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WAHHABIS
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WAHHABIS , a See also:Mahommedan See also:sect, the followers of See also:Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab, who instituted a See also:great reform in the See also:religion of See also:Islam in See also:Arabia in the 18th See also:century. Mahommed ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab was See also:born in 1691 (or 1703) at al-Hauta of the See also:Nejd in central Arabia, and was of the tribe of the Bani Tamim. He studied literature and See also:jurisprudence of the Hanifite school. After making the See also:pilgrimage with his See also:father, he spent some further See also:time in the study of See also:law at See also:Medina, and resided for a while at See also:Isfahan, whence he returned to the Nejd to undertake the See also:work of a teacher. Aroused by his studies and his observation of the luxury in See also:dress and habits, the superstitious pilgrimages to shrines, the use of omens and the See also:worship given to See also:Mahomet and Mahommedan See also:saints rather than to See also:God, he began a See also:mission to proclaim the simplicity of the See also:early religion founded on the See also:Koran and Sunna (i.e. the manner of See also:life of Mahomet). His mission in his own See also:district was not attended by success, and for See also:long he wandered with his See also:family through Arabia, until at last he settled in Dara'iyya, or Deraiya (in the Nejd), where he succeeded in converting the greatest notable, Mahommed ibn Saud, who married his daugther, and so became the founder of an hereditary Wahhabite See also:dynasty. This gave the missionary the opportunity of following the example of Mahomet himself in extending his religious teaching by force. His instructions in this See also:matter were strict. All unbelievers (i.e. Moslems who did not accept his teaching, as well as Christians, &c.) were to be put to See also:death. Immediate entrance into See also:Paradise was promised to his soldiers who See also:fell in See also:battle, and it is said that each soldier was provided with a written See also:order from Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab to the See also:gate-keeper of See also:heaven to admit him forthwith. In this way the new teaching was established in the greater See also:part of Arabia until its See also:power was broken by Mehemet See also:Ali (see ARABIA: See also:History). Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab is said to have died in 79 The teaching of ul-Wahhab was founded on that of Ibn Taimiyya (1263-1328), who was of the school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (q.v.). Copies of some of Ibn Taimiyya's See also:works made by ul-Wahhab are now extant in See also:Europe, and show a See also:close See also:WAILLY 245 study of the writer. Ibn Taimiyya, although a Hanbalite by training, refused to be See also:bound by any of the four See also:schools, and claimed the power of a mujtahid, i.e. of one who can give See also:independent decisions. These decisions were based on the Koran, which, like Ibn Hazm (q.v.), he accepted in a literal sense, on the Sunna and Qiyds (See also:analogy). He protested strongly against all the innovations of later times, and denounced as See also:idolatry the visiting of the sacred shrines and the invocation of the saints or of Mahomet himself. He was also a See also:bitter opponent of the Sufis of his See also:day. The Wahhabites also believe in the literal sense of the Koran and the See also:necessity of deducing one's See also:duty from it apart from the decisions of the four schools. They also pointed to the abuses current in their times as a See also:reason for rejecting the doctrines and practices founded on Ijmd', i.e. the universal consent of the believer or their teachers (see MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION). They forbid the pilgrimage to tombs and the in-vocation of saints. The severe simplicity of the Wahhabis has been remarked by travellers in central Arabia. They attack all luxury, loose See also:administration of See also:justice, all laxity against infidels, addiction to See also:wine, impurity and treachery. Under 'Abd ul-Aziz they instituted a See also:form of Bedouin (Bedawi) See also:commonwealth, insisting on the observance of law, the See also:payment of See also:tribute, military See also:conscription for See also:war against the infidel, See also:internal See also:peace and the rigid administration of justice in courts established for the purpose. It is clear that the claim of the Wahhabis to have returned to the earliest form of Islam is largely justified; See also:Burckhardt (vol. ii. p. 1 r 2) says, " The only difference between his (i.e. 11h Wahl-lab's) sect and orthodox See also:Turks, however improperly so termed, is that the Wahabys rigidly follow the same See also:laws which the others neglect or have ceased altogether to observe." Even orthodox doctors of Islam have confessed that in Ibn `Abd ul-Wahhab's writings there is nothing but what they themselves hold. At the same time the fact that so many of his followers were rough and unthinking See also:Bedouins has led to the over-emphasis of See also:minor points of practice, so that they often appear to observers to be characterized chiefly by a strictness (real or feigned) in such matters as the See also:prohibition of See also:silk for dress, or the use of See also:tobacco, or of the See also:rosary in See also:prayer. 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