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Wahhabisme: Sebuah Tinjauan Kritis
Wahhabism, a peculiar interpretation of Islamic doctrine and practice that first arose in mid-eighteenth century Arabia, is sometimes regarded as simply an extreme or uncompromising form of Sunni Islam. This is incorrect, for at the very outset the movement was stigmatized as aberrant by the leading Sunni scholars of the day, because it rejected many of the traditional beliefs and practices of Sunni Islam and declared permissible warfare against all Muslims that disputed Wahhabi teachings. Nor can Wahhabism be regarded as a movement of “purification” or “renewal,” as the source of the genuinely revivalist movements that were underway at the time. Not until Saudi oil money was placed at the disposal of its propagandists did Wahhabism find an echo outside the Arabian Peninsula.
The author discusses the rise of Wahhabism at the hands of Muhammad b. `Abd al-Wahhab, a native of Najd in the eastern part of the Arabian peninsula, the doctrines he elaborated to serve as the basis of the Wahhabi sect, and the alliance he concluded with the Saudi family, then rulers of the principality of al-Dir'iya. An early result of this union was a creeping conquest of the Arabian Peninsula, misnamed as jihad; it culminated in the sacking of Taif and the occupation of Mecca in 1803. This first Wahhabi occupation was short-lived but Wahhabism triumphed anew with the foundation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1925. Among the extensions of Wahhabism beyond Arabia must be accounted the perverse and brutal regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
107 pages, ebook
First published March 10, 2002
13 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Hamid Algar
54 books30 followersHamid Algar began his studies of Arabic, Persian and Islamic Civilzation at Cambridge in 1959. After graduating, he spent a lengthy and fruitful period of travel in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan before returning to Cambridge in 1963 and completing his doctorate there two years later. He has been teaching in the Department of Near Eastern Studies since 1965, providing a wide range of instruction in the fields of Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish literature and offering lecture courses on various aspects of Islamic religion and culture. His research interests center on Shi’ism in Iran and Sufism in the Persian and Persian-influenced world, with particular emphasis on the Naqshbandi order. His copious writings have been published in an array of languages additional to English: French, German, Russian, Italian, Bosnian, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Malay/Indonesian. He was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Tehran.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 14, 2019
Sudah lama mencari edisi asalnya dalam bahasa Inggeris tetapi tidak ketemui. Jadi terjemahan bahasa Indonesia ini mungkin boleh jadi galang gantinya sementara menanti karya asalnya.
Ditulis oleh sejarawan dan sarjana yang menguasai sumber asal yang merakam gerakan Wahabi ini, Prof Hamid menyusur sejarah pendiri Wahabisme dengan memulakan mengapa istilah Wahabi wajar digunakan dan bukannya semata-mata label yang diada-adakan Barat. Secara sejarahnya, ia sudah dirakam sebagai gerakan ikatan antara aliran kefahaman agama yang literal, marginal dan menyeleweng dengan kabilah yang mahu mencabar kekuasaan sah, iaitu Daulah Turki Uthmaniyah dan pemerintah Makkah dengan menggunakan kaedah keganasan yang barangkali boleh dilihat pada apa yang dilakukan oleh ISIS/Daesh di Iraq dan Syria.
Buku ini ringkas tetapi boleh dijadikan landas untuk mengetahu hakikat Wahabisme dan pada masa membezakannya dengan gerakan Salafiyah - kedua-duanya memiliki persamaan tetapi tetap ada perbezaan - supaya kita tidak terperangkap dalam pandangan sempit Barat yang menyamakan semua gerakan di negara Islam sebagai Wahabi seperti yang mereka lakukan terhadap makna Islam dalam konteks keganasan dan lebih penting tidak mengulangi kesalahan fatal kelompok Wahabi yang menjadikan semua kelompok selain mereka sebagai golongan yang keluar daripada ajaran Islam.
Ditulis oleh sejarawan dan sarjana yang menguasai sumber asal yang merakam gerakan Wahabi ini, Prof Hamid menyusur sejarah pendiri Wahabisme dengan memulakan mengapa istilah Wahabi wajar digunakan dan bukannya semata-mata label yang diada-adakan Barat. Secara sejarahnya, ia sudah dirakam sebagai gerakan ikatan antara aliran kefahaman agama yang literal, marginal dan menyeleweng dengan kabilah yang mahu mencabar kekuasaan sah, iaitu Daulah Turki Uthmaniyah dan pemerintah Makkah dengan menggunakan kaedah keganasan yang barangkali boleh dilihat pada apa yang dilakukan oleh ISIS/Daesh di Iraq dan Syria.
