Note 1 — Chapter IV · —THE COST OF INTEMPERANCE.
Reading edition
“Abd el Wahab.” The founder of a recent Mohammedan sect now dominant throughout the greater part of Arabia. He was the son of an Arab chief, and was born about the end of the seventeenth century. He was highly educated, and conceived the idea of restoring in its primitive shape the ruined structure of Islam. The Koran had fallen into abeyance, and their religion was little else than a round of external ceremonies. He gained a numerous following in his efforts to revive the old zeal in their religion. The sect took the name of the Wa-haˈbis, or the Wa-haˈbites.