Int. J. Middle East Stud. 18 (1986), 405-425 Printed in the United States of America David Commins RELIGIOUS REFORMERS AND ARABISTS I N DAMASCUS, 1885-1914 INTRODUCTION The literature on the genesis of Arab nationalism in Syria often mentions a group of religious reformers who influenced the first generation of Arab nation- alists.' The relationship between reformers and nationalists, however, has not been explored, perhaps because sources mention the influence of liberal sheikhs without suggesting where the sheikhs came from or what they signified. This study traces the social origins and ideological import of the religious reform movement in Damascus, a hitherto neglected phenomenon.' The relationship between reformers and Arabists is also discussed so as to shed new light on the beginnings of Arab nationalism and its significance in late Ottoman Syria. The religious reform movement evolved in Damascus as Muslims grappled with new circumstances which had arisen from three interrelated historical developments: the reorientation of Syria's economy; the projection of European power into the region; and the Tanzimat reforms. The religious reformers assimilated key slogans of the Tanzimat reformers-reason, science, and pro- gress-to their understanding of religion? They also stressed the paramount role of the Arabs in the Muslim community. Their appropriation of newly dominant values and their interest in the Arabs' history formed the basis of their associa- tion with the first generation of Damascenes to pass through secular state schools. Whereas the reformers all studied a traditional religious curriculum, the younger generation assimilated conceptions of Islam from the reformers while attending schools offering a modern curriculum. In the context of political developments in late Ottoman Syria, religious reformers and Arabists favored the restoration of the 1876 Ottoman constitution and during the constitutional period of 1908-1914, the Arab ethnic consciousness both groups had displayed earlier developed an explicitly political edge. The religious reformers' ideas, the Arabists' education, and both groups' aspirations and politics resemble the experiences of western intellectuals as described by Alvin Gouldner. ° He suggested that modern intellectuals comprise a "New Class" distinguished by "cultural" capital and a special set of interests. Gouldner suggested that their cultural capital consists of a command of a specialized discourse which only properly trained and qualified individuals 0 1986 Cambridge University Press 0020-74381861040405-21 $2.50 (cid:9) 406 David Commins "speak." He held that new classes emerge from public schools beyond the pale of religious institutions and therefore herald secularization. Members of the New Class value reason, modernity, science, and an ethic of professionalism. That ethic disposes them to criticize traditional elites as unqualified to lead society, especially when the old guard restricts New Class activity by imposing censorship and denying freedom of speech. A critical stance is transformed into political action when the old guard blocks the careers of New Class intellectuals, thus denying them the opportunity to utilize their cultural capital. Gouldner put forth these and other propositions about western intellectuals as a first step in formulating a general sociological theory of the New Class. While he discussed primarily secular intellectuals in industrial societies, some of his propositions fit the experiences of Syrian intellectuals, both secular and religious, and provide a scheme for viewing them in their social context. ECONOMICBACKGROUND Syria's integration into the European capitalist economy began in the 1830s when Egyptian rule (1832-1840) opened the country to the importation of European goods and promoted the cultivation of crops for export. During the next 20 years, Syria's economy underwent a reorientation from intraregional transit trade (between India and Egypt, Turkey and Yemen) and local artisanal production to export-import relations with Europe and cash crop agriculture.' These shifts in the economy affected sectarian relations. In general, non- Muslims prospered in the growing trade with Europe, while the Muslim trading and artisanal sectors suffered a decline. The non-Muslims took advantage of capitulatory treaties between the Ottoman Empire and several European states, treaties that enabled non-Muslims to obtain foreign "citizenship" and the commercial and legal advantages it entailed. For instance, non-Muslims paid lower tariffs on European imports than did their Muslim countrymen, and they enjoyed the favor of mixed commercial courts, comprised of European and Ottoman judges, whenever legal disputes arose between Muslims and non- Muslims.' EUROPEAN POWER, TANZIMAT REFORMS, AND THE RISE OF THE NEW CLASS The projection of European power into the Near East further vexed Muslims in Syria. In July 1860, a Druze-Maronite conflict in Lebanon spilled over into Damascus, where Muslims' resentment of the Christians' growing prosperity and improved status exploded in a massacre of Christians.' This event and the violence in Lebanon prompted European intervention. French troops landed in Lebanon and other powers sent warships to Lebanese waters. To placate European sentiment and establish imperial authority more firmly, the Ottoman authorities dealt harshly with the city's Muslims, executing and exiling leading notables. Developments in following years