alternatehistory.com

The Wahhabi war was a war fought between the Ottoman Empire, and the Emirate of Diriyah, the first Saud state. It was between 1811 to 1818. They founded by the founder of Wahabism, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb.

Wahabism one of the strictest forms of Islam, who rejected the luxury of the Sultan, and innovation. They Were a small tribe gained power in Nejd, but consolidated power in almost the entire Arabian peninsula.

The Wahabis in 1802 sacked Karbala in Iraq, causing the death of 5000 people, plundering of the Husyan Shrine, and the destruction of every saint memory in the city.

And in 1805, The Wahabis sacked Mecca and Medina, and the wrath of the cities was put on full display from the Wahabi menace, as they had finally had control of Hejaz, and Nejd. The Ottomans, under Selim III, were under too many other conflicts to deal with the Wahabis.

They were fighting the Serbian uprising, Anglo-Turkish war, Russo-Turkish war, French Invasion of Egypt, and subsequent Ali power takeover drama, Kabakci Mustafa's Coup, and way-way more conflicts that hampered Selim IIIs modernization attempts to bring the Ottomans back to equal technological levels as the rest of the world.


The occupation disrupted Ottoman finances, by attacking Ottoman Caravans. But under Mustafa VI, the Ottomans, with help with Mohammed Ali, finally took back Hejaz, and destroyed the First Saudi State.

But, what if the Wahabis won the war somehow, and kept the Hejaz? Is this possible? And how can we make it possible?
Top