WAGON
848
WAGSTAFFE
Ancient Assyrian Wagon. (Fnun the bas-reiicl' of Ku- yuujik in the British Mus^eum.)
Milit. iii, 24). which David at once efFectually overcame in a pilclieil battle (2 Sam. viii,4) ; and Solomon estab- lished cavalry stations (-:"1<1 "'"^'i 1 Kings ix, 19; x, 26 ; comp. v, 6 ) as a defence ( Ewald, Isi: Gesch. iii, 72 sq.). These foreign war vehicles are sometimes called ckmiofs of iron (5T~3 2Z"1, Josh, xvii, 16, 18; Judg. i, 19; iv, 3), meaning either constructed wholly out of or simply strengtiiened by iron, or rather per- haps scythe-armed ("currus falcati," Curtius, iv, 12, 6; XV, 3, 4 ; comp. iv, 9, 5 ; Livy, xxxvii,41 ; Yeget. Milit. iii, 24; iipnara £piTravr}(piipa, Xenoph. Anab. i, 7, 10; Diod. Sic. xvii, 53; Appian, Syr. xsxii; see Schicke- danz, De Curribus Fulcatis [Serv. 1754]; comp. the aritl m^S of Nah. ii, 4). See Jahn, A rchdol. II, ii, 439's'i.; Lydius, Be Be Milit. (ed.Van Til, Dordr. 1698), p. 131 sq. ; Wichmannshausen,/>'e Cui-ribus Belli (Yiteh. 1722); Scheffer, JJe Re Vehiculari (Francof. 1671); Fabricy, Eecherches sur VEpoque de V Equitation ( Par. 1764); Ginzrot, />«■<» Wagen der Gr.und Rom. (Munich, 1813). — Winer. See Chariot.
"With some small exceptions, it may he said that wheel carriages are not now employed in Africa or Western Asia; but that they were anciently used in Egypt, and in what is now Asiatic Turkey, is attested not only by history, but by existing sculptures and paintings. It would seem that they were not in early
times used in Palestine, as, when Jacob saw them, ho knew they must have come from Egypt. Perhaps, however, he knew this by their peculiar shape. The covered wagons for conveying tlie materials of the tab- ernacle were probably constructed on Egyptian models. They were each drawn by two oxen (Numb, vii, 3, 8). Herodotus mentions a four-wheeled Egyptian vehicle («jit«t«) used for sacred purposes (Herod, ii, 63). Two- wheeled wagons, or rather carts, are frccpiently repre- sented on the Assyrian sculptures, especially for the conveyance of (female and infantile) prisoners away from a sacked city ( Layard. Nineveh, ii, 301 ). Tlie only wheel carriages in Western Asia with which we are ac(iuainted are, tirst, a very rude cart, usually drawn by oxen, and employed in conveying agricultural prod- uce in Armenia and Georgia; ami then a vehicle call- ed an arabah, used at Constantinople and some other towns towards the Mediterranean. It is a light cov- ered cart without springs; and, being exclusively used by women, children, and aged or sick persons, would seem, both in its use, and, as nearly as we can discover, in its make, to be no bad representative of the "wagons" in the Bible. No wheel carriage is, however, now used in a journey. The Oriental wagon, or arabah, is a ve- hicle composed of two or three jilanks tixed on two (sometimes four) solid circular blocks of wood, from two to five feet in diameter, which serve as wheels. To the floor are sometimes attached wings, which splay out- wards like the sides of a wheelljarrow. For the convej'- ance of passengers, mattresses or clothes are laid in the bottom, and the vehicle is drawn by buffaloes or oxen (Arundell, Asia Minor, ii, 191, 235, 238 ; Olearius, Truv. p. 309 ; Ker Porter, Trav. ii, 533). See C.vrt.
Wagstaffe, John, an English author of the 17th century, was educated in Oriel College, Oxford, where he remained, and died in 1677. He published, Histori- cal Reflections on the Bishop of Rome (1660): — and Questions of Witchcraft Debated (1671). See Bliss's Wood, A then. Oxon. iii, 1113.
