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Mallak ravaged his dominions with fite and sword . * On the death of Saoiid , he was sue * ceeded ^ by Abdelaziz the Second , of whose reign I have not been able to obtain any account , except that it was occupied in , a . series of w ^ j-s of various
fortune , with the Pachas of Egypt and Bagdad , in which they sometimes penetrated nearly to Derejah , the capital of the Reformers , but < were always obliged to retreat , frpni the harassing nature of the warfare , and the natural obstructions which the country afforded to an invading army . In 1818 , we find the unfortunate Abdallah Ben
Sund on the throne , who , it appears , had , in a more successful attack of Ibrahim Pacha , which ended in the capture of Derejah , been defeated and taken prisoner , and was sent as a trophy to Constantinople , together with his Imam , ( probably the successor
to the spiritual authority of Abdool-Wahhab , ) there to await the full measure of the revenge which religious and political hatred would have in store for those who had so long braved the anathemas of the Church . A
thousand heads of his heretical followers accompanied them as an offering to the Commander of the Faithful , who , after leading the wretched
prisoners in chains through the streets , and torturing them in the recesses of their dungeons , caused them to be beheaded in his own presence , and delivered their bodies to the insult of a
populace eager to glut its bigoted vengeance on the carcases of wretches who had dared to question the authority of the Lord ' s vicegerent , and to brand with merited opprobrium the corruptions and depravity of the Established Church of their country . f
* As the East India Company has now an expedition engaged in the same object on the Persian Gulph as the one above alluded to , we shall perhaps hear something more of their old allies the Wahhabites . They are , however , probably now the weakest party , and to desert them may therefore be " a stroke of policy worthy of praise . "
t What has been the fate of the remaining Wahhabite power does not appear . The Pacha , I understand , has retreated ; his victory being probably the result of a coup de main , attended , in such a country */ with little permanent effect . Notices of the WahhaWtea , ( for there is little that desfcires morq than that
name , ) which the inquirer may compare and arrange into the most accordant system he can , will be found in Waring ' s Tour to Shiraz ; the Travels of AH 9 ey ; Edin . Review , VUI .-40 ; Monthly fteview , LX 1 . 518 ; Mills ' s History of Mafiommedahism ; the Romance called *'
Aiiastasius ; Malcolm ' s History tff Persia , Vincenzo MatirizjTs insignificant publication , and Niebuhr ' s Description de l Arabic . The French History of the Wahhabites , ( published , 1 , understand , in 1810 , ) I should like to have been able to refer to . . , . ' ' ¦ . ; . >*; - '
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Such was the tragical fate of the Wahhabite leader , and such have ever , in a greater or less degree , been the lamentable consequence of adding fufei to the flame of religious bigotry , by entrusting to it the power of the sword ,
which it is ever ready to ^ € Jlftt by reciprocal prostitution . «« Givfe Hie , oh Caesar , " cried the Mufti ' s predecessor , Nestorius , the Patriarch ; of Constantinople , before Theodosius , ** -give me the earth pui ^ ed of heretic ^ and ; I will give you , in exchange , the kingdom of
heaven ! Exterminate with me the heretics , and with you I will exterminate the Persians \ " If ever experience has established the relation of cause and effect , siirely this alliance of religious and civil authority has produced degradation to the one and corruption
to the other , by adding to the already too numerous temptations to rulers to govern badly , and sacrifice the interests of their people to their own prejudices and passions , the plausible pretext of supporting particular opinions from a sense of religious obligation , and a zeal for the welfare of
society , —to provide for which , each speculator , Mahometan or Christian , must have the liberty of thinking his own system best calculated . What is this but to scatter , amidst even the best and wisest institutions of society ,
the seeds of prejudice , bigotry and disunion ? And does not all history shew that in the result of such a system to the cause of religion , her interests are every where merged in the political and secular views of aggrandizement , to which she has been more or less
associated ? What chance can truth have of fair investigation where a band of hirelings is embodied , whose interest it instantly becomes to defend their privileges and the systems in which they originate ? Does the head
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The Nonconformist . No . XVIII . 365
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1820, page 355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2489/page/31/
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