Abdulaziz bin Mutaib Al Rashid
Emir of Jabal Shammar
Abdulaziz bin Mutaib Al Rashid (1870–12 April 1906), better known as Ibn Rashid, was the Emir of Jabal Shammar from 1897 to 1906. Abdulaziz bin Mutaib was born in 1870. He was the son of the third Rashidi emir, Mutaib bin Abdullah, and was adopted by his uncle Muhammed, the fifth emir who made Abdulaziz his heir. Abd al-Aziz ibn Mitab inherited the Emir's throne of Jebel Shammar at the age of thirty after the death of his childless uncle, Emir Muhammad ibn Abdallah, in 1897. According to contemporaries, the new emir was "a courageous warrior and adventurer", "who easily gave in to anger and was hasty in his decisions", he was "better with a saber than with politics, acting first, thinking later". His ten-year reign resulted in the loss of most of the inheritance he had received from Muhammad ibn Abdallah. In the fall of 1898, Emir Abd al-Aziz al-Rashid visited Najd. The local nobles and ulema expressed signs of loyalty to the new sovereign, although dissatisfaction with the Shammar rule was growing. He then raided against the Dawasir tribe and returned with booty. The following year the Emir of Jebel Shammar marched on Kuwait, where he defeated the local forces and their Muntafi allies and pursued them all the way to the Euphrates. In late 1900 and early 1901, the Sheikh of Kuwait, Mubarak Al Sabah, in alliance with the former Emir of Nejd Abdurrahman Al Saud and with the invisible support of Britain, invaded Jebel Shammar in the Qasim area. Kuwaiti troops captured
Riyadh and moved on Hail, the capital of Jebel Shammar. Abd al-Aziz Al Rashid, who had received arms aid from the Turks, was able to mobilize his troops and defeated the Kuwaiti-Saudi army at the Al-Sarif oasis in February-March 1901. At this time, the young Saudi prince Abd al-Aziz, son of Abdurrahman Al Saud, unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Riyadh kasbah, defended by the Shammar governor Ajlan ibn Mohammed. Upon learning of the defeat at Al-Sarif, Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdurrahman hastily lifted the siege and retreated to Kuwait. Emir of Jebel Shammar Abd al-Aziz, having expelled the invaders, massacred the inhabitants of Buraydah and other towns of Qasim for their support of the Kuwaiti-Saudi troops, and in Riyadh sent the military commander Salim ibn Subhan, famous for his cruelty, to punish the townspeople for their sympathies for the Saudis. After gaining Turkish support, Abd al-Aziz ibn Mitab decided to retaliate against Kuwait and laid siege to Al-Jahra, a Kuwaiti village on the Persian Gulf, but a British warship approaching Al-Jahra shelled the Shammar military camp, and large shipments of British arms began to arrive in Kuwait. The British chargé d'affaires at the Istanbul court protested to the Ottoman sultan about Ibn Mitab's actions and after two to three weeks of unsuccessful siege, Abd al-Aziz retreated to Hail by order of the sultan. In January 1902, the young Saudi prince Abd al-Aziz Al Saud took possession of Riyadh and re-established an independent Wahhabi state. Abd al-Aziz ibn Mitab, preoccupied with the war with Kuwait, did not immediately appreciate the seriousness of this defeat. The Saudis quickly strengthened and extended their power to the areas south of Qasim, and in 1904 they marched deep into the area and captured Anayza and Buraydah. A long struggle for supremacy in Arabia began between the Saudis and the Rashidids. The Ottoman authorities sent eight battalions of regular troops to help Abd al-Aziz. Despite this, he was defeated by the Saudis at the battle of al-Buqayriyah and then defeated again at Shunana. In April 1906, Abd al-Aziz Al Rashid suffered a total defeat at Qasim and fell in battle. The new emir of Jebel Shammar was his eldest son Mitab II, who concluded a peace treaty with the Saudis, recognizing all their conquests south of Qasim.
The tribe of Shammar is a tribal Arab Qahtanite confederation, descended from the Tayy, which migrated into the northern Arabian Peninsula from Yemen in the second century. It is the largest branch of the Tayy, and one of the largest and most influential Arab tribes. The historical and traditional seat of the tribe's leadership is in the city of Haʼil in what was the Emirate of Jabal Shammar in what is now Saudi Arabia. In its "golden age", around 1850, the Shammar ruled much of central and northern Arabia from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area of Upper Mesopotamia. One of the early famous figures from the tribe was the legendary Hatim Al-Ta'i (Hatim of Tayy; died 578), a Christian Arab renowned for generosity and hospitality who figured in the One Thousand and One Nights. The early Islamic historical sources report that his son, Adi ibn Hatim, whom they sometimes refer to as the "king" of Tayy, converted to Islam before Muhammad's death. Another figure from Tayy during this period was Zayd al-Khayr, a prominent member of Tayy who is said to have led Tayy's delegation to Muhammad accepting Islam. During the civil war that tore apart the Second Saudi State in the late 19th century, the emirs of Ha'il, from the house of Al Rashid, intervened and gradually took control of much of the Saudi realm, finally taking the Saudi capital Riyadh in 1895 and expelling the Saudi leaders to Kuwait. The Bedouin Shammari tribesmen provided the majority of the Al Rashid's military support.
The Rashidi dynasty, also called Al Rashid or the House of Rashid, was a historic Arabian House or dynasty that existed in the Arabian Peninsula between 1836 and 1921. Its members were rulers of the Emirate of Ha'il and the most formidable enemies of the House of Saud, rulers of the Emirate of Nejd. They were centered in Ha'il, a city in northern Najd that derived its wealth from being on the route of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and was also a commercial center. The rulers of Ha'il were the sons of Abdullah bin Rashid, founder of the dynasty. The Rashidi dynasty derived their name from their forebear Abdullah bin Ali Al Rashid, the first emir, who began the establishment of the Emirate of Ha'il. The Rashidi emirs co-operated closely with the Ottoman Empire. However, that co-operation became problematic as the Ottoman Empire lost popularity. In 1890, Al Rashid occupied Riyadh and then defeated the Saudi tribes, who fled into exile, first to Bahrain, then to Qatar, and finally to Kuwait. As with many other Arab ruling dynasties, the lack of an accepted rule of succession was a recurrent problem for the Rashidi. The internal dispute normally centered on whether succession to the position of emir should be horizontal (to a brother) or vertical (to a son) and often were resolved violently. Six Rashidi leaders died
violently in the last years of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the Rashidi still ruled and fought together during the Saudi–Rashidi Wars. During the first two decades of the 20th century, the Arabian Peninsula saw a long-running series of wars as the Saudis and their allies sought to unite the peninsula under their rule. By 1921, Ha'il was captured by Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Awards: Sash and star of the Order of the Medjidie.
