The Arabian religious reform movement of the 18th and 19th centuries,
known in the West as Wahhabism, is one of the most controversial and
misunderstood religious movements of the modern Middle East. This
biography of its founder, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, is the first
serious English-language account written not from a Western, but an
Arabian perspective. Based on exhaustive research of primary sources,
'Abd-Allah Salih al-'Uthaymin reconstructs the social, political and
spiritual environment of the Arabian peninsula in the time of Ibn Abd
al-Wahhab. The author charts this movement's intellectual development
and growing sway, and unpicks the historic alliance of its founder with
the House of Al Sa'ud: a uniquely close partnership of political and
religious relationships whose legacy is felt in the Saudi state to this
day. Al-Uthaymin also provides a detailed exposition and commentary on
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's doctrines, based on his published and unpublished
works, and explains his perspective on concepts such as tawhid, takfir
and sharia. This meticulously researched biography offers a unique
insight into its complex and often controversial subject.
As such, it will become essential reading for anyone interested in
political Islam, Saudi Arabia and the modern Middle East.
