Battle of Sabilla | |||||||
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Part of the Ikhwan Revolt | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ikhwan | Aerially supported by: Royal Air Force | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sultan bin Bajad Faisal al-Duwaish (WIA) | Abdulaziz al-Saud | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Between 8,000 [1] -10,000 [2] | 30,000 [2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Between 500 [2] -1,000 [3] | 200 [2] |
The Battle of Sabilla (29 March, 1929) [4] was the main battle of the Ikhwan Revolt in northern Arabia between the rebellious Ikhwan forces and the army of Abdulaziz al-Saud. It was the last tribal uprising in Arabia. [5] It was also the last major battle in which one side rode camels, [6] as the Ikhwan emphasized radical conservatism and shunned technological modernization.
The rebellious, but technologically mediocre, Ikhwan were decisively defeated by the Saudi forces, which had machine-guns and cavalry. The battle occurred in Sabilla, located twenty miles east of Al-Zulfi. [7] The Saudi forces were also supported by the British Royal Air Force which bombed the Ikhwan forces near Jordan and Kuwait. [8] It would be one of the last major battles in Arabia utilizing camel riders. [9]
The Ikhwan had raided various regions bordering Arabia throughout the 1920s. [10] While raiding was often a part of Bedouin life, the Ikhwan took it a step further: they would raze entire villages, and kill women and children they deemed to be insufficiently pious. This was done even against Ibn Saud's orders or instructions. [11]
By the late 1920s, Saudi expansion had begun to slow down, and any territory not under the control of Ibn Saud was ruled by various foreign powers. [10] The Ikhwan desired to expand into Iraq, Transjordan, Kuwait, and even further, but Ibn Saud refused. [12] He not only realized the folly of engaging in war with the British, but was bound by the Treaty of Jeddah to recognize the borders of British-held territories. [1] The Ikhwan took this as appeasing the non-Muslim British. [10] Ibn Saud also desired to modernize his empire, which the Ikhwan opposed. [13] The Ikhwan also opposed Ibn Saud's attempts to centralize his government, which they saw as threatening to tribal autonomy that had reigned in Arabia for so long, as well as tribal taxation. [3] At last, in 1927, the Ikhwan rose up in open revolt against Saudi rule.
The Ikhwan were driven by a medieval Bedouin view of combat, in which two sides opposed one another and sought who would bear the greater courage and physical strength. By contrast, Ibn Saud was a religious but pragmatic leader, and had sought to upgrade doctrinal and technological innovation. This stark difference would come out in the battle to come. [9]
On March 29, the Ikhwan arranged a defensive array against the Saudis. Saudi forces attacked first, then appeared to withdraw. The Ikhwan, believing they had an opportunity, pursued. This was a trap. Previously hidden Saudi forces now revealed themselves, opening up with British-supplied automatic weapons. [9] Included among these were automobile-mounted machine guns, which were used against the camels. [3] The counterattack was crushed.
Faisal al-Dawish, one of the three leaders of the rebellious Ikhwan tribes, was wounded in the battle. According to Ibn Saud Information Resource, his injury was "serious". Another leader, Sultan bin Bajad, allegedly fled the battle scene. [6] There are also reports stating that both Ikhwan leaders were arrested, but not executed. [14]
In the eyes of Ibn Saud's supporters, the battle was necessary for the ability to continue Saudi conquest of the peninsula. The Ikhwan regarded it as a massacre and a betrayal. [15] Al-Dawish and Bin Bajad would remain in jail for the rest of their life. [14] Bin Bajad himself would die in 1932. [16]
Although skirmishes with the Ikhwan continued after Sabilla, the forces were for the most part decimated. [12] The last few leaders of the Ikhwan would surrender at the Kuwaiti border to British forces. The remnants of the Ikhwan would go on to become the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The Saudi monarchy would not have another threat to its rule until the seizing of the Grand Mosque in 1979. [17]
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, known in the Western world mononymously as Ibn Saud, was an Arab political and religious leader who founded Saudi Arabia – the third Saudi state – and reigned as its first king from 23 September 1932 until his death in 1953. He had ruled parts of the kingdom since 1902, having previously been Emir, Sultan, and King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz.
Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Al Saud was the last emir of Nejd, reigning from 1875 to 1876 and from 1889 to 1891. He was the youngest son of Emir Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah and the father of Abdulaziz, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Ikhwan, commonly known as Ikhwan man ata'a Allah, was a Wahhabi religious militia made up of traditionally nomadic tribesmen which formed a significant military force of the ruler Ibn Saud and played an important role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Al-Mutairi is an Arab tribe with origins in the northern Hejaz near Medina, in present day Saudi Arabia. The tribe mainly inhabits Saudi Arabia (Najd), Kuwait, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. They have also settled in Morocco and Tunisia.
The Otaibah is one of the biggest Arab tribes originating in the Arabian Peninsula. Their distribution spans throughout Saudi Arabia, especially in Najd. and the Middle East. The Otaibah are descended from the Bedouin. They trace back to the Mudar family and belong to the Qays ʿAylān confederacy through its previous name, Hawazin.
