a certain tension between ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and the Wahhābī scholars. While their relationship was generally one of “harmony,” there were times when “the zealotry of the Ulema” seemed to put the relationship in jeopardy.105 As with the Ikhwān, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz found himself having “to keep them in check.”106 While he had used the scholars “to consolidate his State and maintain his control over his subjects,” he also had taken care “to keep them in their place … to show the people, even if he has to be despotic, that they, the Ulema, are not the supreme power in the State.”
