The stage on the Arabian Peninsula was set like a loaded cannon ready for rebellion. In the capital Riyadh, the Emir lavished himself in luxury while the lower class wallowed in the city slums. Economic reform, long promised, never materialized. But more fundamentally was the view among all Muslims that the domination of all the holy sites of Islam; Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, and too the Shi'as Karbala, by the Christian power of Great Britian. More-over, the the Emir was complect at least in this foreign takeover.
The strongest group against these corruption was the Wahabists, lead by Ibn Saud. This is his story of the reclamation of the New Islamic State of Saudi Arabia.
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Move with haste! Ibn Saud whispered to his fellow raiders in the darkness of a moonless night in Khafji, the site of the summer palace of Emir Abdullah bin Talal.
Together the party of 34 men, raised their stolen armaments as they prepared to burst in the front gate of the decorated compound. Most of them were dressed in traditional Bedouin dress, a little peculiar so far away from the Empty Quarter, however all of them wished to sort of preserve their racial identity, in hopes of inspiring some sort of unity between the Bedouins and the Arabs of the new Kingdom.
At once they rushed into the compound in parallel lines, occasionally taking shots at occasional soldiers with varying degrees of success. All of the raiders were skilled at the traditional raids on caravans that they practiced so successfully in Iraq and Kuwait, but this close quarters urban conflict quickly overwhelmed a good deal of them, making them more of a risk of friendly fire than of helping to eliminate the enemies. However Ibn Saud was not one of these men, he was trained by both Ottoman officers and various militias around Kuwait city many years ago, and although his beard grew long, he lead his men into the heart of the palace compound with minimal casualties.
The deeper they got, however, the less confident they became. Although fire was coming from all directions, inflicting increasing casualties, resistance seemed light for a Emir's Palace now at full alarm. Ibn Saudi turned to a friend who expressed similar concern, Could our sources be wrong? How might an entire village not noticed their 'Leader' leaving?
Let us pray that god is simply helping us through this conflict, Ibn Saudi responded with his stereotypical firm pious voice, Even if not, we shall at least bring back more arms and ammunition for our brothers.
Soon enemy fire died out, as, well, the soldiers died out. The raiders made circles around the relatively small palace compound, looking for any sign of the Emir, while stealing and smashing luxuries and picking up the more advanced repeating rifles of fallen soldiers. It became clear that the Emir had moved on, and that the raiders too must, as loyalist militias might soon be upon the palace in large numbers. They exited far more excitedly than they came in however, rich with new gold and weapons, while sustaining only a handful of deaths.
Both far better and far worse than our conventional raids, Ibn Saud said when mounting his camel a block or so from the compound, our casualties are light, but it is clear the message here. We must further unite our various rebel tribes under the banner of god before we can kill the infidel Emir! For else wise our country will be more vulnerable to foreign attack. Let us head south, to Hofuf to gather talk with Bedouin leaders.
So the party moved out quickly, leaving the bloody mess behind to look for the new beginning in Hofuf. However one of the main problems with trying to ally with a nomadic group is the simple fact that they are nomadic, and thereby nearly impossible to find. When Ibn Saud arrived at Hofuf with mixed local reaction, many viewed him as more of a extremist wahabhist, which he was, than as a savior or liberator of the Arab people. Still, with the help of hundreds of people sympathetic to his cause, he was able to maintain a low enough profile to avoid an confrontations with either the inept conscript military/guard or the corrupt local loyalist militias, while still able to inquire about the whereabouts of the Muhammad Hanbal, a leader of the most powerful Bedouin rebel group, claiming more than 2,200 members, most of which however never took up arms of any sort. He heard many stories, however all of them told tepidly at best until he came across an old friend of his, Nasser Aslan, in a local mosque, who said with some confidence how the nomads numbering about 170 recently left a camp just south of the city to camp and raid outside Riyadh.
Knowing how it would be difficult to catch up with them in such a large group of 28 or so men, Ibn Saud decided to send only 5 men, himself included, to run out with the fastest camels to meet up with Muhammad Hanbal on the only reliable trail between the two cities. The rest of the men would go back to their main camp north of Khafji on the border with Kuwait.
Fortunately, the massive Bedouin group was slow moving and within 50 miles of Hofuf Ibn Saud met up with them. However, to be honest, neither man like one another. Ibn Saud viewed Muhammad Hanbal as an un-pious man, who only recently converted to Islam, while Muhammad viewed Ibn Saud as an extremist and fundamentalist. Particularly of concern of Ibn Saud was the fact that recently Muhammad lead his tribe to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina to pray, which it considered paganism according to Wahhabist thought. Still, Ibn Saud needed the manpower of Muhammads tribes and Muhammad needed the support of ibn Saud's massive popular support in Riyadh and other central cities, including British Mecca, Medina and the coastal city of Jeddah.