reinforced the sense of impotence gripping Damascus's Muslims, especially during the Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-78 when the empire's demise seemed imminent.' European powers inter- (cid:9) Reformers and Arabists in Damascus 407 vened to prevent the empire's collapse, but that hardly mitigated Muslims' awareness of their vulnerability. In response to Europe's military and economic encroachments, the Ottoman rulers had begun earlier in the century to reform the army and administration.' These reforms, known as the Tanzimat, entailed changes in the education of the empire's military and administrative elites. The reforms also introduced prac- tices, values, and ideas of European provenance: codification of laws; using uncluttered language in government correspondence; 10 and a stress on the study of modern sciences and the acquisition of technical skills. Men whose attitudes took shape in schools set up under the Tanzimat came to form a "New Class," a class of men whose fortunes hinged on their command of technical skills and their ability to apply them to obtain results on the battlefield and in the treasury. Because the sultans esteemed such men, their knowledge, or cultural capital, generated material rewards." Before the Tanzimat period (1839-1876), the ulama of Damascus dominated local judicial and educational institutions in addition to administering pious endowments (sing. wagf), articulating religious beliefs, and conducting religious practices. Between 1850 and the early 1880s, Damascus witnessed the establish- ment of its first judicial and educational institutions outside the domain of the ulama, who thereby lost their monopoly in those spheres." The new order implicitly devalued their cultural capital and shunted them off to the periphery of society. In the early 1880s Syrian ulama pondered their community's predica- ment in view of the unfavorable changes in the local economy, the superiority of European power, and the new internal threat posed by the Tanzimat reforms' secular thrust. RELIGIOUS REFORM A number of Damascene Muslims in touch with religious reform currents elsewhere came to believe that European power sprang from unity against Muslims and from exercising reason to improve material life." These Muslim thinkers, bent on defending their religion in the face of European power and Tanzimat secularism, posited the harmony of true Islam with reason, progress, and modernity. Citing the history of Islamic civilization and its former superi- ority, they held that Muslims' fortunes had declined because they had strayed from the correct practice of their religion. Muslims had to rediscover Islam in its original, pristine form, and that project required a return to the sources, the Qur'an and the Sunna (the normative practice of the Prophet)." Of course Damascene ulama had never neglected the Qur'an and the Sunna, but, according to the reformers, most ulama treated scripture as texts to be recited in a ritual affirmation of belief and of their reciters' status as the preservers of religion." A few ulama began to deal with scripture differently, selecting elements that proved Islam's rationality and stressed its message for believers to unite. The foremost religious reformer in Damascus, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, held that Islam was a rational religion: Islam calls on man to use reason; and whoever employs reason to study the natural world will grow (cid:9) 408 David Commins stronger in faith." Qasimi denounced the common practice of segregating worshippers according to legal schools because it divided believers and thereby violated Qur'anic injunctions for believers to unite." Qasirm and fellow reformers rejected from Islam practices and beliefs deviations that seemed to contradict reason and to sow disunity: Muslims should abandon emulation of legal rulings (taglid)because it validates corruptions of "true" religious practices and beliefs. In its place, Muslims should allow for independent judgment in legal matters (ijtihdd)." Muslim reformers engaged in elaborating this interpretation of Islam claimed to follow the way of the pious ancestors (al-salaf al-salih), hence we call them salafis." They witnessed the social marginalization ofthe ulama and ascribed it to the ulama's failure to teach and practice "true" Islam.' ° The salafis argued that Muslim society could progress under the guidance of enlightened rulers who heeded and employed rational, "true" ulama." In the context of late Ottoman Syria, salafism signified an attempt to reverse the marginalization of men with training in religious knowledge and to restore value to their stock of cultural capital by positing the compatibility of reason, progress, and Islam. To understand why certain ulama took up the salafi call, we must consider their position within the ulama corps of Damascus. The most influential ulama held salaried posts in religious courts-as chief jurisconsult (mufti), his deputies, and employees of the religious courts-and at the most prestigious mosque in Damascus, the Umayyad mosque, as preachers and teachers. Before the Tanzi- mat, these official ulama had come from the wealthiest ulama families, but with the shift in power from religious to secular institutions, the most affluent ulama began to train sons for the secular bureaucracy, from which accrued more privileges and advantages bestowing prestige and wealth. These ulama families blended into a nascent urban elite that