Wahhabis

Wahhabis, in Islam, members of a puritanical reform movement begun by the conservative Syrian jurist Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-92). Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was faithful to the Qur'an (Koran), the supreme body of Islamic law, and to the Hadith (or Sunna), a second body of Islamic law comprising the actions and utterances attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He rejected, however, all innovations and also the principle of consensus (Ijma) of the Muslim community on any text of Islamic writ and on customs compatible with the Qur'an or Hadith.

The ascetic life and stern preaching of ibn Abd al-Wahhab extended the influence of the Wahhabis, who rejected all luxury, dancing, gambling, music, and the use of tobacco. Wahhabism spread rapidly as a nationalist religious movement, gaining ascendancy throughout Arabia. Wahhabi warriors successfully attacked and purged the Islamic shrine at Karbalā’ and the cities of Riyadh, Mecca, and Medina in the early years of the 19th century before they were defeated by the armies of the Turkish sultan Mahmud II, after a campaign ending in 1818. The number of Wahhabis today probably exceeds 8 million, but they are confined almost entirely to the Arabian Peninsula, in Saudi Arabia.