Wahhabism And The Rise Of The House Of Saud

Download Wahhabism And The Rise Of The House Of Saud full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Wahhabism And The Rise Of The House Of Saud ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Wahhabism and the Rise of the House of Saud

Author : Dr. Tarik K. Firro
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 178284578X
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (828 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Wahhabism and the Rise of the House of Saud by : Dr. Tarik K. Firro

Download or read book Wahhabism and the Rise of the House of Saud written by Dr. Tarik K. Firro and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-12 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the role of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792) and his successors in reconsolidating the religious principles of Wahhabism. It explains the role of the Saudi princes in crystallizing the core of the SaudiWahhabi political entity within their tribal society. Key to this explanation is the interrelation between sedentary and nomadic populations and the consequent impact on the development of Saudi political entities prior to the emergence of the Saudi Kingdom. Texts of Wahhabi scholars are compared with those of the early Hanbali scholars, pinpointing the new religious elements introduced to foster the Wahhabi creed. Discussion focuses on the first and second generations of Wahhabi scholars who maintained the Wahhabi creed with great success, keeping its hegemony as the main doctrine in Saudi Arabia, and developing a takfiri discourse (accusing people of being infidels) which by the nineteenth century had become the main religious and political weapon by which the Wahhabis mobilized supporters against their political and religious adversaries. To better understand this development, the meaning of kufr (heresy) in Islam and its implications in various Islamic doctrines is examined closely. The focus on the role of Wahhabi scholars in the nineteenth century sheds new lights on the principles of continuity and discontinuity in the historical development of Saudi political entities and explains the origin of the modern Saudi State. Although major socio-economic and cultural change is now taking place under the leadership of Prince Muhammad ibn Salman, the main religious structures of the state remain firmly in place. It remains to be seen how two diametric societal viewpoints will integrate or clash. This work is essential reading for all scholars and students of religious, cultural, social and political history of Saudi Arabia and Islam in the Middle East.

Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia

Author : Mohammed Ayoob
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia by : Mohammed Ayoob

Download or read book Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia written by Mohammed Ayoob and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is Wahhabism? What is its relationship with the Saudi state? Does it play a part in Islamist terrorist threats? These are among the complex questions tackled in Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia. Moving from the historical, social, and political contexts in which Wahhabism originated and flourished to its current internal divisions and its impact on Saudi-US relations, the authors offer thought-provoking, cutting-edge research that helps to unravel the mystery that has long surrounded the subject.

The Expansion of Wahhabi Power in Arabia, 1798-1932

Author : Anita L. P. Burdett
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781139975995
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (759 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Expansion of Wahhabi Power in Arabia, 1798-1932 by : Anita L. P. Burdett

Download or read book The Expansion of Wahhabi Power in Arabia, 1798-1932 written by Anita L. P. Burdett and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objective of this collection is to use contemporary documents to depict the gradual spread of Wahhabism within the Arabian Peninsula. It covers the period when Wahhabism and its adherents, a proportion of the al-Saud of Najd, attempted to spread their power base and impose Wahhabism, while enduring numerous defeats and set-backs, but also waves of success. Ultimately it might be argued that the support of the British government was crucial from 1925 to 1932 for Ibn Saud's eventual and ultimate defeat of the Akhwan revolts, in which one type of Wahhabism, that which endorsed constant and forceful territorial expansion, was itself defeated. However, this collection of documents is not presented as a history of the rise to power of the al-Saud, and the formation of the state of Saudi Arabia but instead is an attempt to focus on Wahhabism as the pivotal and driving force to that expansion.

