Thuwaini Al-Saadoun campaign (1797)

Thuwaini Al-Saadoun campaign (1797)
Date 1797 Location Al-Ahsa-Eastern Arabia Result Saudi victory
Belligerents
Emirate of Diriyah	Ottoman Empire Mamluk dynasty (Iraq) Emirate of Muntafiq Sheikhdom of Kuwait Bani Khalid
Commanders and leaders
Imam Adulaziz Saud I	Sulayman Pasha the Great Thuwaini Al-Saadoun  † Abdullah I Al-Sabah
Strength
1,500–4,000	3,000–6,000
Casualties and losses
Slight	Heavy

The Thuwaini Al-Saadoun Campaign of (1797) was a military campaign carried out by Sheikh Thuwaini bin Abdullah Al-Saadoun, Emir of the Iraqi Al-Muntafiq tribes, to repel Wahhabi attacks against the cities and valleys of southern Ottoman Iraq, especially the Al-Muntafiq pastures. After the matter of the Wahhabis became so severe that they constituted a real threat to the Hajj route, which prompted the Sharif of Mecca, Ghaleb bin Musaed, to explain to Sultan Selim III the fatal situation if conditions continued as they were, the Sublime Porte asked the governor of Baghdad, Minister Sulayman Pasha the Great, to eliminate the Wahhabis because of the threat and danger they posed. . However, the Pasha had reached an old age and was exhausted by old age. He was unwilling to do so and began to procrastinate and used many pretexts, and in the end, after the insistence of Istanbul, he assigned this task to Sheikh Thuwaini Al-Saadoun after he returned to him the sheikhdom of Al-Muntafiq in the year 1796 AD. Thuwaini took advantage of that opportunity and announced a general mobilization, and the Arabs of Al-Muntafiq and the people of Al-Zubayr and Basra gathered around him, and then he provided him with The governor met him with an army in Al-Jahra. Thuwaini headed his campaign south towards Al-Ahsa, and did not head directly towards Diriyah, as Al-Ahsa was an easy supply center for the forces. However, Thuwaini Al-Saadoun’s campaign was not able to achieve its goal, because he was killed at the hands of one of Bani Khalid’s slaves, before he carried out any successful action against the Saudi forces that headed towards Al-Ahsa. The ranks of the Iraqi campaign were disturbed and were forced to retreat. The Saudi forces tracked it down and began chasing its remnants to the borders of Kuwait.They seized much of its equipment, cannons, and equipment, and took a lot of spoils

Background

The Ottoman Empire was exposed to internal crises and unrest after its wars with the Russians, which increased its weakness. In 1749 AD, the Mamluks were able to rule Iraq almost independently of the Ottomans. During that period, the Wahhabi call emerged from the city of Diriyah in Najd under the leadership of Muhammad bin Saud (1744- 1765 AD) and spread throughout Najd and Al-Ahsa, but he was wary of confronting the Ottoman Empire. After his death, his son Abdul Aziz (1765–1803) who was more committed to Wahhabi teachings than his father and more daring and impulsive, assumed power. He seized control of Riyadh in 1773 AD, and completed his control over Najd by seizing Hail in 1787. After that, he directed his forces towards the coast of the Persian Gulf, specifically towards Al-Ahsa being economically rich, a number of military attacks were launched against it from the period 1780–1795 AD until it was completely subjugated. As for the lands of Ottoman Iraq, the pastures of the Samawah Desert and the Levant Desert were subjected to harsh attacks by the Wahhabis, and their preachers spread in the offices and hostels of the Euphrates tribes, spreading their opinions and beliefs among the tribes and cities.

Hejaz and the Wahhabis

In the Hejaz, the relations between the Wahhabis and the nobles of the Hejaz were ebbing and flowing, and the Hajj route was damaged as a result of the Wahhabi raids, so the number of pilgrims decreased and the resources for Hajj diminished, which consequently reduced the resources of the Sharif of Mecca Surur bin Musa’id (died 1788 AD). He wrote to the Sublime Porte in 1770 AD explaining their danger and demanding that they be subjected to persecution. And crush them. But the Ottoman government said after investigation that the matter was nothing more than an exaggeration.In fact, the Ottoman Empire did not care about the Al Saud’s control over Najd due to its economic poverty and lack of strategic value. Rather, it did not care much when the Wahhabis expanded towards Al-Ahsa, and left the governors of that country to manage their affairs according to the usual customs and traditions during the invasion.During the reign of Sharif Ghalib bin Musaed (1788–1807 AD), followers of the Wahhabi mission were prevented from performing the Hajj in the year 1202 AH/1788 AD. In 1205 AH / 1790 AD, he prepared a military campaign numbering ten thousand soldiers, equipped with ammunition and equipment, and led by his brother, Abdul Aziz bin Musaed, to fight the House of Saud. Then Sharif Ghaleb joined the campaign to consolidate a position for himself with the Ottoman Sultan, but the campaign was unable to achieve any goal. So she returned to Mecca disappointed. Because they were prevented from performing Hajj, Abdul Aziz Al Saud directed his raids towards the outskirts of Hejaz and Iraq.

