Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab

Upbringing and education

Born in a sedentary clan to a family of well-established Islamic jurists in the Najd, Abd al-Wahhab was raised with a standard classical training in Qur'anic memorization as well as Islamic Law and fiqh according to the Hanbali Madh'hab, which was common in the area.

Abd al-Wahhab would study the Hanbali works of the famed Ibn Qudamah who was exceptionally renown in the Najd. Islamic orthodoxy allowing for the possibility of miracles at the hands of those considered the Awliyah, or friends (also translatable as "saints") of Allah, many in the Najd had come to attribute miracles to Ibn Qudamah. Similarly accepted in Islamic orthodoxy is the visitation of saintly persons' graves in order to offer prayers for the deceased and benefit from the general blessed aura of the site. This practice is functionally similar to the veneration of shrines. Both the attribution of miracles to miracles as well as the veneration of shrines would, however, appear to Abd al-Wahhab to smack of polytheism, causing him to eventually develop a great distaste and disdain for the interpretive methodologies of the classical madh'habs that would allow such practices.

Later traveling to Mecca and then Medina, Abd al-Wahhab would come in contact with a a scholar by the name of Abdullah ibn Ibrahim al-Najdi, a proponent of Ibn Taymiyyah's (d. 1328) interpretation of the Hanbali madh'hab. Abd al-Wahhab would develop an affinity for al-Najdi and Ibn Taymiyyah through this encounter, as he came to see the two's approach to scripture as more essentially pure and aggressive towards developments in Islam beyond the lifetime of Muhammad and his companions.

These experiences would later inspire the especially puritanical and anti-classical strain of Salafism that were taught by and became eponymous with Abd al-Wahhab

Return home

Upon his return home, Abd al-Wahhab began preaching his new ideas, and ultimately managed to secure a political pact with the ambitious ruler of Uyaynah at the time by the name of Ibn Mu'ammar. With the resultant political authority, al-Wahhab begin implementing his interpretation of Islam in addition to preaching it. Among his first acts where: the leveling of a companion's grave (that of Zayd ibn al-Khattab), the removal of trees that locals considered sacred, and the stoning of a woman who had admitted to having committed adultery.

Ibn Mu'ammar

Abd al-Wahhab's preaching upon his return home earned him an alliance with the then ruler of Uyaynah, Ibn Mu'ammar. As Abd al-Wahhab began to act out using his new found authority in addition to simply preaching, however, a competing Najdi ruler by the name of Ibn Ghurayr (chief of al-Hasa and Qatif) became incensed, and ultimately threatened to prevent Ibn Mu'ammar from collecting taxes from properties Ibn Mu'ammar owned in al-Hasa if Ibn Mu'ammar did not evince or execute Abd al-Wahhab. Ibn Mu'ammar complied, banishing al-Wahhab, and thus spelling the end of their political alliance.

Muhammad bin Saud

Hearing of al-Wahhab's expulsion from Uyaynah and drawn by his teachings, Muhammad bin Saud, another leader in the Najd (this time of the Diriyah settlement), invited al-Wahhab to work and live with him. In 1744, they famously sounded a pact (or bay'ah, lit. "oath of loyalty"). Dividing political and religious affairs between the two of them (the latter being al-Wahhab's responsibility), both set out to conquer the Arabian peninsula. The two families of al-Saud and al-Wahhab would persist in this "mutual support pact" until the present time, and together see the establishment of the first (Emirate of Diriyah, 1744-1818), second (1824), and third Saudi states.