was a part of Egypt in the late nineteenth century. In 1881, a man "calling himself al Mahdi had roused a revolution in the Sudan" (Al Sayyid, 1968, 2). His followers considered al Mahdi to be a holy man, with a religious reform movement similar to that of Wahhabi in Arabia. The Wahhabi analogy was important to the British, because cooperation between the Wahhabi religious reform move ment and indigenous secular forces had created widespread poli tical instability in Arabia.
In the tenth century, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed declared himself as Sharif of Mecca. This individual and his successors maintained some degree of control over the region of 3
the Arabian Peninsula until the early years of the twentieth century, although these Sharifs were often, themselves, under the control of foreign rulers. For most of the years following the establishment of the sharifate, Egypt exercised control over the sharif, and, after Egypt became a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, the sharifate was effectively under the control of that empire.
The modern state of Saudi Arabia, however, is the product of much earlier events. The rise of Saudi Arabia as a state began in the mid 1700s, when a three phase development began. In 1745, ibn Abd al Wahhab, from whom Wahhabism took its name, settled in Diriyah, where he was received favorably by the ruler of that area, Muhammad ibn Sa`ud. This union of thought and men resulted in the beginning of the first phase of the development of the Arabian nation. During the seventy odd years which followed, the House of Sa`ud expanded its control and influence over wider segments of the Arabian peninsula; however, in 1816, Diriyah was captured by Egypt and the first phase of development ended. Both Britain and Egypt desired to preclude the development of a similar situation in the Sudan involving al Mahdi.
Cromer (1916, 345) recognized that, as British Counsel General, he would be m...