based its power on absentee land- ownership and bureaucratic posts." Consequently, men of lesser status and means, though in no way poor, took over the top religious positions .'s By contrast, the "middle" ulama did not hold official religious posts, and they drew their income from the endowments of mosques where they worked as prayer leaders (sing. imam) and teachers. The majority of the ulama taught and preached at smaller shrines and mosques, and lived quite modestly. The salafis were middle ulama. Three of them worked as prayer leaders and teachers; one worked in the new secular educational institution; two gave instruction at religious schools; and one was a prayer leader in an army battalion. Their position outside the official Ottoman religious hierarchy meant that they had no vested interest in the practices of ulama with posts in courts and the Umayyad mosque. On the other hand, someone from a family of juris- consults, religious law court officials, or highly paid teachers would have opposed salafism because it rejected justifications for their status and stipends. The religious courts observed the authority of the four legal schools by sanction- ing emulation, which the salafis rejected. Teaching posts usually passed from father to son (another practice which the salafis scorned). As middle ulama, the salafis' social contacts included local notables, official ulama, and Turkish officials and officers. Through their intercourse with the latter they became (cid:9) Reformers and Arabists in Damascus 409 acquainted with the Young Turks and members of the Committee of Union and Progress, which worked for the restoration of the constitution suspended since 1878." The salafis faced challenges to their message from conservative ulama con- vinced that prevalent religious practices were correct, and from men who regarded religion as an obstacle to progress. Conservative ulama dominated official religious posts and vehemently opposed the salafis' critique of current religious practices and beliefs." The conservatives also realized that the ulama were gradually losing influence, and they intended to keep those sources of social authority they still possessed, namely, the religious law courts, religious schools, and endowments. Secularists posed the other challenge to the salafis' message." Graduates of the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut and of missionary schools throughout Syria constituted a group of journalists, writers, and professionals who promoted the spread of modern sciences and argued against the union of politics and religion. Most of these secularists lived in Beirut and Cairo, but Damascenes had access to their views in newspapers and journals smuggled into Syria." The secularists argued that science was the key to progress and this notion appealed to young men attending the government schools that opened in Damascus in the 1880s and 1890s. The salafis sensed that these youths, the first in Damascus to study a modern curriculum, might find the secularists' arguments about religion and politics compelling. Moreover, those arguments gained credi- bility from religious practices and beliefs that appeared to contradict reason. The salafis undertook to persuade these students and recent graduates that religion fully accorded with modernity, and that they should have pride in the rich cultural and scientific heritage of Arab-Islamic civilization. 29 The salafis suc- ceeded in attracting young men to study with them because they upheld the Arabs' special status among Muslim peoples, thereby expressing the younger Syrians' growing ethnic consciousness. Furthermore, the salafis favored the spread of modern education and a freer exercise of reason. That position merged their program with the young Syrians' "New Class" interests. The two salafis who most influenced the younger generation were Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (1866-1914) and Tahir al-Jaza'iri (1852-1920).3° The son of a religious scholar, Qasimi studied a traditional curriculum of texts, commentaries, and glosses on religious subjects and Arabic. He became prayer leader at a minor mosque in 1886, and at that time he began to frequent the circles of a few liberal ulama in touch with Muhammad `Abduh, the renowned Egyptian reformer." By 1895, Qasimi had emerged as a leading salafi in Damascus. In January 1896, some conservative ulama succeeded in instigating local and Ottoman officials against Jamal al-Din by insinuating that a study circle Qasimi had recently founded harbored a secret political agenda. The Ottoman governor charged the jurisconsult with the task of interrogating Qasimi and his group. The jurisconsult missed the political angle of the incident and he harangued Qasimi for proclaim- ing ijtihad, which nearly all ulama in Damascus considered forbidden, and for wanting to establish a new legal school (madhhab). The Ottoman governor did not concern himself with such matters and was satisfied to learn that the group (cid:9) 410 David Commins had no political aims. As a result he acquitted Qasim7i and his associates. While the incident brought him a measure of celebrity he had not enjoyed before, it did not vindicate salafismper se." Tahir al-Jaza'irli studied a customary religious curriculum with his father, a religious scholar. He also attended a government primary school where some modern subjects and Turkish were taught. After Jaza'iff's father died in 1868, a liberal sheikh took charge of Tahir's education and influenced his outlook by imparting an aversion to ritual innovations (sing. bid `a) and rigid thinking.14 Tahir's command of Turkish enabled him to become acquainted with Turkish officials." In 1879, one of them recommended him to the governor, the famous reformer Midhat Pasha, to implement plans for improving Muslim schools. 