Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Sulaymān al-Tamīmī was a Sunni Muslim scholar, theologian, preacher, activist, religious leader, jurist, and reformer from Najd in central Arabia, considered as the eponymous founder of the so-called Wahhabi movement. His prominent students included his sons Ḥusayn, Abdullāh, ʿAlī, and Ibrāhīm, his grandson ʿAbdur-Raḥman ibn Ḥasan, his son-in-law ʿAbdul-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd, Ḥamād ibn Nāṣir ibn Muʿammar, and Ḥusayn āl-Ghannām.
Wahhabism is a reformist Islamic religious movement within Sunni Islam, based on the teachings of 18th century Hanbali cleric Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. The term "Wahhabism" is primarily an exonym ; it was not used by Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab himself or adherents to the movement, who typically prefer to be called "Salafi". The movement's early followers referred to themselves as Muwahhidun derived from the term Tawhid. The term "Wahhabi" has also been deployed by various outsiders as a sectarian and Islamophobic slur.
The Salafi movement or Salafism is a revival movement within Sunni Islam, which was formed as a socio-religious resistance to European imperialism during the late 19th century and has remained influential in the Islamic World for over a century. The name "Salafiyya" refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors", the first three generations of Muslims, who are believed to exemplify the pure form of Islam. In practice, Salafis maintain that Muslims ought to rely on the Qur'an, the Sunnah and the Ijma (consensus) of the salaf, giving these writings precedence over later religious interpretations. The Salafi movement aimed to achieve a renewal of Muslim life and had a major influence on many Muslim thinkers and movements across the Islamic world.
The Ottoman/Egyptian-Wahhabi War also known as the Ottoman/Egyptian-Saudi War (1811–1818) was fought from early 1811 to 1818, between the Ottoman Empire and the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State, resulting in the destruction of the latter.
The Emirate of Diriyah, also known as the First Saudi State, was established in February 1727. In 1744, the emir of a Najdi town called Diriyah, Muhammad bin Saud, and the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab formed an alliance to found a socio-religious reform movement to unify the many states of the Arabian Peninsula.
Sunni Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is called the "home of Islam"; it was the birthplace of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who united and ruled the Arabian Peninsula. It is the location of the cities of Mecca and Medina, where Prophet Muhammad lived and died, and are now the two holiest cities of Islam. The kingdom attracts millions of Muslim Hajj pilgrims annually, and thousands of clerics and students who come from across the Muslim world to study. The official title of the King of Saudi Arabia is "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques"—the two being Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina—which are considered the holiest in Islam.
The Hadith of Najd is a hadith in Sahih Bukhari with several chains of narration about three geographical locations, one of which is prophesied to be the source of calamities. Sunni Muslims accept that the classification of the hadith as "sahih" (authentic).
Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism or radical Islam refers a set of extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideology within Islam. These terms remain contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior. Furthermore, these terms may extend to encompass other sects of Islam that do not share such extremist views.
The Wahhabi sack of Karbala occurred on 21 April 1802, under the rule of Abdulaziz bin Muhammad the second ruler of the First Saudi State. Approximately 12,000 Wahhabis from Najd attacked the city of Karbala. The raid was conducted in retaliation against attacks on Hajj caravans by Iraqi tribes and coincided with the anniversary of Ghadir Khum event, or 10th Muharram.
Natana J. DeLong-Bas is an American academic, scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, and author of a number of academic publications on Islam on the subjects of Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism, Islamic thought and history, Islam and politics, and contemporary jihadism.
Anti-Sunnism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Sunni Muslims.
The ideology of the Islamic State, sometimes called Islamic Statism, has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, IS defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."
Al-Baqi cemetery, the oldest and one of the two most important Islamic graveyards located in Medina, in current-day Saudi Arabia, was demolished in 1806 and, following reconstruction in the mid-19th century, was destroyed again in 1925 or 1926. An alliance of the House of Saud and the followers of the Wahhabi movement known as the Emirate of Diriyah carried out the first demolition. The Sultanate of Nejd, also ruled by the House of Saud and followers of Wahhabism, carried out the second. In both cases, the actors were motivated by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, which prohibits the building of monuments on graves.
Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam, was the second imam of the Imamate of Tahart and founder of the Wahbi Ibadism movement. He was part of the Rustamid dynasty that ruled a theocracy in Algeria. He became ruler after the death of his father, Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam and founded an external Islamic religious movement called Wahhabism relative to his name Abd al-Wahhab. His Ibadi Kharijite preaching is often incorrectly associated with the modern day Wahhabi movement.
The Wahhabi movement started as a revivalist and reform movement in the Arabian Peninsula during the early 18th century, whose adherents described themselves as "Muwahhidun" (Unitarians). A young Hanbali cleric named Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, the leader of the Muwahhidun and eponym of the Wahhabi movement, called upon his disciples to denounce certain beliefs and practices associated with cult of saints as idolatrous impurities and innovations in Islam (bid'ah). His movement emphasized adherence to the Quran and hadith, and advocated the use of ijtihad. Eventually, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab formed a pact with a local leader, Muhammad bin Saud, offering political obedience and promising that protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement meant "power and glory" and rule of "lands and men".
Fitnat al-Wahhabiyya is a booklet written by Ahmad Zayni Dahlan (1816/17–1886) the Grand Mufti of the Shafi'is in Mecca in the late years of the Ottoman Empire.
Abdullah bin Muhammad Al Sheikh (1751–1829) was a Muslim scholar who served as the head of the judicial system during the First Saudi State, also known as the Emirate of Diriyah. He was a son of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who was credited with introducing the Wahhabi sect of Islam. Abdullah developed the doctrine of this religious belief. David Commins, an American scholar on Wahhabism, argues that Abdullah was the most significant figure among Muhammad's sons.
Suleiman bin Abdullah Al Sheikh was a religious scholar in the Emirate of Diriyah and one of the grandsons of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement. He was the author of al Dalail fi Hukm Muwalat Ahl al Ishrak.
The term "Wahhabi" has been deployed by external observers as a pejorative epithet to label a wide range of religious, social and political movements across the Muslim World, ever since the 18th century. Initially, the term "Wahhabiyya" was employed by the political opponents of the religious reform movement initiated by Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab in the Arabian Peninsula and continued by his successors. The term was derived from his father's name, 'Abd al-Wahhab and widely employed by rivals to denounce his movement. Meanwhile, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and his disciples rejected the terminology and identified themselves as "Muwahhidun".