Intervention of the Ottoman Empire

Complaints arose against the Sublime Porte about the expansion of the scope of Wahhabi rule. It took control of Najd and most of Al-Ahsa and began expanding northward towards southern Iraq. After Sharif Ghalib’s speech, the governor of the Levant, Ahmed Pasha Al-Jazzar, sent a letter dated 9 Rabi’ al-Akhir 1208 AH/1797 AD warning the Sublime Porte of the seriousness of the situation. Accordingly, a consultation council met in Istanbul for its members to study the issue. Due to the lack of resourcefulness of the council, it decided to assign Sulayman Pasha the Great, the governor of Baghdad, to study the issue, considering that he was the closest to and adjacent to Najd. So the governor sent a special committee to Najd to study the situation with the knowledge of the Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad. After its arrival in Najd, the committee discovered that Abdul Aziz’s power was at the top, and that delegations from Yemen and other destinations came to him every day declaring allegiance to him in Najd. The authority transferred the photo to Sulayman Pasha the Great, who in turn transferred it to the Sublime Porte, and the results of the investigations revealed that the issue had reached a point that could not be tolerated.

The Sublime Porte sent to Sulayman Pasha the Great asking him to intervene and march to Diriyah to end this danger because it is the closest to that region, but it seems that Sulayman Pasha the Great was unwilling to intervene, and many correspondences took place between him and the Sublime Porte during the years (1210/1211 AH - 1795/1796 AD) to fight Wahhabis, and he used to apologize and give various excuses, including his old age and that he had reached a very old age.He also apologized with another excuse, which is that he is busy strengthening his capital, Baghdad, and its outskirts against the Wahhabi threat, and he does not currently have the ability to carry out a campaign in that direction. However, he was following the matter well and was aware of the strength of the Wahhabis, and that he could not end the matter alone, because his army could not launch into Desert quickly.

Beginning of Thuwaini Al-Saadoun’s campaign

As soon as Thuwaini returned to his homeland and regained the Al-Muntafiq sheikhdom, he announced a general mobilization, and the Al-Muntafiq tribes, the people of Al-Zubayr, the people of Basra and their environs, and the entire Dhafeer tribe gathered around him. He spent three months fully mobilizing his forces with weapons and ammunition, then he marched with them to fight the Wahhabis and clashed with some of them in some places during the way. He defeated them and seized from them about one hundred thousand sheep. He sent them to Basra, and the people received them with joy, and the women were singing. Then the sheep were slaughtered so that people could taste the taste of meat after they had been deprived of it for a long time. Then he wrote about this to Sulayman Pasha the Great in Baghdad, informing him and asking him for help. The vizier sent him an army under the command of “Ahmed Agha bin Al-Iraqi.” Ahmed Agha marched with the army until he met Sheikh Thuwaini in Al-Jahra. He asked the governor of Basra to support him with archers and artillery.at the same time he sent to “Barak bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Sardah,” the leader of Bani Khalid, urging him to mobilize his clans to join him in Al-Jahra, so Al-Sardah came to him, along with all of Bani Khaled except the Mahashir clans. Sheikh Thuwaini remained camped in Al-Jahra for three months until his armies were integrated, after the convoys arrived from Kuwait, Bahrain and Al-Zubair. Then he divided his army so that part of it would travel by Kuwaiti ships to Qatif, carrying ammunition and supplies, accompanied by a group of Aqeel’s Arabs, residents of Karkh, and more than one battalion of hired soldiers, while he and the rest of his army would march to Al-Ahsa first to avoid crossing the desert as summer approached.