16 Jaza'iff helped found a private benevolent society to solicit donations from wealthy Muslims for the schools project. In the early 1880s, Tahir played a leading role in opening schools for Muslim children, designing curriculum, and writing texts on arithmetic, grammar, and Islamic doctrine. THE ARABISTS In the early 1890s, Jaza'irT frequently met with a group of young men (born between 1876 and 1880) studying in the new government schools. Together with other older reformers they formed a group called the senior circle (al-halga al-kabara). The circle included Muhammad Kurd `AIT, ShukrT al-`Asali, `Abd al-Wahhab al-Inklizi, SalTm al-Jaza'TrT, and `Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar." The trio of `Asali, Ink1Tz1, and Salim al-Jaza'irT, Tahir's nephew, attended the government secondary school that opened in 1893, Maktab `Anbar." They used to meet with Sheikh Tahir to discuss the sciences they were learning in school, Arab history, moral and religious reform, and European ideas and inventions.'° The senior circle harbored constitutional sentiments evident in its contacts with Young Turk officers, who were clandestinely organizing against Sultan Abdulhamid. Around 1895, Salim al-Jaza'irT, Inklizi, and a young officer named As'ad Darwish al-Tarabulsi formed a secret political group in touch with the Young Turks.4` The following year cAsa1T, Ink1TZT, and Jaza'irT graduated from Maktab `Anbar and went to Istanbul to attend the imperial civilian and military colleges (mulkiye mektebT and harbiye mektebT), the breeding grounds of the Young Turks. While members of the senior circle were studying in Istanbul and launching their careers, Tahir al-Jaza'irT was meeting with students about 10 years younger than his first group. Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, Salah al-DTn al-Q5simli, Salih Qanbaz, LutfT al-Haffar, `Arif al-ShihabT, and `Uthman Mardam-Beg were all born between 1886 and 1892, and together they formed the junior circle (al-halga al-saghira).'Z Most of them attended Maktab `Anbar, where they met between 1902 and 1905. Their secondary school experiences, both educational and social, played an important role in shaping their attitudes. Maktab `Anbar's curriculum included religious subjects, social sciences, physi- cal sciences, languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and French, and (cid:9) Reformers and Arabists in Damascus 41 1 composition of government correspondence .43 The school's principal and all but two of its teachers were Turks, including the Arabic teacher. While Syrian youths eagerly seized the opportunity to master Turkish and thereby enhance their prospects for a career in the Ottoman bureaucracy, they resented the preponderance of Turks at school. Students divided into cliques along ethnic lines between Turks and Arabs, the former being children of government workers. In 1904, ethnic rivalry grew more tense and fights broke out between Turkish and Arab students. In the meantime the junior circle had formed in 1903 and begun to frequent the senior circle's informal discussions. A former member of the junior circle later wrote that the salons covered such topics as religious reform, the adoption of western inventions and methods that seemed to underlie power and progress, and constitutional government. In 1906,junior circle members graduated from Maktab `Anbar and most of them went to Istanbul for higher studies. In the imperial capital, they were shocked to meet fellow Arab students who were not only unfamiliar with the Arab cultural heritage but also keen to adopt Turkish manners.46 Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, `Arif al-Shihahi, and two other Arab students met in December to form the Arab Renaissance Society (Jam `iyyat al-nahda al-`arabiyya), by which they sought to revive Arab culture and to achieve progress for the Arab people. They met in their rooms one night a week to read classic Arabic works because they believed that language formed the basis of a national revival and progress. In June 1907, Khatib wrote to Salah al-Din al-Qasimi, the salafi Jamal al-Din's younger brother, and Lutfi al-Haffar to suggest that they form a branch of the society. Qasimi and Haffar responded to the idea enthusiastically and began to meet twice a week with other peers. Later that summer the Istanbul members returned to Damascus for school vacation and met with members of the Damascus branch. They decided to establish the Society's headquarters there and in August they held a formal banquet at which members gave lectures on religious reform, Arabic, science, and education: all subjects that the salafis promoted. That the Arabists shared with the salafis common interests, ideas, and atti- tudes is apparent in Salah al-Din al-Qasimi's lectures and articles." He asserted that society needs scholars and scientists to achieve progress and that therefore the authorities must facilitate education in Syria by changing the language of instruction from Turkish to Arabic. He also insisted on allowing freedom of expression and on ending the persecution of free thinkers. Salah al-Din assimi- lated