Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad

SAUDI ARABIA Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, by Natana J. DeLongBas. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 290 pages. Map. Notes to p. 343. Gloss, to p. 348. Bibl. to p. 359. Index to p. 370. $35. Since Arabian warriors led by the House of Saud first burst out of Najd in central Arabia under the banner of Wahhabism in the mid-18lh century, the puritanical Islamic reform movement has suffered from a bad name. In those days, opposition came mainly from Muslim rulers and members of the religious establishment who feared that the austere revival movement would undermine their authority, to say nothing of their lucrative business opportunities derived from providing services to pilgrims to the Islamic holy places of Makka and alMadina, and to those visiting the tombs of local Muslim holy men in order to seek intercession with God. Until the discovery of oil in the 20"' century, the Western powers, for the most part, considered Najd to be too remote to be more than marginally important strategically or economically, and thus largely ignored it. As a result, Westerners knew as little about the people of Najd and their revival movement as Najdis knew about them. Following World War II, the Saudi state rapidly gained importance not only as a major oil producer, but with the advent of the Cold War, as a staunch ally of the West due to its strident opposition to communism as a heretical, atheistic, and anti-Islamic doctrine. But with the end of the Cold War and in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a backlash of anti-Saudi sentiment arose, particularly in the United States, that focused on a two and a half century old revival movement, Wahhabism, dubbed by some of its most vociferous antagonists as a doctrine of terrorism and hate. One of the fascinating aspects of this long-standing and ever-changing antipathy toward Wahhabism is how little its detractors have really understood or perhaps cared to understand the substance of the doctrines espoused by its founder, Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. Perhaps one should not be too harsh on his critics. Historically, access to Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's writings has not been easy to come by. But the dearth of understanding makes Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad all the more important for contemporary readers. The author, Natana DeLong-Bas, was granted access to the writings of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab by the King 'Abd al-'Aziz Foundation in Riyadh, and bases her study on what he actually wrote, not on what hostile commentators over the centuries have said he preached. The result is a lucid and carefully documented assessment of Wahhabism that, given what has previously been asserted by commentators and scholars alike, is clearly revisionist. Professor DeLong-Bas begins by addressing the historical context in which Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab preached his revival. Wahhabism was not created in a vacuum in a faraway isolated corner of Arabia. Throughout Islamic history, ideas traveled to the remotest places; and 18th century Najd, where Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was born, preached, and died was no exception. Moreover, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was no unlettered tent-meeting revivalist. He traveled to alMadina and Basra (in present day Iraq) to study Islamic jurisprudence under noted scholars, and also studied under his father, a respected local Islamic scholar in his own right. Father and son both subscribed to the ultra-conservative Hanbali School of Islamic Jurisprudence. Nevertheless, the Wahhabi revival movement did not require one to follow Hanbali law. In reviewing Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's works, the author notes that Wahhabism was in fact a powerful expression of a general concern shared by many 18th century Islamic reformers (p. 8). The author notes that mainstream 18th century Islamic reformers were concerned with what they believed were the heretical innovations (bid' a) that had crept into the religion since the Prophet Muhammad's time, particularly the association of divine characteristics with any human beings (shirk). …