Wahhābism

The History of a Militant Islamic Movement

Cole M. Bunzel

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English

Princeton University Press
22 August 2023

Middle Eastern history; Religion & beliefs

An essential history of Wahhābism from its founding to the Islamic State

In the mid-eighteenth century, a controversial Islamic movement arose in the central Arabian region of Najd that forever changed the political landscape of the Arabian Peninsula and the history of Islamic thought. Its founder, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, taught that most professed Muslims were polytheists due to their veneration of Islamic saints at tombs and gravesites. He preached that true Muslims, those who worship God alone, must show hatred and enmity toward these polytheists and fight them in jihād. Cole Bunzel tells the story of Wahhābism from its emergence in the 1740s to its taming and coopting by the modern Saudi state in the 1920s, and shows how its legacy endures in the ideologies of al-Qāʿida and the Islamic State.

Drawing on a wealth of primary source materials, Bunzel traces the origins of Wahhābī doctrine to the religious thought of medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya and examines its development through several generations of Wahhābī scholars. While widely seen as heretical and schismatic, the movement nonetheless flourished in central Arabia, spreading across the peninsula under the political authority of the Āl Suʿūd dynasty until the invading Egyptian army crushed it in 1818. The militant Wahhābī ethos, however, persisted well into the early twentieth century, when the Saudi kingdom used Wahhābism to bolster its legitimacy.

This incisive history is the definitive account of a militant Islamic movement founded on enmity toward non-Wahhābī Muslims and that is still with us today in the violent doctrines of Sunni jihādīs.

By: Cole M. Bunzel
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691241593
ISBN 10: 0691241597
Pages: 408
Publication Date: 22 August 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Cole M. Bunzel is a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Reviews for Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement

"""The single most significant event in the publication history of the scholarship on Wahhābism—period. There’s no book that rivals it . . . in scope, erudition, and breadth. . . . It's one of these books that will set the agenda for future scholarship.""---Omar Anchassi, Islamicate Book Review ""The amount of primary sources and manuscripts referenced in Cole Bunzel's new book is dizzying in the best way possible. The new standard for literature on Wahhabism! . . . A must read book.""---Aaron Y. Zelin, Brandeis University"