A Tale Of Grand Resistance

Author : Catherine Shakdam
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781539585589
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (855 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A Tale Of Grand Resistance by : Catherine Shakdam

Download or read book A Tale Of Grand Resistance written by Catherine Shakdam and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Yemen managed to resist the Ottomans, the British Empire and pretty much all other imperial powers which ever attempted to subdue and control its people, the sons of Hamdan almost lost their freedom and national identity to the hegemonic ambitions of the House of Saud. Today Yemen is breaking free from the shackles of covert imperialism, learning once more to stand tall in the face of oppression. And though the impoverished nation is undergoing the growing pain of political empowerment, stumbling at times as a new generation of leaders are being made in the trenches of the Resistance movement, the sons of Hamdan are defiantly reclaiming their history, their land, their nation. As Yemen rises once more, it is a nation-state which will reclaim its place at the world table - with Yemen, Southern Arabia could witness the rise not of a political giant but a liberation movement echoing of the hopes first enounced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1979), when he first proposed an alternative to western capitalism as the only democratic model. Betrayed by their leadership, lost to corruption and bogged down by poverty Yemen's long descent to the abyss can be traced back to 1994, when former President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a pact with Riyadh - military and financial support against the Southern Secessionist Movement - in exchange for Yemen's heart and soul. Those Highlands the kingdom knew it could not militarily over-run, it chose to insidiously transform through the export of Wahhabism and Salafism. Former President Saleh opened Yemen up to Al Saud's ideological devolution in the name of territorial unity. And if Yemen's house stood united for a while, forced into a marriage of political and economic convenience by those ambitious men who failed to see past Saudi Arabia's imperial manipulations, the poison of sectarianism came to undo. Yemen's road to freedom would come by way of a counter-revolution, or rather a liberation, as the rise of the Houthis would mark the country's real democratic awakening. Often dismissed by local political observers as they carry the stigma of the former regime, the Houthis, a Zaidi group organised under the leadership of Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi with a tribal base in northern Sa'ada, have long shed their "rebel group" label. They have been reborn as a powerful and popular political movement. If the Houthis, a formerly obscure band of tribal fighters, could be sneered at back in 2009 and shrugged off as wannabe Shia rebels by Yemen's high and mighty, the 2011 uprising levelled the political field to such an extent that they have come out of the revolutionary storm like a shiny new penny. Edited by Sheikh Shabbir Hassanally

The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia

Author : David Commins
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857731351
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia by : David Commins

Download or read book The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia written by David Commins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2009-03-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wahhabism has been generating controversy since it first emerged in Arabia in the 18th century. In the wake of September 11th instant theories have emerged that try to root Osama Bin Laden's attacks on Wahhabism. Muslim critics have dismissed this conservative interpretation of Islam that is the official creed of Saudi Arabia as an unorthodox innovation that manipulated a suggestible people to gain political influence. David Commins' book questions this assumption. He examines the debate on the nature of Wahhabism, and offers original findings on its ascendance in Saudi Arabia and spread throughout other parts of the Muslim world such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also assesses the challenge that radical militants within Saudi Arabia pose to the region, and draws conclusions which will concern all those who follow events in the Kingdom. "The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia" is an essential reading for anyone interested in the Middle East and Islamic radicalism today.

The History of Saudi Arabia

Author : Alexei Vassiliev
Publisher : Saqi
ISBN 13 : 0863567797
Total Pages : 439 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (635 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The History of Saudi Arabia by : Alexei Vassiliev

Download or read book The History of Saudi Arabia written by Alexei Vassiliev and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How has Saudi Arabia managed to maintain its Arab and Islamic values while at the same time adopting Western technology and a market economy? How have its hereditary leaders, who govern with a mixture of political pragmatism and religious zeal, managed to maintain their power? This comprehensive history of Saudi Arabia from 1745 to the present provides insight into its culture and politi, its powerful oil industry, its relations with its neighbours, and the ongoing influence of the Wahhabi movement. Based on a wealth of Arab, American, British, Western and Eastern European sources, this book will stand as the definitive account of the largest state on the Arabian peninsula. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book 'If you read or own just one book on Saudi Arabia, make sure it is this one' -- Middle East Quarterly 'Combines a wealth of fascinating detail with rigorous and penetrating analysis.' -- Bernard Lewis 'An outstanding book: a study of the Saudi state rich in historical documentation. Comprehensive and measured.' -- Fred Halliday 'It will become required reading for all those interested in the country's shaping and development over the past two centuries.' -- Tim Niblock

God's Terrorists

Author : Charles Allen
Publisher : Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN 13 : 0306815222
Total Pages : 383 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (68 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis God's Terrorists by : Charles Allen

Download or read book God's Terrorists written by Charles Allen and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 2006-08-28 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this insightful and wide-ranging history, Allen describes the 18th-century reform movement of Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers--the Wahhabi--who sought the restoration of Islamic purity and declared violent jihad on all who opposed them, Moslems and pagans alike.