Wagstaffe, Thomas, a learned Nonjuring divine, was born in Warwickshire, England, Feb. lo, 164.5. He was educated at the Charterhouse School under Mr. Wood; took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1664, and that of master in 1667; was ordained deacon June 6. 1669, and priest Nov. 19, same year; rector of iNIartinsthorpe, in the county of Rutland, from 1669 to 1676; curate of Stow, in the county of Bucks, from 1676 to 1684; chan-
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Turki.-h Arabah.
WAHABEES
849
WAIL
cellor of the cathedral church, Lichfield, in 1684: and rector of St. Margaret Pattens, London, in the same year. Deprived of his preferments at the Kevolntion for not taking the new oaths, he practiced physic for several years in London with good success. In 1093 he was consecrated bishop, and afterwards became suffragan of Ipswich. He died Oct. 17, 1712. Besides his Sermons, he published several tracts in defence of Charles I. See Chalmers, Bioff. Diet. s. v.
"Wahabees, a modern Mohammedan sect found- ed by sheik Mohammed, the son of Abd-el-Wahab, for whom they were named. They preach no new doctrine, but have for their distinctive principle a de- sire to abolish the idolatrous practices which have con- nected themselves with the religion of Islam. They reject the worship of Mohammed as gross idolatry, and adhere strictly to the Koran; otherwise they observe all the rites anil ceremonies of the Mohammedans — the number of the prayers, the genuflections, the fast of the Kamadan (q. v. ), and abstinence from wine and all spirituous liquors. Abd-el-Wahab, during his whole life, sought to gain converts by peaceable means, but his successors followed the example of Mohammed in disseminating their principles by the sword, and politi- cal interests were united with religious reform. They originated in the small tribe of Nedshi, in Yemen; but their founder undertook an expedition into Syria and the regions bordering on the Euphrates, and having collected a number of tribes from the Arabian desert, who became converts to his views, he formed them into a distinct nation, under the control of Eben Send as their civil governor, and himself as their imam, or spiritual ruler. This appears to have taken place soon after the middle of the last century; but no measures were taken against the Wahabees by the Porte until the year 1798, when they were attacked by the pasha of Bagdad, but with- out effect, which emboldened them to leave the desert; and in 1801-2 they met with signal success, took great booty from the neighboring Mohammedans, and capt- ured Mecca itself, where they established their power in lieu of that of the grand sultan, in virtue of which he had hitherto been regarded as the head and pro- tector of the faithful. The residence of Send was now fixed at Dreich, where he had a palace, and lived in all the pomp and splendor of an Eastern prince. In 1803-4 he made unsuccessful attacks on Bagdad and Bnssorah, but took jMedina in 1804, and in 1805 Jidda, which had formerly battled all his attempts to suljiUie it. The Porte was now obliged to pay a heavy tribute for per- mission to send an escort from Damascus with the caravans of pilgrims that annually proceeded to Mecca; and these caravans were no longer allowed to have weapons, flags, or music, or to enter the holy city on carpets, as formerly. In 1807 the Wahabees stood in the zenith of their power, since which time they have been repeatedly repulse<l, especially in 1818, when their sheik Abdallah, the great-grandson of Sand, the friend and protector of Abd-el-Wahab, was compelled to sur- render to Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehemet Ali, and was taken to Constantinople and executed. The sect still exists, and is paramount in Central Arabia, where the dominions of the sultan of the Wahabees embrace not only Nedjed proper, but the adjacent provinces, and include 31G towns or villages, with a population (in 1863) of 1,219,000. They are a great annoyance to the Turkish government, and a terror to the pilgrims who proceed from all parts of the East to visit the tomb of the prophet. See Palgrave, Central and Eastern A i-ahia (Lond. 1869) ; //istoire des Wahahites depuis leiir Origine jusqiia I'An 1809 (Paris, 1810); Burckhardt, Note's on the Bedouins and Wahabys (Lond. 1830). See Mo- hammedanism.