WAHHBIS:
an eighteenth century REVITALIZATION MOVEMENT in ISLAM owing its origin to
Muhammad Abd al-Wahhb who denounced idolatry including visiting the tombs of SAINTS,
invoking PROPHETS, saints and angels and seeking their intercession, and making vows to
anyone but GOD. It stressed PREDESTINATION and denounced ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION of the
QUR'N. Demanding that FAITH should be proved by works, it made attendance at
public PRAYER obligatory, the ROSARY was forbidden and MOSQUES were stripped of ornaments.
In 1902 Ibn Sa'd, captured Ryad and the HOLY cities of MECCA and MEDINA and in 1925
established a Wahhbi dynasty in Arabia. Although puritanical, the movement is modernizing
and has no hesitation about using the results of Western SCIENCE.