The world had paid the Al Saud…
1804 CE to 1815 CE
The popular and Shia practices to which the Wahhabis object are important to other Muslims, the majority of whom are alarmed that shrines are destroyed and access to the holy cities restricted.
Moreover, rule over the Hijaz is an important symbol.
The Ottoman Turks, the most important political force in the Islamic world at the time, refuse to concede rule over the Hijaz to local leaders.
The Ottomans at the beginning of the nineteenth century are not in a position to recover the Hijaz, because their forces are weak and overextended.
Accordingly, the Ottomans delegate the recapture of the Hijaz to their most ambitious client, Muhammad Ali, the semi-independent commander of their garrison in Egypt.
Muhammad Ali, in turn, hands the job to his son Tusun, who leads a force to the Hijaz in 1816; Muhammad Ali later joins his son to command the force in person.
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab had meanwhile, died in 1792, and Abd al Aziz died shortly before the capture of Mecca.
The movement had continued, however, to recognize the leadership of the Al Saud and so followed Abd al Aziz's son, Saud, until 1814; after Saud died in 1814, his son, Abd Allah, ruled.
Accordingly, it is Abdullah bin Saud bin Abdul-Aziz who faces the invading Egyptian army.
Tusun's forces take Mecca and Medina almost immediately.
Abdullah chooses this time to retreat to the family's strongholds in Najd.
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