The Two Faces of Islam

Author : Stephen Schwartz
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1400030455
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Two Faces of Islam by : Stephen Schwartz

Download or read book The Two Faces of Islam written by Stephen Schwartz and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2003-09-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its formation in 1932, Saudi Arabia has been ruled by two interdependent families. The Al Sa’uds control politics and the descendants of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab impose Wahhabism—a violent, fanatical perversion of the pluralistic Islam practiced by most Muslims. Stephen Schwartz argues that Wahhabism, vigorously exported with the help of Saudi oil money, is what incites Palestinian suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden, and other Islamic terrorists throughout the world. Schwartz reveals the hypocrisy of the Saudi regime, whose moderate facade conceals state-sponsored repression and terrorism. He also raises troubling questions about Wahhabi infiltration of America’s Islamic community and about U.S. oil companies sanitizing Saudi Arabia’s image for the West. This sharp analysis and eye-opening expose illuminates the background to the September 11th terrorist attacks and offers new approaches for U.S. policy toward its closest ally in the Middle East.

The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud

Author : Saïd K. Aburish
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 0747578745
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (475 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud by : Saïd K. Aburish

Download or read book The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud written by Saïd K. Aburish and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-08-15 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The explosive story of the dynasty whose greed and corruption have brought Saudi Arabia to the very brink of bankruptcy - a dynasty now on the verge of collapse

MBS

Author : Ben Hubbard
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 1984823841
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis MBS by : Ben Hubbard

Download or read book MBS written by Ben Hubbard and published by Crown. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A gripping, behind-the-scenes portrait of the rise of Saudi Arabia’s secretive and mercurial new ruler “Revelatory . . . a vivid portrait of how MBS has altered the kingdom during his half-decade of rule.”—The Washington Post Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Kirkus Reviews MBS is the untold story of how a mysterious young prince emerged from Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family to overhaul the economy and society of the richest country in the Middle East—and gather as much power as possible into his own hands. Since his father, King Salman, ascended to the throne in 2015, Mohammed bin Salman has leveraged his influence to restructure the kingdom’s economy, loosen its strict Islamic social codes, and confront its enemies around the region, especially Iran. That vision won him fans at home and on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood, and at the White House, where President Trump embraced the prince as a key player in his own vision for the Middle East. But over time, the sheen of the visionary young reformer has become tarnished, leaving many struggling to determine whether MBS is in fact a rising dictator whose inexperience and rash decisions are destabilizing the world’s most volatile region. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, MBS reveals the machinations behind the kingdom’s catastrophic military intervention in Yemen, the bizarre detention of princes and businessmen in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, and the shifting Saudi relationships with Israel and the United States. And finally, it sheds new light on the greatest scandal of the young autocrat’s rise: the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a crime that shook Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Washington and left the world wondering whether MBS could get away with murder. MBS is a riveting, eye-opening account of how the young prince has wielded vast powers to reshape his kingdom and the world around him. Praise for MBS “Saudi Arabia is testing the extremes of tradition and innovation, of half-baked visions and intensifying repression. Ben Hubbard’s authoritative reporting on the inner sanctums of its society offers a perfect synthesis of journalism and area expertise: the best description we have at the moment of why things happen as they do in the kingdom.”—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo’s World

The Tyranny of Silence

Author : Flemming Rose
Publisher : Cato Institute
ISBN 13 : 1944424237
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (444 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Silence by : Flemming Rose

Download or read book The Tyranny of Silence written by Flemming Rose and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journalists face constant intimidation. Whether it takes the extreme form of beheadings, death threats, government censorship or simply political correctness—it casts a shadow over their ability to tell a story. When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad nine years ago, Denmark found itself at the center of a global battle about the freedom of speech. The paper's culture editor, Flemming Rose, defended the decision to print the 12 drawings, and he quickly came to play a central part in the debate about the limitations to freedom of speech in the 21st century. In The Tyranny of Silence, Flemming Rose writes about the people and experiences that have influenced his understanding of the crisis, including meetings with dissidents from the former Soviet Union and ex-Muslims living in Europe. He provides a personal account of an event that has shaped the debate about what it means to be a citizen in a democracy and how to coexist in a world that is increasingly multicultural, multireligious, and multiethnic.

