WAHHABI

also spelled Wahabi, any member of the Muslim puritan movement founded by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century in Najd, central Arabia, and adopted in 1744 by the Sa'udi family. The political fortunes of the Wahhabi were immediately allied to those of the Sa'udi dynasty. By the end of the 18th century, they had brought all of Najd under their control, attacked Karbala', Iraq, a holy city of the Shi'ite branch of Islam, and occupied Mecca and Medina in western Arabia. The Ottoman sultan brought an end to the first Wahhabi empire in 1818, but the sect revived under the leadership of the Sa'udi Faysal I. The empire was then somewhat restored until once again destroyed at the end of the 19th century by the Rashidiyah of northern Arabia. The activities of Ibn Sa'ud in the 20th century eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 and assured the Wahhabi religious and political dominance on the Arabian Peninsula. Members of the Wahhabi call themselves al-Muwahhidun, "Unitarians," a name derived from their emphasis on the absolute oneness of God (tawhid). They deny all acts implying polytheism, such as visiting tombs and venerating saints, and advocate a return to the original teachings of Islam as incorporated in the Qur'an and Hadith (traditions of Muhammad), with condemnation of all innovations (bid'ah). Wahhabi theology and jurisprudence, based, respectively, on the teachings of Ibn Taymiyah and on the legal school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, stress literal belief in the Qur'an and Hadith and the establishment of a Muslim state based only on Islamic law.