Al-Ajman or al-'Ijman is an Arabian tribal confederation in the Arabian Peninsula, with Ajman spread across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
Faisal bin Sultan al-Duwaish was Prince of the Mutair tribe and one of Arabia's Ikhwan leaders, who assisted Abdulaziz in the unification of Saudi Arabia. The mother of Faisal bin Sultan was from the Ajman tribe and the sister of Dhaydan bin Hithlain, another Ikhwan leader and sheikh of the Ajman tribe.
The Unification of Saudi Arabia was a military and political campaign in which the various tribes, sheikhdoms, city-states, emirates, and kingdoms of most of the central Arabian Peninsula were conquered by the House of Saud, or Al Saud. Unification started in 1902 and continued until 1932, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed under the leadership of Abdulaziz, known in the West as Ibn Saud, creating what is sometimes referred to as the Third Saudi State, to differentiate it from the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State and the Emirate of Nejd, the Second Saudi State, also House of Saud states.
Abdulaziz bin Mutaib Al Rashid, better known as Ibn Rashid, was the Emir of Jabal Shammar from 1897 to 1906.
Sultan bin Bajad bin Humaid al-'Utaybi was the Sheikh of the Otaibah tribe and one of the prominent leaders of the Ikhwan movement in the Arabian Peninsula. This tribal army supported King Abdulaziz in his efforts to unify Saudi Arabia between 1910 and 1927.
The Ikhwan raids on Transjordan were a series of attacks by the Ikhwan, irregular Arab tribesmen of Najd, on the Emirate of Transjordan between 1922 and 1924. The repeated Wahhabi incursions from Najd into southern parts of his territory were the most serious threat to Emir Abdullah I's position in Transjordan. The emir was powerless to repel these raids by himself, thus the British maintained a military base, with a small air force, at Marka, close to Amman. The British military force was the primary obstacle against the Ikhwan, and ultimately helped Abdullah to secure his rule over Transjordan.
The Ikhwan revolt was an uprising in the Arabian Peninsula from 1927 to 1930 led by the Ikhwan. It began in 1927, when the tribesmen of the Otaibah, Mutayr and Ajman rebelled against the authority of Ibn Saud and engaged in cross-border raids into parts of Transjordan, Mandatory Iraq and the Sheikhdom of Kuwait. The relationship between the House of Saud and the Ikhwan deteriorated into an open bloody feud in December 1928. The main instigators of the rebellion were defeated in the Battle of Sabilla, on 29 March 1929. Ikhwan tribesmen and troops loyal to Abdulaziz clashed again in the Jabal Shammar region in August 1929, and Ikhwan tribesmen attacked the Awazim tribe on 5 October 1929. Faisal Al Dawish, the main leader of the rebellion and the Mutair tribe, fled to Kuwait in October 1929 before being detained by the British and handed over to Ibn Saud. Faisal Al-Dawish would die in Riyadh on 3 October 1931 from what appears to have been a heart condition. Government troops had finally suppressed the rebellion on 10 January 1930, when other Ikhwan rebel leaders surrendered to the British. In the aftermath, the Ikhwan leadership was slain, and the remains were eventually incorporated into regular Saudi units. Sultan bin Bajad, one of the three main Ikhwan leaders, was killed in 1931, while Al Dawish died in prison in Riyadh on 3 October 1931.
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Az Zulfi is a city in Riyadh Province in central Saudi Arabia, about 260 kilometres northwest of Riyadh. It is connected by Roads 418 and 535 which both link with the main Highway 65 which connects Riyadh to Buraidah which is about 101 kilometres by road to the west of Al Zulfi. Zulfi also forms a governorate of Riyadh Province. The Al-Yamama/Tuwaiq mountain range begins in the desert to the north of Al Zulfi.
The Taif massacre was an incident that followed the short 1924 Battle of Taif; the entire episode is also known as the al-Taif incident. The battle and resultant massacre comprised the first major standoff of the Second Hashemite-Saudi War. Following a short siege, the city was abandoned by Hashemite forces and then capitulated to the battle-ready Ikhwan force under the command of Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. The Ikhwan troops took out their rage on the residents of the city. In the resulting bloodbath, some 300-400 Ta'if residents were massacred.
The First Saudi–Hashemite War, also known as the First Nejd–Hejaz War or the al-Khurma dispute, took place in 1918–19 between Abdulaziz Ibn Saud of the Emirate of Nejd and Hasa and the Hashemites of the Kingdom of Hejaz.
Dhaydan bin Hithlain was one of the leaders of the Ajman tribe and Amir of the hijrah (settlement) of Al Sarrar. His full name was Dhaydan bin Khalid bin Hizam bin Hithlain. Alexei Vassiliev also calls him Zaidan.
The Battle of Turubah was fought on May 26, 1924, between the forces of Hussein bin Ali, under the command of his son Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, and forces under the command of Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud. It was a larger part of the Hejaz-Nejd War, as well as the Al-Khurma dispute. The battle resulted in the end of Hussein's hopes to expand into the Arabian peninsula, as well as opening the way for Ibn Saud to fortify his own control over the region, which in turn would eventually lead to the creation of Saudi Arabia.
The Battle of Hafr al-Batin (1929) was one of the last major battles of the Ikhwan revolt. The Ikhwan had already suffered a massive defeat at the Battle of Sabilla on March 29, and another defeat at the Battle of Jabal Shammar in August.
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