The Clerics of Islam

Author : Nabil Mouline
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300206615
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Clerics of Islam by : Nabil Mouline

Download or read book The Clerics of Islam written by Nabil Mouline and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-25 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Followers of Muhammad b. ’Abd al-Wahhab, often considered to be Islam’s Martin Luther, shaped the political and religious identity of the Saudi state while also enabling the significant worldwide expansion of Salafist Islam. Studies of the movement he inspired, however, have often been limited by scholars’ insufficient access to key sources within Saudi Arabia. Nabil Mouline was granted rare interviews and admittance to important Saudi archives in preparation for this groundbreaking book, the first in-depth study of the Wahhabi religious movement from its founding to the modern day. Gleaning information from both written and oral sources and employing a multidisciplinary approach that combines history, sociology, and Islamic studies, Mouline presents a new reading of this movement that transcends the usual resort to polemics.

Inside the Kingdom

Author : Robert Lacey
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101140739
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Inside the Kingdom by : Robert Lacey

Download or read book Inside the Kingdom written by Robert Lacey and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It's all here-Islam, the family tree, a sea of oil and money to match, palace intrigue...This is high drama and an epic tale." -Tom Brokaw Though Saudi Arabia sits on one of the richest oil deposits in the world, it also produced fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. In this immensely important book, journalist Robert Lacey draws on years of access to every circle of Saudi society giving readers the fullest portrait yet of a land straddling the worlds of medievalism and modernity. Moving from the bloody seizure of Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, through the Persian Gulf War, to the delicate U.S.-Saudi relations in a post 9/11 world, Inside the Kingdom brings recent history to vivid life and offers a powerful story of a country learning how not to be at war with itself.

The Wahhabi Code

Author : Terence Ward
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1628729724
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (287 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Wahhabi Code by : Terence Ward

Download or read book The Wahhabi Code written by Terence Ward and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Eye-Opening, Concise Look at the Source of the Current Wave of Terrorism, How it Spread, and Why the West Did Nothing Lifting the mask of international terrorism, Terence Ward reveals a sinister truth. Far from being “the West’s ally in the War on Terror,” Saudi Arabia is in reality the largest exporter of Wahhabism—the severe, ultra-conservative sect of Islam that is both Saudi Arabia’s official religion and the core ideology for international terror groups such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Boko Haram. Over decades, the Saudi regime has engaged in a well-crafted mission to fund charities, mosques, and schools that promote their Wahhabi doctrine across the Middle East and beyond. Efforts to expand Saudi influence have now been focused on European cities as well. The front lines of the War of Terror aren’t a world away; they are much closer than we can imagine. Terence Ward, who has spent much of his life in the Middle East, gives his unique insight into the culture of extremism, its rapid expansion, and how it can be stopped.

Radical Islam's Rules

Author : Paul Marshall
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1461686903
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (616 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Radical Islam's Rules by : Paul Marshall

Download or read book Radical Islam's Rules written by Paul Marshall and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2005-02-25 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major feature of the rise of Islamism in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and parts of the West is the rapid growth of a starkly repressive version of Islamic shari'a law, often fueled by funds and support from Saudi Arabia. The central purpose of Islamists, including terrorists, is to impose such law in all Muslim lands, and then throughout the world in a new Caliphate. Despite its importance, this worldwide growth of extreme shari'a is under-documented and little understood. By a comparative study over the last twenty-five years of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia, this book shows its terrible effects on human rights, especially the status of women and religious freedom, of Muslims as well as religious minorities, and on democracy itself. It also shows that such laws are a direct threat to the American interest of advancing democracy and human rights, that the United States lacks a policy for dealing with the spread of extreme shari'a, and concludes with policy recommendations for the United States regarding specific countries confronting extreme shari'a.

