Wahhabism

Wahhabism is an Islamic reform movement founded in eighteenth-century Arabia by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It calls for strict monotheism and rejects practices it regards as religious innovations.

Tawhid: The Islamic doctrine of God's absolute oneness and uniqueness. Wahhabism places uncompromising worship of God alone at the center of religious life.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab: An eighteenth-century Arabian scholar whose teachings founded Wahhabism. His writings and preaching supplied the movement's doctrinal program.
Sufism: A range of Islamic traditions focused on spiritual discipline and experiential knowledge of God. Wahhabi critiques of saint veneration and some Sufi rituals became a major point of conflict.
Saudi Arabia: A state established in 1932 on the Arabian Peninsula under the House of Saud. The country's religious institutions developed through the historic alliance between the ruling family and Wahhabi scholars.
Salafi-jihadism: A militant Sunni Islamist current that combines Salafi doctrines with armed jihad against states and other targets. It is sometimes conflated with Wahhabism, though the movements are not interchangeable.
Shirk: The attribution of partners or divine qualities to God in Islam. Wahhabism treats many disputed devotional practices as forms of shirk.
Diriyah: A historic settlement in central Arabia that became the first capital of the Saudi state. It was the seat of the alliance that gave the reform movement political power.
Madhhab: A school of Islamic jurisprudence that develops methods for interpreting religious law. Wahhabi scholars generally work within Hanbali jurisprudence while criticizing rigid adherence to legal schools.
Ikhwan (Saudi Arabia): A tribal movement of religious fighters who helped Ibn Saud expand his rule in the early twentieth century. Its campaigns joined religious mobilization to the formation of modern Saudi power.
Islamism: Political movements that seek a greater role for Islamic principles in public life and governance. Debates often ask how Wahhabi religious reform relates to modern political Islam.

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