From Ottoman Ḥanbalīs to Reformist Wahhābīs

Present-day discussions of Salafism tend to reduce it from a complex and diffuse phenomenon to the simple product of Wahhābī influence and expansionism made possible by Saudi oil money, invoking a neat narrative of Saudi cultural imperialism. Obfuscation and speculative generalizations abound in this narrative, and ultimately Salafism is portrayed as rigid, anti-modern, and exclusivist. The proposed research project aims to reassess Salafism as more than an opportunist political movement, recognizing it first and foremost as a substantive theological tradition, and exploring the historical and intellectual environment in which it emerged, not just to survive but ultimately to thrive among Muslim communities until this day. Its ongoing relevance is clear from the multitude of its current expressions – some less pacifist than others – among Muslim communities.The proposed project explores the dynamics of interaction between one of the earliest manifestations of the Salafī movement and the intellectual Ḥanbalī tradition in which its ideas are embedded. This is pursued by establishing an intellectual genealogy of the Ḥanbalī school during the Ottoman period, as well as the early Salafist Wahhābī movement, founded by Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1792). The project will thereby challenge the common assumption that the Wahhābī movement emerged more or less out of thin air, and take seriously the significant shifts which Ḥanbalī thought must have undergone in the centuries leading up to the emergence of Salafism in its Wahhābī form, supposedly a period of intellectual stagnation or decline. Surprisingly little attention has thus far been awarded the theological developments taking place in this time frame (namely from the early 16th to the early 20th century), despite the fact that the foundational ideas and theological principles of Wahhābī thought took shape within Ḥanbalī scholarly circles precisely during this time. The project will thus seek to reconnect Wahhābism to the centuries of Ḥanbalī tradition preceding and following its emergence.

Keywords:Wahhābism, Salafism, Ḥanbalism, Ottomans, revivalism, islamic theology

Disciplines:Study of Islam and qur'anic studies, History of religions, churches and theology, Middle Eastern history