Transcript Revival and Reform

Revival and
Reform in the
18th and 19th
Centuries
Context of Revival and
Reform
• Gunpowder Empires
• Late Sunni Tradition: knot of…
– The 4 Sunni schools of law… or else.
– Speculative theology
– Sufi brotherhoods (and often the theosophical
Sufism of Ibn Arabi), acceptance of popular
ritual
• Hejaz as Crucible of reformist thought?
Movements of Revival and Reform
18th century sees series of (Salafi?)
movements in peripheral areas:
• Notion that community had gone astray
• Questioning Late Sunni Tradition in order
to regain primordial purity of Islam
• Shirk had led people from tawhid
• Taqlid not acceptable
• Elite vs. Masses: confidence in masses
• Political/Military vs. other Muslims
Ex. Wahhabi movement in Arabia, Sokoto
Caliphate in Hausaland, Futa Jallan (d.
1751) in Senegal
Wahhabi Movement - Emergence
Arabia on the Eve of the movement:
– Alois Musil: non-Islamic religion prevelant;
Bedouins sacrifice camels at graves of
ancestors, area around the grave of Zayd b.
al-Khattab exempt from taxes
– Dates are really only crop, with some wheat
and millet… all depends on irrigation …
drought is catastrophic
– Settled – Sown continuum
– Hierarchy of tribes, with Sulubba at the
bottom (crafts, repairs)
– Mecca and Medina are centers of Ottoman
Late Sunni Tradition
Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab
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b. 1703-4 in Uyayna to family of Hanbalis scholars
Married at age 12, had over 20 wives  form alliances
His father had written a treatise against the veneration of
saints… inspired by Ibn Taymiyya
Travels to Mecca Medina and Basra, and the Hejaz,
where he studies with scholars who (like Muhammad b.
Hayat al-Sindi d. 1165/1751) inspire him with idea of
returning to Tawhid and using hadith to do so
In 1740 becomes judge in Uyayna; where the amir of the
city sees the shaykh’s teachings as a basis for political
power, amir has some sacred trees chopped down, but
angers peoples and has to flee the city; angers Shiite in
al-Hisa’
In Dir’iyya he meets Muhammad b. Saud in 1744….
Alliance formed between the Shaykh the Imam
Wahhabi Ideology
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Jahiliyya vs. Tawhid (no saints or idolatry) / Sunna
vs. Taqlid (go back to Hadiths)
Manifestations of Pure Tawhid:
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Moral revival: Condemns greed and usury, encourages
morals and kindness
Sunna:
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Practice and rejection of cultural accretion: Anti saints, cults
and dhikr, but not against Sufism per se
Intention: Anti- riya’
Social: Abolishes hierachical practices such as handkissing
rejection of loyalty to a school of law  ijtihad
rejection of foreign sciences in Islamic thought
Anti Shiite (ex. refutations written by his son Abdallah)
Political link to Sauds: linked to and loyal to amir, who
is responsible for caring for community and setting up
proper Islamic society, Saudi amir is called “imām”
It is interesting that he is rejecting staples of Ottoman
nobility (booze, tabacoo, zikr, silk)
History of Wahhabi Movement
After Ibn Abd al-Wahhab:
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1801 Wahhabi troops attack Kerbala
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1803 Wahhabis capture Mecca and Medina
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1812 Ibrahim Pasha sent to crush Wahhabis in Nejd, 1818 he captures
Diriyya and has grandsons of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab imprisoned or killed
Saudi/Wahhabi State… Round Two!
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1902 Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud (d. 1953) takes Riyadh
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Creation of Ikhwan and Hijras c. 1912
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1924 Ikhwan attack Mecca and Medina, massacre at Taif, Ibn Saud
enters Mecca as a pilgrim upon its surrender
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1932 kingdom of Najd and Hijaz declared
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1933 Aramco formed, first serious oil pumped in 1948… in early 50’s
Saudis get 50% of revenue
Making Peace with the World vs. Auto-Immune Disorder of Fundamentalism:
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1920 Ikhwan attack Kuwait, Brits drive them back with bombs
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1929 Ibn Saud fights war with Ikhwan at Battle of Sibla, Ibn Saud
crushes the Ikhwan and destroys their camps… Ikhwan at an end
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Problem of settling Bedouins and paying them stipends to prevent
further attacks and raiding, this of course gets easier in the 1940’s
when real oil revenue starts coming in.
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But it’s not gone! Haram takeover in 1979 by Juhaiman al-Utayba
Usman don Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate
• Rejects of elitism of Muslim scholars
• Rejects pantheistic worship: trees etc.
• 1804-08 ‘Jihad’ against those who refuse
to purify their Islam… book “Revival of the
Sunna and Extinguishing Bid’a”
• Establishes Sokoto State: has total of 13
wives… anti-racism and tribalism
• Makes ‘Islam’ a widely practiced religion
amongst the Hausa and Fulani
Shah Wali Allah of Delhi
• d. 1762
• Studied in the Hejaz with same teachers as Ibn Abd
al-Wahhab
• Intellectual reformist
– Ijtihad and hadith for scholars, Hanafi madhhb
for masses
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– Re-Sunni-ization
Sought political unity in India
Supported Sober Sufism (Qadiri order)
Compromised on popular rituals
Well spring of Reformist thought in India