As such the discussion was tense, as Muhammad declined to get off of his camel to talk to Ibn Saud, and forced him to talk while ridding, a very uncomfortable and almost rude thing to do. The situation was clear to them both, and they pledged to work together to topple the corrupt government and forge a coalition and joint rule.
Muhammad and Ibn Saudi decided that the time to act was as soon as possible, as the raid on the summer palace was quite a propaganda ploy, and could be exploited. As such Ibn Saud sent 2 of his men out to gather support on their way to the camp north of Khafji, where they would rally their own troops and raiders. He then sent 2 of his men to British Mecca and Medina to gather his supporters secretly there to come join the battle against the Emir of Arabia. Ibn Saud made himself comfortable with the Bedouins for the long uneventful ride to Riyadh.
Once they arrived they set up camp in a nearby unnamed oasis village numbering only 60 people. Hundreds of tents soon expanded beyond the boundary of the oasis as the Bedouins and the Arabs settled around it. They forced the village people to stay and not alarm Riyadh itself, leading to the inevitable mass levy of troops by the Emir. Surprise was key! Trade around Riyadh is always quite large, as such the incoming troops and raiders from around Arabia that came in the coming weeks did not appear to be noticed by the government. This was perticularly impressive as the force expanded day by day, the logistics of supporting them in the oasis became increasingly difficult. The oasis itself was mostly farm-land, and provided constant food for the first 500 or so extra raiders, but as the force expanded, more food was needed, and secret caravans were organized into the city to buy food with the stolen relics from the summer palace.
Soon a formidable force of 2,060 men was formed, and then organized by Ibn Saud himself. The plan was as simple as it was a work of tactical brilliance. A simple charge on camel back through the streets of Riyadh to the central government complex. There they planed to surround it, and slowly take out the palace guards. Ibn Saud volunteered to lead the assault with his wing of about 200 men. Half the men were well armed with bolt action ottoman and British rifles and pistols, while the others were armed with traditional swords. The elite guard at the palace, which Ibn Saud estimated to be about 100 men were armed with new British and American Repeating rifles.
With some relief, after 3 weeks of waiting, the call to arms was given thought the camp, to some relief, as rations were growing lower and lower and mutiny was feared. Unfortunately the attack was ad hoc at best, as the fast and lightly armed Bedouins reached the city edge before the better armed Arab contingents. Although Ibn Saud thought that the Bedouins would at least know enough to stop before sight of the government complexes, they did not. As such they soon threw themselves at the Guard positions with little avail. In fact, by the time that Ibn Saud's Arab contingent got there, they found the fight was easy as the Guard positions were running out of ammunition. Quickly the majority of the outer guards were killed or captured. Although Ibn Saud hoped to now at least be able to effectively attack the palace itself in a very particularly way by tying up the guards in the well fortified front while another group entered by the back, the Bedouins tried to attack the back first, making the Royal Guards divide themselves to defend both sides equally. All in all this resulted in massive casualties by machine gun fire for the Bedouin camels, only after a many vollies of arrows and death did they eventually puncher through the defenses, far ahead of Ibn Saud's group, which was still trying to be though around the outermost gates and hoping to draw out the guards.
Ibn Saud still arrived in time to join the search/pillage of the palace, looking for Emir Abdullah bin Talal. Eventually hundreds of townspeople joined the search of the grounds and administrative builds, looking for their hated tyrant. Eventually, they found him, hiding in the Ministry of Education building. Ibn Saud had prepared a long epic speech to say in front of the Emir about how horrible his rule was, and how it defied all that was holy and the rules of Islam; but the mob literally torn the Emir limb from limb as he was dragged out of the building in a bloody mess.
He still delivered it though, although he changed the wording around slightly so he was addressing the people of Riyadh, and therefore all Arabs, rather than a de-limbified corpse.
Today is the day that we must come together, Bedouins and Arabs, to create a unified Islamic state. For years we have had to deal with the corrupt rulers and the horrid foreign influences. We fought with the Emir because we are free, and we don't put up with transgressions. We want to reclaim our nation. It is crucial that we maintain a pious course of action, every Muslim must rise to defend his religion. The wind of faith is blowing. We will meet any enemy that foolhardily challenges us, and we will win, In Sha Allah.
wrong word! ahhhh!
