The Saudi family allied to Wahhabi Ulama. for much of the 19th century their fortunes had fluctuated and the end of the century found the Saudi house in exile in Kuwait. then the family. Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud (1880-1953), who from 1902 began to rebuild Saudi-Wahhabi power in the Najd. From 1912 his strength was greatly enhanced as he began to \wield a weapon of his own devising - the Ikhwan or Brothers.
For some time, he had been sending Wahhabi Ulama among the Bedouin (nomads) to persuade them to forego their "un-Islamic" practices and shiftless nomadic habits and settle in self-sufficient missionary and military agricultural communities. Here, they lived lives of extreme ascetism and literal adherence to the Sharia, beating, for instance, women who wore silks or men who were late for prayers. Over 200 such communities were founded, whose members’ highest ambition was to die fighting to raise men to their own puritan Islamic standard. With the aid of this remarkable force, and unimpeded by the desire of any great power to intervene, Abd al-Aziz gradually spread his rule over Arabia until by 1925 he had emulated the achievement of his ancestors over a century before by conquering the Hijaz and by imposing their fundamentalist views on religious practice in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Once Abd al-Aziz had achieved power and declared himself king, the Ikhwan became an embarrassment. They objected to his introduction of motor cars and telephones and they knew no international frontiers in their campaigns against unbelievers, coming to blows with the British in Iraq and Transjordan. He was forced to destroy the demon he had created and most of the Ikhwan died at the battle of Sabila in 1929