the salafi opinion that society can benefit from knowledge only when right morals guarantee the just distribution of the fruits of science. The salafis and Arabists also shared the idea that only ulama, teachers, scientists, and profes- sionals could lead society to progress. Both groups criticized incompetent holders of official posts for their failure to maintain professional standards. Like the salafis, Salah al-Din and his peers called for unity, which along with knowledge and virtue supposedly underpins progress. Because the Arabists lived in an empire composed of numerous ethnic groups, their interest in Arab (cid:9) 412 David Commins cultural revival complicated the issue of unity. They tried to reconcile Arab national sentiment with loyalty to the empire, yet they resented what they perceived as Turks' affronts to Arab dignity. The salafis and the Arabists shared a general orientation toward social and political problems, but differences in education (religious subjects versus modern sciences and European languages) produced divergent emphases. For example, positivist themes pervade Salah al-Din al-Qasimi's articles. He wrote that science had transcended the former state of knowledge based on conjecture and that knowledge now rested on observation and experiment. Furthermore, he believed that the same laws of evolution that govern nature-adaptation and survival of the fittest-operate in society. Salah al-Din most concisely expressed his genera- tion's commitment to combining the Islamic heritage and modern thought when he wrote that both the Qur'an and positive law sanction a constitutional government. The Arabists bear a striking resemblance to modern intellectuals as Gouldner described them. They all attended secular schools. They claimed that scientists and intellectuals should play a leading role in society because of their superior knowledge. Their call for freedom of thought likewise typifies New Class ideas. The Arabists favored a constitutional government because they thought that as long as power remained with men like Sultan Abdulhamid and the locally dominant landholding-bureaucratic elite, they would not cash in on their invest- ment in education because their career hopes hinged on a policy of rewarding talent. The older Arabists, such as `Asali, Inklizi, and Jaza'iri, made their careers in the civilian administration and the army, but Sultan Abdulhamid denied them freedom of expression. Furthermore, their fortunes depended on "corrupt" men surrounding the Sultan, not "qualified" men like themselves. When the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), itself partly composed of New Class Turks, succeeded in restoring the constitution, the Syrian New Class thought halcyon days had finally come.48 They had not reckoned, however, on the Turkish New Class's monopolization of posts that followed. When the CUP disappointed the Syrian New Class, the latter's ethnic interests, whetted by the salafis, became manifest in the movement for decentralizing administration, which demanded the arabization of education and administration in Syria. Like intellectuals in western Europe and North America, Syrian intellectuals were alienated by career blockage and driven into political opposition. A paradox exists in that most of the Arabists came from the landholding- bureaucratic class that dominated local posts. While that is true, they hailed from less wealthy branches of the leading families, and consequently fared poorly in the competition for posts which went to the highest bidder, that is, men with the greatest material, not cultural, capital s° Moreover, their education endowed them with values different from those of their elders in the same social class. The salafis' role in fostering the emergence of the New Class presents another paradox. They each had a traditional upbringing and religious education, yet they embraced ideas characteristic of modern intellectuals. They inherited the notion of a leadership role for the possessors of knowledge, the ulama, from the (cid:9) Reformers and Arabists in Damascus 413 Islamic intellectual tradition. The Tanzimat reformers' assertion of reason and science, and the salafis' conviction that these were the forces behind European power, led the latter to espouse the union of reason, science, and progress under the banner of Islam. In the vocabulary of religious thinkers that meant reviving ijtihad to allow for legal and social reforms. The salafis used ijtihad to connote free thought, with certain restrictions, but far fewer than in current religious discourse. SALAFIS, ARABISTS, AND POLITICS The practical side of the salafi-Arabist venture took shape in the Arab Renaissance Society's educational program, and in their joint support for, first, the constitutional movement, and then, the decentralist movement and parties. , The CUP-backed military mutiny in Macedonia in July 1908 led to the restoration of the 1876 Ottoman constitution on July 24. When news of the restoration came to Damascus, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi expressed his delight by writing in his diary on the coincidence of "the freedom of America on July 4, the freedom on France on July 14, and the freedom of the Ottoman Empire on July s' 24." During the first two weeks of August, the CUP, which had taken charge in Damascus, organized popular demonstrations. The Arab Renaissance Society took advantage of the realignment of forces in Damascus to hold its first public