The Saud family and the rise of the Wahhabis - The Saud family was established in Ad Diriyah, in the center of Najd, near the modern capital of Riyadh, where they had settled around 1500. The tribes of the Najd, relatively isolated from Islamic life, had resumed various pagan practices. Some of the Arabian tribes attributed to trees and rocks the same sort of power that the Shia venerate in the tombs of Imams. Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (died 1792), initiated a comprehensive reform. He grew up in Uyaynah, an oasis in southern Najd, where he studied Hanbali Islamic law. He continued his studies in Medina and then went to Iraq and to Iran. In the late 1730s he returned to the Najd and began to write and preach against both Shia and local paganism. He focused on Muslim monotheism, and preached that there is only one God, who does not share power with anyone. His students called themselves muwahhidun (unitarians). Their detractors referred to them as "Wahhabis"--or "followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab."
Wahhab attached a militant political dimension to his preaching, attacking the Shia and attracting local sheikhs to his cause. He won over some local leaders in Uyaynah and destroying some shrines there with the assistance of the Saud family, but was obliged to leave that town because of Shi'a pressure, and headed for Ad Diriyah, where he was welcomed by the Saud family. In 1744 Muhammad ibn Saud, head of the family, and Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, swore a traditional Muslim oath promising to work together to establish a state based on Islamic principles.
By 1765, when he died, Muhammad ibn Saud's forces had established Wahhabism and the authority of the Saud family, over most of Najd. His son, Abd al Aziz, continued the Wahhabi advance. In 1801 the Al Saud-Wahhabi armies attacked and sacked the shrine of Husayn in Karbala, Iraq. In 1802 or 1803 they advanced on the Hijaz. In Mecca and Medina they destroyed monuments and grave markers used for prayer to Muslim saints and for votive rituals, which they consider acts of polytheism, just as Muhamed had supposedly destroyed pagan idols in Mecca. The Wahhabi advance to the Hijaz alarmed the ruler of Egypt, Muhamad Ali. In 1812 (some say 1816) he sent his son Tursun to the Hijaz, and later joined him. On the Saudi side, Abd Allah ibn Saud ibn Abd al Aziz who faced the invading Egyptian army, but was rapidly defeated, and then pursued to Al Diriyah and evicted from there in 1818.The Wahhabis and the Saud family retreated to Riyadh, which became their capital in 1824. Subsequently the Sauds ruled Riyadh and a variable territory around it. However, interfamily rivalry and frequent civil wars weakened them. In 1890 Muhammad ibn Rashid, put effective control of Riyadh, into the hands of his own garrison commander, Salim ibn Subhan ruling through a Saud family puppet. When the puppet ruler, Abd ar Rahman attempted to exert his authority, he was driven out of Riyadh. The Saud family fled to Kuwait.
http://www.mideastweb.org/arabiahistory.htm
