Nigeria, Feb. 18 -- In the early 19th century, barely a decade after the passing of the Shaikh, Saudi-Wahhabi armies stormed the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala, massacred its inhabitants, and looted the shrine of Imam al-Husain.

This is well-documented by Uthman ibn Abdalla ibn Bishr in his book Unwan al-Majd Ta'rikh an-Najd (The Title of Glory in the History of the Najd), a primary source of early Saudi history. He was a Najdi insider who narrated from a perspective of believers fighting infidels.

The attack, in 1802, was not simply an atrocity; it was an announcement. A new kind of state had been born in Arabia - one that fused religious absolutism with political ambition, declaring much of the Muslim world heretical and in need of savi...