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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
The ulama, or Islamic religious leaders, served a unique role
by providing religious legitimacy for Saudi rule. Except for
Iran, where the ulama participated directly in government, Saudi
Arabia was the only Muslim country in which the ulama constituted
such an influential political force. The kingdom's ulama included
religious scholars, qadis (judges), lawyers, seminary teachers,
and the prayer leaders (imams) of the mosques. As a group, the
ulama and their families included an estimated 7,000 to 10,000
persons. However, only the thirty to forty most senior scholars
among them exercised substantive political influence. These
prominent clergy constituted the members of the Council of Senior
Ulama, an official body created by Faisal in 1971 to serve as a
forum for regular consultation between the monarch and the
religious establishment. Fahd continued the precedent set by
Faisal and Khalid of meeting weekly with Council of Senior Ulama
members who resided in Riyadh.
The Council of Senior Ulama had a symbiotic relationship with
the Saudi government. In return for official recognition of their
special religious authority, the leading ulama provided tacit
approval and, when requested, public sanction for potentially
controversial policies. Because Saudi kings esteemed their
Islamic credentials as custodians of the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina, they considered ulama support critical. For example, in
1979 members of the Council of Senior Ulama signed the religious
edict (fatwa) that sanctioned the use of force to subdue
armed dissidents who had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca,
Islam's holiest shrine. In 1990 the decision to invite thousands
of United States military personnel to set up bases in the
northeastern part of the country alarmed some devout Muslims who
believed that the presence of so many non-Muslims on Saudi soil
violated the sanctity of the holy land. Fahd defused such
concerns by obtaining ulama approval for the United States
military presence.
Historically, the royal family maintained close ties with the
ulama, especially with members of the Al ash Shaykh. The Al ash
Shaykh included the several hundred direct male descendants of
the eighteenth-century religious reformer Abd al Wahhab. The Al
Saud dynastic founder, Muhammad ibn Saud, had married a daughter
of Abd al Wahhab, and subsequent intermarriage between the two
families reinforced their political alliance. The mother of King
Faisal, for example, was the daughter of an Al ash Shaykh qadi
who was a direct descendant of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab. The
preeminence of the Al ash Shaykh thus derived not only from its
reputation for religious erudition but also from its position as
part of the country's ruling elite. In 1992 most of the Al ash
Shaykh men were not members of the clergy but held key positions
in government, education, the security services, the armed
forces, and private business. Nevertheless, the Al ash Shaykh
ulama dominated the kingdom's influential clerical institutions
such as the Council of Senior Ulama, the Higher Council of Qadis,
and the Administration of Scientific Study, Legal Opinions,
Islamic Propagation, and Guidance. In addition, the most senior
religious office, the grand mufti (chief judge), was
traditionally filled by a member of Al ash Shaykh.
Not all of the kingdom's ulama belonged to the Al ash Shaykh.
Ulama from less prominent families tended to criticize, usually
privately, the senior clergy, especially after 1975. The increase
in numbers of students in seminaries led to a larger number of
clergy willing to challenge the senior ulama's role and to
criticize their support of government policies. In December 1992,
a group of ulama associated with the conservative Salafi
religious trend signed a public letter criticizing King Fahd
personally for failing to understand that the clergy had a
religious duty to advise all believers--including the royal
family--of their obligation to abide by God's principles. This
unprecedented action caused a major stir in Saudi Arabia. The
king rebuked the ulama establishment and dismissed several senior
clergy from their official positions.
Data as of December 1992
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