Followers of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab them

Followers of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab themselves use terms such as ‘unitarians’
(muwahhidun) or followers of the way of the ‘righteous earliest Muslims’
(al-salaf al-salih).6
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s writings are generally on issues about
which a number of key reformers of the twelfth/eighteenth century were
concerned: the return to the pure Islam of the Qur’an and the Sunna; the
rejection of popular religious practices such as the veneration of saints and
treating their tombs as shrines; the rejection of the blind following of earlier
scholars; and an emphasis on ijtihad. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab argued for a return
to the methodology of the salaf and the literal reading of the Qur’an as far
as the names and attributes of God were concerned. He rejected Sufi practices
almost entirely as heretical and against Islam.
In order to promote his teachings, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab sought assistance
from a local tribal chief of Nejd, Muhammad ibn Sa‘ud (d. 1179/1765). They
formed a political, military and religious alliance that provided the basis
for Ibn Abd al-Wahhab to spread his teachings throughout much of Arabia.
After establishing their base in Nejd, the Wahhabi army set their sights
on the Hijaz. Led by Abd al-Aziz (d. 1218/1803), the son of Muhammad ibn
Sa‘ud, the Wahhabi army attacked the Shi‘i holy site of Karbala in 1217/
1802. A few years later they successfully took Medina and Mecca and began
destroying sites and prohibiting practices that conflicted with Ibn Abd
al-Wahhab’s teachings.7
The movement, with its hardline approach to popular practice, fighting
innovation and labelling other Muslims as not sufficiently Muslim (i.e.
as innovators or polytheists), frightened the Ottomans. The Ottoman Sultan
asked Muhammad Ali of Egypt to crush the movement and its political
base. Medina and Mecca were retaken for the Ottomans in 1227/1812 and
1228/1813 respectively.8 Within two years, the Wahhabi conquests came
to a crushing halt.
In 1902, Abd al-Aziz b. Sa‘ud (known as Ibn Sa‘ud, d. 1953) who was a
direct descendant of Muhammad b. Sa‘ud, supported by a paramilitary
movement called the Ikhwan, defeated the rival Rashidi clan in Riyadh.
He gained control of Nejd and continued raids on other parts of Arabia.
By 1924, Ibn Sa‘ud’s control over much of Arabia was complete, and in the
following year control of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina was taken
over by the Wahhabis, ending Hashimi rule there. In 1932, Ibn Sa‘ud
renamed the areas of Nejd and Hijaz, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was
officially established.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s main work is a booklet, Book of the
Unity of God (Kitab al-tawhid), which focuses on notions of unity of God
(tawhid) and polytheism (shirk). On the basis of a literal reading of the
Qur’an and hadith texts, he associates polytheism with seeking help and
intercession from anyone other than God. In his view, polytheism could also