tribes that had been recently settled in villages
under the supervision of the mutawwaa and Wah-
habi ulama. The Ikhwan were fierce fighters who
treated the populations of towns that opposed
them brutally. They destroyed any shrines and
tombs that offended their puritanical religious
sensibilities. After the conquest of the Hijaz (west-
ern Arabia), however, they rebelled against Ibn
Saud, who successfully defeated them with the
backing of Wahhabi ulama. In the rebellion’s after-
math, he centralized his control over the country
and reasserted Saudi authority in political affairs.
The Saudi wars of expansion came to an end with
the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
in 1932.
Wahhabism has developed in two different
directions since the kingdom was founded. On the
one hand, it has become the official religion of a
rapidly modernizing Islamic state, bolstered by oil
wealth. Major decisions are made only after con-
sultation with the Supreme Council of the Ulama,
who claim the right to issue legal opinions and
judgments on the basis of ijtihad (independent
legal reasoning), rather than legislative law. Fam-
ily and political ties continue to bind the Al Saud
to the Al al-Shaykh, who hold the portfolios for
the ministries of religious affairs and justice. In
addition, the mutawwaa serve the state as religious
police, operating as a branch of the Ministry of the
Interior. They strictly enforce conformity to the
staunch moral conservatism of their sect, includ-
ing gender segregation, dress codes, the bans on
alcohol and gambling, and censorship of books,
magazines, television, videos, and music. Reli-
gious courts sentence defendants to death who
have been found guilty of major moral crimes
such as adultery, drug trafficking, and murder.
Saudi state Wahhabism is also often criticized for
the intolerant attitude it holds for other religions
and other forms of Islam.
The second direction that Wahhabism has
taken, particularly among the younger generations
since the 1970s, is sometimes called neo-Wah-
habism, or salaFism. It has been shaped by oppo-
sitional Islamist ideologies espoused by groups
such as the mUslim brotherhood and radical
jihadist organizations. Proponents of this type of
Wahhabism condemn Saudi government corrup-
tion and injustice and seek to radically transform
other Muslim societies to bring them under the
rule of their concept of the sharia, even through
violence. This kind of Wahhabism is epitomized
by Usama bin ladin (b. 1957) and al-qaida. Both
kinds of Wahhabism have achieved global influ-
ence as a result of oil, the print and electronic
media, mass education, labor migration, regional
and international conflicts, and disenchantment
with corrupt and authoritarian governments.
See also islamism; Jihad movements; politics
and islam; reneWal and reForm movements.Further reading: Michael Cook, “On the Origins of
Wahhabism.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3, no.
2 (1992): 191–202; Natana J. DeLong-Bas, Wahhabi
Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2004); Joseph A. Kechechian,
“The Role of the Ulama in the Politics of an Islamic
State: The Case of Saudi Arabia.” International Journal
of Middle East Studies 18 (1986): 53–71; Madawi al-
Rasheed, Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from
a New Generation (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2007); ———, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ayman al-
Yassini, Religion and State in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1985).wahy See revelation.
walaya
The Arabic word walaya comes from a root
meaning “to be near.” The related concept of
wilaya, generally referring to guardianship or
the aUthority that derives from it, has a range of
meanings in Islamic law, politics, Shii cosmology,
and sUFism. Wilaya can thus mean legal guardian-
ship, the administration of a province, a provinceK 706 wahy