The Wahhabi army had gathered under the leadership of “Muhammad bin Mu’aqil” in Jiriya. When he learned that Sheikh Thuwaini was coming towards him with those armies, he became afraid, so he departed with his army from Jiriya and camped in Umm Rabi’ah. He sent to Imam Abdul Aziz asking him for supplies, so he provided him with an army under the command of his nephew. Hassan bin Mishari bin Saud.” As for Sheikh Thuwaini, he landed at Al-Tuff water close to his opponent, and he did not want to rush the war as he turned away from the Wahhabis. Then he departed with his armies from Al-Tuff and walked until he landed at Al-Shabak, which is a well-known water in the lands of Bani Khalid, and he had the intention of heading towards Diriyah, which sparked The concern of the Saudi state. Prince Saud bin Abdul Aziz moved and stayed at Rawdat al-Tanhat for a few days, then moved from there to Hafar al-Ash, where he camped for more than a month. Imam Abdul Aziz also ordered some Najdi tribes to camp with their families at water sources.In the homes of Bani Khalid, and then desperate to prevent Thuwaini’s campaign from benefiting from him.

Assassination of Thuwaini Al-Saadoun and end of the campaign

When the army was busy setting up tents in “Al-Shabak”, which is a Bani Khalid watershed close to the sea, on Wednesday, June 28, 1797 AD / Muharram 4, 1212 AH, Sheikh Thuwaini separated from his entourage, and the closest tent to him was that of Muhammad Al-Arayer, and a slave mamluk of Bani Khalid named “Tais” surprised him. “And he had a hook in his hand that had a light spear in it, so he stabbed him from behind him, between his shoulders, with one stab, and its point came out from the other side of his body, so Thuwaini died instantly, and Tuais was killed shortly thereafter.”The body of Sheikh Thuwaini was carried to his tent, and the leaders of Al-Muntafiq spread rumors that he was injured and began asking him for coffee and tea until they made his brother Nasser Emir in his place, and he was buried secretly on Al-Amayer Island in Al-Ahsa.Most sources indicate that Tuais is a believer in Wahhabi thought, and was prepared and recruited for this mission.

When the news of Thuwaini’s killing became public, Barak al-Sardah slipped away with Bani Khalid and joined the army of Hassan bin Mishari. They had had previous correspondence because he regretted his path with Thuwaini after he saw his interest in the sons of Arayar. He was certain that if Sheikh Thuwaini captured Al-Ahsa, he would influence them over him. Disorder and lack of order began to spread among the ranks of the campaign, which was divided into small pieces. Nasser, Thuwaini’s brother, and some of those with him tried to remain steadfast, but everyone dispersed from him. The campaign began to withdraw north without a link after abandoning its artillery and ammunition, which provided the opportunity for Ibn Mishari to track them until he brought them to Safwan. He killed many men and seized huge spoils, such as the cannons they had left, three thousand camels, and more than a hundred thousand sheep, and they did not capture except a few horses.

After the failure of the campaign

The impact of the killing of Sheikh Thuwaini Al-Saadoun was significant in Baghdad and the Sublime Porte. In Baghdad, his assassination caused panic and anxiety because the state relied on his skills in repelling the Wahhabi advance towards Iraq. Nasser bin Abdullah, Thuwaini’s brother, tried to reconcile the defeat of the army, as he wanted to return to the Wahhabis, but Minister Sulayman Pasha the Great abandoned that idea and returned the sheikhdom of Al-Muntafiq to Hamoud Al-Thamer after he realized the enormity of what had happened. In Najd, the absence of Thuwaini was a great opportunity because it posed a danger to them, and the disintegration of his army gave a boost to morale. Therefore, the Wahhabis attacked the outskirts of Al-Muntafiq in Ramadan 1212 AH/1797 AD and went to the village of Umm Al-Abbas, which is close to the Shuyoukh market, and plundered it. Hamoud Al-Thamer pursued them, but they escaped and returned to their homes.The governor prepared another campaign, led by his daughter’s husband, Ali Pasha al-Kahiya, to invade Al-Ahsa in 1798 AD.

References

• تاريخ المملكة العربية السعودية في دليل الخليج. Garnet Publishing, Limited. November 4, 2023. ISBN 9781859641644. Archived from the original on July 22, 2023.
• The Emirate of Al-Muntafiq and its impact on the history of Iraq and the regional region 1546-1918. Hamid Hamad Al-Saadoun. Wael Publishing House. 1999 Amman. P. 147
• The First Saudi State 1745-1818. Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman. Institute of Arab Research and Studies. Cairo 1969. p. 96
• Social glimpses of Iraq's modern history, Ali Al-Wardi. C1. P. 154