MULAYDAH, BATTLE OF AL-

(1891), decisive victory for Ibn Rashid, the ruler of the Rashidi kingdom at Ha'il, near Jabal Shammar in Najd, northern Arabia, who defeated allies of 'Abd ar-Rahman, the head of the Wahhabi (fundamentalist Islamic) state in Najd. The battle marked the end of the second Wahhabi empire. The Wahhabi prince 'Abd Allah lost many of the territories that his father, Faysal (reigned 183465), had acquired by conquest following the collapse of the first Wahhabi empire (1818). In 1885 'Abd Allah was invited to Ha'il to be the guest of Ibn Rashid, the dominant figure in Arabian politics at the time, while a representative of Ibn Rashid was appointed governor of Riyadh, the Wahhabi capital. Although 'Abd Allah was restored to the Wahhabi throne in 1889, he died the same year, and his youngest brother, 'Abd ar-Rahman, soon became embroiled in hostilities with Ibn Rashid and assembled against him an alliance of tribes in al-Qasim. Ibn Rashid promptly marched on Riyadh but, unable to take it, stationed himself in al-Mulaydah, on the edge of the ad-Dahna' desert, where he engaged and defeated the rebellious tribesmen of al-Qasim in 1891. 'Abd ar-Rahman, having missed the battle, fled Riyadh with most of his family and after some difficulty was able to take refuge in Kuwait. Ibn Rashid, meanwhile, annexed the Wahhabi realm to his own empire.