Thuwaini Al-Saadoun campaign (1797)

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, Sulayman Pasha the Great, to eliminate the Wahhabis because of the threat and danger they posed. However, the Pasha was an old man, worn down by age. He was unwilling to handle the issue and began to procrastinate and used many pretexts. In the end, after the insistence of Istanbul, the Pasha assigned the 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 Az Zubayr and Basra gathered around him. In addition, The governor of Baghdad provided him with and army which met him in Al-Jahra. Thuwaini lead his campaign south towards Al-Ahsa, instead of heading directly towards Diriyah, as Al-Ahsa was an easy supply point for the army. 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 carrying out any successful operation against the Saudi forces that headed towards Al-Ahsa. Due to his death, the ranks of the Iraqi campaign became disorganized and were forced to retreat. The Saudi forces chased the remnants of the army to the borders of modern day Kuwait.They seized much of their equipment, cannons, and weapons, 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 movement 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 assumed power between 1765–1803. Abdul Aziz was more committed to Wahhabi teachings than his father and more daring and impulsive. He seized control of Riyadh in 1773 AD, and completed his control over Najd by overtaking Hail in 1787. After that, he directed his forces towards the coast of the Persian Gulf, specifically towards Al-Ahsa since it is economically rich, a number of military attacks were launched against the city between 1780–1795 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 several cruel 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). In 1770 AD, the Sharif of Mecca wrote to the Sublime Porte  explaining the Wahhabis' danger and demanding they be subjected to persecution and crushed. 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 weapons, and led by his brother, Abdul Aziz bin Musaed, to fight the House of Saud. Then Sharif Ghalib joined the campaign to consolidate a position for himself with the Ottoman Sultan, but the campaign was unable to achieve any success. So the campaign 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 to the Sublime Porte against the Wahhabi expansion continued to increase, as they took control of Najd and most of Al-Ahsa and began expanding northward towards southern Iraq. After Sharif Ghalib’s correspondences, the governor of the Levant, Ahmed Pasha Al-Jazzar, sent a letter dated 9 Rabi' al-Thani 1208 AH/1797 AD warning the Sublime Porte of the seriousness of the situation. Accordingly, a consultation council met in Istanbul to discuss the issue. Due to the lack of resourcefulness of the council, it decided to assign Sulayman Pasha the great, the governor of Baghdad, to deal with the issue, considering his geographical closeness to Najd. So the governor sent a special committee to Najd to survey 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 its peak, and that delegations from Yemen and other destinations came to him every day declaring allegiance to him in Najd. The committee was able to portray the situation to Sulayman Pasha, who in turn delivered the message to the Sublime Porte, the results of the investigations had revealed that the problem can no longer be tolerated.

The Sublime Porte sent to Sulayman Pasha asking him to intervene and march to Diriyah to address the dangerous situation, because he is the closest to that region, but it seems that Sulayman Pasha was unwilling to intervene, and many correspondences took place between him and the Sublime Porte during the years (1210/1211 AH - 1795/1796 AD) urging him to fight the Wahhabis, yet he would stall and give various excuses, including his old age and his ailing health. In addition to the claim 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 monitoring the situation 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 the desert quickly.

This was Thuwaini Al-Saadoun's oppritunity to spring to action. Thuwaini at the time was under house arrest by Sulayman Pasha for past dissenting actions. Thuwaini offered Sulayman Pasha to volunteer to fight the Wahhabis in exchange of having his sheikhdom of Al-Muntafiq tribe returned to him. Sulayman Pasha agreed and bestowed him the sheikhdom agai, as well as provide him with fifty thousand qurush, 100 Camels,100 horses and 100 armor. Thuwaini distributed these gift before leaving Baghdad.

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,the Al-Muntafiq tribes, the people of Al-Zubayr, Basra and surrounding towns, and the entire Dhafeer tribe answered his call and mobilized. He spent three months fully equipping his forces with weapons and ammunition, then he marched with them to fight the Wahhabis and clashed and defeated some of them they encountered on the way, then seized from them about one hundred thousand sheep, which he 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. Thuwaini wrote about this to Sulayman Pasha 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. Thuwaini also 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 retreated in fear 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, but 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 marched 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 inn the lands of Bani Khalid to prevent Thuwaini’s campaign from benefiting from them.

Assassination of Thuwaini Al-Saadoun and end of the campaign
When the army was busy setting up camp 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 was separated from his entourage, and approaching the tent of Muhammad Al-Arayer, and a slave mamluk of Bani Khalid named “Tais” ambushed him. Tais had a hook in his hand that had a light spear in it, so he stabbed him from behind, between his shoulders, the other point of the spear came out of his chest.0 Thuwaini died instantly, and Tuais was killed shortly thereafter. The body of Sheikh Thuwaini was carried to his tent, and word spread among the leaders of Al-Muntafiq tribes that he was injured and began sending him 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 Tais is a believer of Wahhabi ideology, and was prepared and recruited for this mission.

When the news of Thuwaini’s death became public, Barak al-Sardah slipped away with Bani Khalid and joined the army of Hassan bin Mishari. They had had previous correspondences 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 lose influence to them. Disorder and lack of organization began to spread among the ranks of the campaign, which was broke down to smaller units. Nasser, Thuwaini’s brother, and some of those with him tried to maintain order, but everyone dispersed around him. The campaign began to withdraw north without proper communication 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, though they did not manage to capture horses besides a few.

After the failure of the campaign
The impact of the assassination of Sheikh Thuwaini Al-Saadoun was significant in Baghdad and the Sublime Porte. In Baghdad, his death caused panic and anxiety because the state depended on his skills for repelling the Wahhabi advancement towards Iraq. Nasser bin Abdullah, Thuwaini’s brother, tried to maintain the remnants of the army, as he wanted continue the campaign, but 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 he had posed a danger to them, and the disintegration of his army gave a boost to morale. As a result, 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, but the campgain failed as it ended in a weak truce between the two sides.