Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement

by Cole M. Bunzel

The term Wahhābī is in origin a pejorative coined by the enemies of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb to stigmatize his movement as deviant and heretical. For most of Wahhābism’s history, its adherents have rejected the label as offensive, preferring to call themselves Muslims (Muslimūn) or monotheists (muwaḥḥidūn), their view being that the Wahhābī form of Islam is nothing but a revival of the pure and uncorrupted version.14 Even so, the Wahhābīs have long recognized that theirs is a distinct movement in Islam, one captured by the term “the Najdī mission” (al-daʿwa al-Najdiyya). The latter term, which goes back to at least the mid–nineteenth century,15 may be understood as synonymous with the Wahhābī movement.