Wahhābism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement

by Cole M. Bunzel

a mildly critical assessment of the founder of Wahhābism, at once praised for preaching the correct understanding of tawḥīd and criticized for the manner (uslūb) in which he did so. The problem with his uslūb, in al-Ṭanṭāwī’s view, was that it involved pronouncing takfīr on Muslims and fighting them as unbelievers. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, he wrote, “observed the manifestations of shirk being committed by certain people at graves, and so he considered them to be polytheists. He then extended this judgment generally [ʿammama ʾl-ḥukm] to every land where these domes and tombs were found. This is to say, he judged Muslims to be apostates en masse [ḥakama bi-riddat al-Muslimīn jamīʿan] and deemed their blood and property licit.”4 While this might seem like an unflattering portrayal of the Najdī reformer, al-Ṭanṭāwī was far more concerned with being perceived as an apologist for the Wahhābī movement than he was the reverse.5 His hope was to be as balanced as possible, but he understood that for many this would look like an apology for Wahhābism.