Griffithes Wheeler Thatcher

“ Even orthodox doctors of Islam have confessed that in Ibn ‛Abd ul-Wahhāb's writings there is nothing but what they themselves hold. At the same time the fact that so many of his followers were rough and unthinking Bedouins has led to the over-emphasis of minor points of practice, so that they often appear to observers to be characterized chiefly by a strictness (real or feigned) in such matters as the prohibition of silk for dress, or the use of tobacco, or of the rosary in prayer. ”

“ WAHHĀBIS, a Mahommedan sect, the followers of Ibn ‛Abd ul-Wahhāb, who instituted a great reform in the religion of Islam in Arabia in the 18th century. Mahommed ibn ‛Abd ul-Wahhāb was born in 1691 (or 1703) at al-Ḥauţa of the Nejd in central Arabia, and was of the tribe of the Bani Tamīm. He studied literature and jurisprudence of the Hanifite school. After making the pilgrimage with his father, he spent some further time in the study of law at Medina, and resided for a while at Isfahan, whence he returned to the Nejd to undertake the work of a teacher. ”

“ Moslems who did not accept his teaching, as well as Christians, &c.) were to be put to death. Immediate entrance into Paradise was promised to his soldiers who fell in battle, and it is said that each soldier was provided with a written order from Ibn ‛Abd ul-Wahhāb to the gate-keeper of heaven to admit him forthwith. In this way the new teaching was established in the greater part of Arabia until its power was broken by Mehemet Ali (see Arabia: History) . Ibn ‛Abd ul-Wahhāb is said to have died in 1791. ”