Amidst the ever-shifting loyalties of the fiercely independent bedouin tribesmen there was only one force that could bring unity. It was the force that had enabled the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to extend his influence over the whole of Arabia some 13 centuries before; it was the same force that had enabled Muhammad bin Saud and Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab to lay the first foundations for the rule of the House of Saud in the 18th century. It was Islam.

Ibn Saud combined his plan to encourage the bedouin to settle in agricultural communities with a concerted effort to revive the puritanical form of Islam first promulgated by Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab and his own ancestor.

From this initiative was to emerge the Ikhwan, a community of devout, puritanical Muslim warriors who would willingly give their lives, if need be, for their faith and their leader.

In this enterprise, the interests of Ibn Saud and those of the Ulema (learned religious scholars and guardians of the people's conscience) coincided. It was difficult to exercise control, whether temporal or spiritual, on ever-moving tribesmen. If the bedouin could be persuaded to adopt a more settled mode of existence, it would be possible to develop social and political structures which could endure. It would be possible to achieve a degree of unity which the life of the nomad, with no commitment to any particular place and with ever-shifting loyalties, precluded.

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