Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Wahābi
Wahābi.— The Wahābis are a sect of Muslim revivalists founded by Muhammad ibn ' Abdu'l Wahhāb, who was born in A.D. 1691. Wahābyism has been defined as the Puritanism of Islam, "hated by the so-called orthodox Musalmāns, as the Lutherans were hated by Leo, and the Covenanters by Claverhouse."*[1] It is recorded, in the Manual of North Arcot (1895), that since 1806 (the year of the Vellore mutiny) "two alarms have been raised in the district, both at Vellore, which is largely inhabited by Muhammadans. The last alarm occurred in 1869. Early in May of that year, anonymous petitions were received by the Joint Magistrate and the Assistant Superintendent of Police, stating that the Wahābi Muhammadans of Vellore were in league against Government, and had arranged a plot for the massacre of all the European residents, in which the 28th Regiment of Native Infantry, then stationed at Vellore, was deeply implicated. An East Indian sub-ordinate of the Public Works Department also reported that he had overheard a Muhammadan munshi of the Small Cause Court speaking to a shopman of his faith about the seditious preaching of a certain Khāzi. The munshi was sent for, and described what he said had occurred in a certain mosque, where sedition had been openly advocated by a Wahābi missionary who had recently arrived from Hyderabad, as well as by others." It appeared, from the investigations of the Inspector-General of Police, that the whole affair had been nothing more than a conspiracy among the orthodox Muhammadans to arouse alarm regarding the designs of the Wahābis, and to prevent these sectarians from frequenting their mosques.
- ↑ * Ind. Ant., X, 1881, p. 69.