The Birth of the Islamic Reform Movement in Saudi Arabia

Author : George Rentz
Publisher : Arabian Publishing Limited
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Birth of the Islamic Reform Movement in Saudi Arabia by : George Rentz

Download or read book The Birth of the Islamic Reform Movement in Saudi Arabia written by George Rentz and published by Arabian Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2004 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current troubles in the middle east have focused much international attention on Saudi Arabia. However, little has been published in English on the background to its culture and its roots in the First Saudi State that arose in 18th-century Najd (central Arabia).The Islamic reform movement that imbued it with its sense of mission, and the life and thought of its proponent Shaikh Muhammad b. 'Abd al- Wahhab (1703/4-1792), have been similarly neglected. Often referred to outside Arabia as Wahhabism, the Shaikh's teachings have been a fundamental influence on the lives of Saudi Arabians and their government ever since his death in 1792. His ideas continue to inspire his many followers, both inside the Kingdom and abroad. A knowledge of his life and thought is vital to a proper understanding of both Saudi Arabia and the Arab world of today. Students of Saudi Arabian history have long recognized George S. Rentz's thesis on the Shaikh's life and the origins of the First Saudi State as a work of pioneering scholarship. Despite this, since its acceptance in 1947 by the University of California, it has never before now been published. Rentz (1912-87) went on to become head of Aramco's research department. Closely basing his account on the local Najdi chronicles which were contemporary with many of the events they describe, Rentz pieces together the life and thought of the thinker who set out to purify Islam as he saw it practised around him, and to direct Muslims back to the fountainhead of their faith. In the process Rentz tells the colourful story of the creation of the First Saudi State (1745-1818) with its capital at al-Dir'iyah, near present-day Riyadh.

Wahhabi Islam

Author : Natana J. Delong-Bas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199883548
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Wahhabi Islam by : Natana J. Delong-Bas

Download or read book Wahhabi Islam written by Natana J. Delong-Bas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-07-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before 9/11, few Westerners had heard of Wahhabism. Today, it is a household word. Frequently mentioned in association with Osama bin Laden, Wahhabism is portrayed by the media and public officials as an intolerant, puritanical, militant interpretation of Islam that calls for the wholesale destruction of the West in a jihad of global proportions. In the first study ever undertaken of the writings of Wahhabism's founder, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1702-1791), Natana DeLong-Bas shatters these stereotypes and misconceptions. Her reading of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's works produces a revisionist thesis: Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was not the godfather of contemporary terrorist movements. Rather, he was a voice of reform, reflecting mainstream 18th-century Islamic thought. His vision of Islamic society was based upon a monotheism in which Muslims, Christians and Jews were to enjoy peaceful co-existence and cooperative commercial and treaty relations. Eschewing medieval interpretations of the Quran and hadith (sayings and deeds of the prophet Muhammad), Ibn Abd al-Wahhab called for direct, historically contextualized interpretation of scripture by both women and men. His understanding of theology and Islamic law was rooted in Quranic values, rather than literal interpretations. A strong proponent of women's rights, he called for a balance of rights between women and men both within marriage and in access to education and public space. In the most comprehensive study of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's interpretation of jihad ever written, DeLong-Bas details a vision in which jihad is strictly limited to the self-defense of the Muslim community against military aggression. Contemporary extremists like Osama bin Laden do not have their origins in Wahhabism, she shows. The hallmark jihadi focus on a cult of martyrdom, the strict division of the world into two necessarily opposing spheres, the wholescale destruction of both civilian life and property, and the call for global jihad are entirely absent from Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's writings. Instead, the militant stance of contemporary jihadism lies in adherence to the writings of the medieval scholar, Ibn Taymiyya, and the 20th century Egyptian radical, Sayyid Qutb. This pathbreaking book fills an enormous gap in the literature about Wahhabism by returning to the original writings of its founder. Bound to be controversial, it will be impossible to ignore.