of Mecca, in several battles, laid siege to Mecca, which, after a resistance of two or three months, surrendered at discretion. Not the slightest excess was committed, but the people had to become Wahabees. Failing to take Jiddah, into which Ghaleb had thrown himself, the Wahabi forces went northwards, and, in 1804, took Medina, where they stripped the tomb of Mohammed of its accumulated treasures, and prohibited the approach to it of all but Wahabees. For several years after the conquest of Hejaz, Saoud continued to extend and consolidate his power. Plundering incursions were made to the very vicinity of Bagdad, Aleppo, and Damascus. On the east, Saoud took the island of Bahrein, and annexed a part of the Persian coast, on the east side of the Gulf, and exacted tribute from the sultan of Oman. This brought him into conflict with Great Britain, which sent (1808) a force and severely chastised the Wahabi pirates that infested the commerce of the Persian Gulf. Saoud’s son, Abdallah, long resisted Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, but in 1818 he was defeated and taken prisoner by Ibrahim Pasha, who sent him to Constantinople, where he was put to death. Ibrahim continued some months in Arabia, consolidating his conquests throughout Nejed and the adjoining provinces. But soon an insurrection broke out, and the Egyptians had to retire to Kasim, and Turki, a son of Abdallah, was proclaimed sultan of Nejed. Renewed expeditions were undertaken by the Egyptian commanders, driving, first, Turki from his capital for a time and then his son and successor, Feysul. But soon after the death of Mehemet Ali (1849) the Egyptians gave up the struggle; Feysul was recalled from exile; and under him and his son Abdallah II., who unites in a high degree the fanaticism and ferocity of the Wahabi, with great skill in military tactics, the Wahabi sway, according to the accounts of Palgrave in 1863, and of Col. Pelly in 1865, had become more powerful and extensive, and threatens to swallow up the entire peninsula.

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