Born in 1282/1865 in Tripoli, in modern-day Lebanon, Riḍā began his intellectual career as a disciple of one of the pioneers of Islamic modernism, the Egyptian Muḥammad ʿAbduh (d. 1323/1905).82 ʿAbduh and his followers believed that Islam needed to be reformed in accordance with the requirements of the modern, European-led world. Immersed in European philosophy and culture, they departed drastically in some ways from the accumulated theological and legal tradition of Sunnī Islam.
