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Wahhabism (Arabic: Wahhabiyya)

Named after its founder, mUhammad ibn abd

al-Wahhab (d. 1792), Wahhabism is the most

important form of militant Islamic reformism to

arise in the Arabian Peninsula. The designation

was first coined with derogatory connotations by

Muslim opponents and observers in Europe and

North America. It refers to a set of doctrines and

practices and to a sectarian movement comprised

of those who embrace them. Allied to the clan

of the Al Saud from the Najd in central Arabia,

the Wahhabis, who prefer to call themselves the

muwahhidun (unitarians, or those who affirm

the unity of God), played an essential role in the

formation of the modern state of saUdi arabia.

They have had a significant impact on the ways

Muslims understand and practice their religion in

many parts of the world today.

Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was educated by his father

and other Ulama in the hanbali legal school,

which was the chief school followed by the tribal

communities of the Najd. His thinking was also

shaped by his encounters with reformist scholars

in Mecca and Medina, and by his antipathy for

local religious practices associated with saint

shrines, shiism, and folk medicine. Around 1740

he began to proclaim publicly his reformist mes-

sage about what he believed to be the true Islam.

Basing his ideas on a literal reading of the Quran

and hadith, his teaching affirmed the absolute

oneness of God (tawhid), adherence to the sUnna

of the prophet Muhammad, and performance of

basic duties of Islamic worship (prayer, almsgiv-

ing, fasting, and hajj). Performance of the Five

pillars alone was not sufficient in his opinion,

however. Any belief or practice that fell outside

this narrow definition of Islam was held suspect

as an illegitimate innovation (bidaa) or idolatry

(shirk) that could put a Muslim, even an obser-

vant Muslim, outside the bounds of the faith. Ibn

Abd al-Wahhab also called upon Muslims to reject

belief in intercession of saints and Shii Imams; he

wanted them to cease practices such as praying to

the dead and the Jinn, performing votive sacrifices,

worshipping sacred trees, and building shrines.

Indeed, a hallmark of Wahhabi religiosity is the

destruction of domed tombs and the burial of the

dead in unmarked graves. The sectarian character

of Wahhabism was not based only upon rejection

of local religious practices that were linked to Shi-

ism and sUFism, however. It also was opposed to

key doctrines held by most Sunni ulama, such as

adherence (taqlid) to the cumulative tradition of

jurisprudence (fiqh), recognition of the sunna of

the companions oF the prophet and the four first

caliphs on a par with that of Muhammad, and

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