Ikhwān summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Ikhwān.

Ikhwān , (Arabic: “Brethren”) Religious and military brotherhood that helped Ibn Saʿūd unite the Arabian Peninsula. First organized in 1912, its members were settled in colonies around oases in an effort to break down tribal loyalties and force the Bedouin to abandon their nomadic way of life. They also embraced the arch-traditionalist Islamic principles of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. From 1919 they won many victories in Arabia and Iraq, with conquests including Mecca and Medina. By 1926 the Ikhwān were becoming uncontrollable, attacking Ibn Saʿūd for innovations such as telephones and automobiles. They staged a bloody revolt, which was not put down until 1930, and then only with British help. Members who had remained loyal were eventually absorbed into the National Guard of Saudi Arabia.

history of Arabia Summary

History of Arabia, history of the region from prehistoric times to the present. Sometime after the rise of Islam in the first quarter of the 7th century ce and the emergence of the Arabian Muslims as the founders of one of the great empires of history, the name ʿArab came to be used by these

Arabia Summary

Arabia, peninsular region, together with offshore islands, located in the extreme southwestern corner of Asia. The Arabian Peninsula is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and southwest, the Gulf of Aden on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south and southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian

Saudi Arabia Summary

Saudi Arabia, arid, sparsely populated kingdom of the Middle East that in the 20th century became one of the world’s largest oil-producing countries in terms of output. It is ruled by the Saud family, which in the 18th century entered an alliance with the austere and conservative Wahhābī Islamic

Islam Summary

Islam, major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century ce. The Arabic term islām, literally “surrender,” illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer (called a Muslim, from the active particle of islām) accepts surrender to the will of