meeting, at which members gave speeches declaring support for the new regime." The official proclamation of the constitution came on August 13, and that evening Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi attended a private celebration at the home of Salim al-Kuzbari, a prominent sheikh. Kuzbari invited major ulama and notables of Damascus as well as the local representative of the CUP, As'ad Bey Darwish, the comrade of `Asali, Inklizi, and Jaza'iri. At the party, `Abd al-Rahman al-Yusuf, a wealthy notable, stood to pledge his support to the constitution and the CUP. Then Jama1 al-Din's brother, Qasim, delivered a speech penned by the salafi, in which he demonstrated the constitution's consistency with Islamic principles.14 He stated that the constitution is like a branch of jurisprudence (fiqh) derived by ijtihad from the Qur'an, the Sunna, consensus (ijma'), and analogy (giyas). Citing classical authorities, he added that the general principle of public interest (maslaha)underlies all religious rulings, and since the constitu- tion guarantees the public interest, it is consonant with religion. Qasimi's speech also praised the demise of tyranny under which freedom-loving men had suffered exile, prison, and persecution. During those first two weeks of August, the salafis and Arabists reveled in the change of the political climate. The CUP held power in Damascus and the whole empire, and Syrian liberals thought a new age of freedom had dawned. When the CUP dictated orders to the governor of Syria to dismiss officials known for their loyalty to Sultan Abdfilhamid, the salafi-Arabist camp was jubilant." When the government announced that parliamentary elections would take place in November, members of the senior circle decided to run for office." The liberals' optimism continued to swell as the dismissal of corrupt officials begun in August continued, so that by early October they included six district heads, the (cid:9) 414 David Commins secretary of the religious court, the head of the administrative council (Muham- mad Fawzi al-`Azm, a very wealthy notable), and 30 minor officials." On the other hand the CUP's measures led disgruntled former officials to side with conservative ulama against the new regime." The ulama, agitated on the issue of removing the veil, accused CUP members of failing to observe the Ramadan fast and of seeking to abolish religion." Opponents of the new regime resented As'ad Bey Darwish, the leading figure in the local CUP and chief of police. It seems that a pasha from a prestigious family (perhaps Muhammad al-Fawzf al-`Azm) aspired to regain power and that he plotted with some conservative ulama to provoke an outbreak against the CUP. The discontents had to proceed carefully, though, because the CUP controlled the army. The opposition found a chance to act when the famous salafi Rashid Rida came to Damascus during his tour of Lebanon and Syria in the fall of 1908. On Thursday evening, October 22, Rida arrived at Damascus's train station, where Qasimi, `Abd al-Razzaq al-Bitar (the senior salafi in Damascus), and `Abd al-Rahman al-Yusuf had gathered to greet him.'° Qasimi rode with Rida in a carriage to `Uthman al-`Aim's home, where Rida stayed. The following day at the Umayyad mosque, Rida gave a lesson in which he urged his listeners to strive for progress by learning practical skills and sciences and by adhering to their religion's true teachings. When he finished, the notables and ulama in attendance insisted he speak again the next day. While Rida spent the evening with Qasimi, Bitar, Yusuf, and other friends, the CUP's opponents met. The conspirators thought Rida's next lesson might offer an opportunity to strike at the CUP and its salafi allies. One of the plotters approached Sheikh Salih al-Tunisi, who had recently arrived in Damascus from Tunisia via Istanbul. Five years before, Tunis! had angrily confronted the famous Egyptian reformer Muhammad `Abduh for his "Wahhabism" when `Abduh visited Tunis. Sheikh Salih therefore suited the task the plotters had in mind. (Rida claimed that they promised to compensate Tunisi for a stipend he had recently lost.)" The next day, October 24, Rida spent the afternoon at Qasimi's home looking over manuscripts of exegeses of the Qur'an in his host's library." Then they went to the Umayyad mosque for Rida to give his lesson." Before a very large audience he again called for combining Islam and science to attain prosperity and he proposed ways to simplify religious instruction for ordinary Muslims. In the course of his lesson, Rida stated that the popular practice of supplicating saints constituted idolatry (shirk). At that point Salih al-Tunisi approached and interrupted Rida, thus causing some commotion. After Rida quieted the audi- ence, Tunisi spoke in defense of tomb visits, of seeking saints' intercession, and belief in their miracles. He warned against anyone who forbids those practices, such as the Wahhabis. Rida replied that his lesson had nothing to do with those issues. He reiterated the purpose of the lesson and tried to deflect the charge of Wahhabism. Then Sheikh `Abd al-Qadir al-Khatib rose and spoke against Wahhabism, alluding to Rida. `Uthman al-`Azm stood up and said there was no point in arguing controversial issues in this setting (with commoners in attendance), and anyone who would like to debate Rida could come to `Aim's home that evening. `Azm then told Rida he had better cut his lesson short and leave because the