was the one initiated by Muhammad ibn abd al-
Wahhab (d. 1792) in Arabia, which was directed
against what he regarded to be un-Islamic practices
such as shrine visitation, folk magic, and Shii ven-
eration of their Imams. The Wahhabis (who call
themselves the muwahhidun “Unitarians”) assisted
in the creation of Saudi Arabia and subsequently
benefited from the vast oil revenues reaped by that
country in the latter part of the 20th century. Reviv-
alist reformism directed against aspects of popular
Sufism and the esoteric doctrines and mystical
teachings of ibn al-arabi (d. 1240) emerged among
members of the naqshbandi sUFi order, which
was based in India and spread afar from there.
Among its early proponents were Ahmad Sirhindi,
Shah Wali Allah (d. 1762), and Ghulam Ali (or
Abd Allah Dihlavi, d. 1824). Reform-minded Sufi
groups and leaders subsequently conducted armed
attacks against European colonizers as well as
against un-Islamic practices in their own societies.
In India these included the movement of ahmad
barelWi (d. 1831), which also attacked Sikhs, and
the Faraizi movement. Russian imperial expansion
in the Caucasus was opposed by the Naqshabandi
shaykh shamil (d. 1871). Similar movements of
non-Naqshabandi reformist Sufis, combined with
renewalist elements, arose in West Africa to create
new states. They opposed Anglo-Egyptian expan-
sion in the sUdan and Italian colonization of libya.
During the 20th century both the modern-
ist and the revivalist versions of renewal and
reform continued to develop. The shift from
colonial regimes to nation-states led to new chal-
lenges, adaptations, and forms, which became
embedded in the nation-state, as in Saudi Arabia,
Libya before 1969, and Iran (after 1979). These
included peaceful participation in national poli-
tics, as in Pakistan, Sudan, Lebanon (especially
after 1993), Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq (after 2003)
as well as opposition to secular or authoritarian
governments, as in Egypt, Palestine, Iran (before
1979), and Iraq (before 2003). The relationship
between these movements and established gov-
ernments often changes with the political climate
in the country.
A good example of this is the mUslim brother-
hood, considered to be the first modern Islamic
mass movement. Created in 1928 by hasan al-
banna (d. 1949), an Egyptian schoolteacher, as
an Islamic renewal organization emphasizing reli-
gious education and social welfare projects, it
opposed both traditional ulama and British colonial
rule. It participated in the nationalist movement
that finally succeeded in wining independence for
Egypt in 1952, but it fell into disfavor with Jamal
abd al-nasir (d. 1970) and the “Free Officers,”
who wanted to establish a government based on
secular Arab nationalism rather than the sharia.
The Muslim Brotherhood conspired against Abd al-
Nasir and was harshly suppressed by the Egyptian
government in the 1950s and 1960s. However, after
Egypt’s shocking defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war,
it began to regain influence and was allowed some
degree of freedom in the 1970s. Since that time its
fortunes have fluctuated depending on the amount
of opposition the Egyptian government is willing
to tolerate, but it has been able to elect supporters
to the Egyptian parliament. The Muslim Brother-
hood also exemplifies two other characteristics of
contemporary renewal and reform movements.
One of these is transnationalism—offshoots have
established themselves in many Muslim-majority
Arab countries. The other is that its oppositional
aspect, including the jihadist doctrines of its chief
ideologue sayyid qUtb (d. 1966), has given rise to
more radical Islamic movements, such as the Jihad
Group that assassinated Egyptian president anWar
al-sadat in 1981, hamas in palestine, and even
al-qaida.
The modernist type of Islamic renewal and
reform also continues to develop, as reflected in
the writings of figures such as FazlUr rahman,
Muhammad Said al-Ashmawi, mUhammad ark-
oUn, Fatima mernissi, Abdullahi An-Naim, khalid
abU Fadl, Abd al-Karim Soroush, Shireen Ebadi,
FethUllah gülen, Tariq Ramadan, nasr hamid
abU zay d, Maher Hathout, Muhammad Shahrur,K 588 renewal and reform movements