Buku ini ringkas tetapi boleh dijadikan landas untuk mengetahu hakikat Wahabisme dan pada masa membezakannya dengan gerakan Salafiyah - kedua-duanya memiliki persamaan tetapi tetap ada perbezaan - supaya kita tidak terperangkap dalam pandangan sempit Barat yang menyamakan semua gerakan di negara Islam sebagai Wahabi seperti yang mereka lakukan terhadap makna Islam dalam konteks keganasan dan lebih penting tidak mengulangi kesalahan fatal kelompok Wahabi yang menjadikan semua kelompok selain mereka sebagai golongan yang keluar daripada ajaran Islam.
October 8, 2011
The beauty of this book is that Dr. Hamid Algar relies on Saudi historical writings themselves to proves his case. As it is an essay, it is quite short. I only wish it was expanded into a full-fledged book.
May 27, 2011
The best way to understand Saudi Arabia. Read it.
April 20, 2013
Tinjauan kritis Prof. Algar atas gerakan Wahhabi ini enak dibaca, bernas juga. Pendirian-pendiriannya atas gerakan yang didirikan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab ini juga "mewakili" suara-suara kaum Muslim 'mainstream'. Memang subjektif, tapi tetap akademis. Kadang-kadang, saya harus mengeluarkan senyum simpul saat membaca komentar-komentar sambil lalu Algar atas Wahhabisme atau Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Misalnya, saat ia menulis bahwa buku-buku Ibn Abd al-Wahhab lebih pantas disebut "buku catatan seorang pelajar" daripada karya seorang ulama yang mumpuni di bidangnya; atau ketika ia menyinggung lembaga-lembaga dakwah Wahhabi di zaman sekarang yang "secara absurd dan salah kaprah disebut universitas."
Saya kira, pendapat Algar bahwa Wahhabisme merupakan gerakan sempalan, bukan salah satu sub-aliran dalam Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jama'ah, patut kita pertimbangkan. Gerakan ini tidak memiliki preseden dalam sejarah Islam sebelumnya, kecuali mungkin Khawarij dalam tindak kekerasan dan intoleransinya. Begitu pula komentarnya bahwa sangat keliru kalau kita menyejajarkan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab dengan Syah Wali Allah atau bahkan Ibn Taymiyyah yang sangat ia puji-puji, sebagai salah satu tokoh pembaru Islam.
Saya kira, pendapat Algar bahwa Wahhabisme merupakan gerakan sempalan, bukan salah satu sub-aliran dalam Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jama'ah, patut kita pertimbangkan. Gerakan ini tidak memiliki preseden dalam sejarah Islam sebelumnya, kecuali mungkin Khawarij dalam tindak kekerasan dan intoleransinya. Begitu pula komentarnya bahwa sangat keliru kalau kita menyejajarkan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab dengan Syah Wali Allah atau bahkan Ibn Taymiyyah yang sangat ia puji-puji, sebagai salah satu tokoh pembaru Islam.
September 20, 2015
I've seen references to this work in various places, thought i'd give this short book (essay) a read. The author runs through in a cursory manner the genesis of the Wahhabi movement, and it's close ties in the formation of the early Saudi State and later Saudi Religious Establishment. Saudi Arabia until today is the foremost propagator of the Wahhabi ideology and it's global exporter - indications to this effect are made in the American context via various organisations. The author's tone is hostile, understandably the subject matter at hand has had serious historical ramifications and the fallout continues to plague various societies. Interesting to note, Wahhabism thrives most prosperously in war-torn and conflict ravaged nations - where all apparatus of state, society and civilisation have fallen to ruin, from the ashes rears the ugly head of Wahhabism. This is a good read to ascertain a historical prospective, albeit all too short to satisfy any real curiosity - also, such efforts need to be updated; parallels and influences on current happenings need to be illustrated and explained, as Wahhabism has a tendency to deceptively morph itself in order to dupe the unsuspecting and dimwitted.
November 22, 2023
"What has inspired this essay, first drafted more than a year ago, is rather a concern that the Wahhabis have seriously distorted fundamental teachings of Islam; functioned for many decades as the ideological mainstay of a regime that has squandered the wealth of the Arabian peninsula; vilified Muslims, both Sunni and Shi‘i, as non-Muslim and shed their blood; introduced or exacerbated division and strife wherever they have gone; destroyed a significant part of the cultural patrimony of all Muslims, first in the Hijaz and then in places such as Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosova; and signally failed to contribute anything to either the intellectual elaboration of Islam or the advancement of its political and civilizational agenda in the present age."
A must-read.
A must-read.
June 5, 2024
AN EXCELLENT BRIEF SURVEY OF WAHHABISM
Hamid Algar is a British-American Professor Emeritus of Persian studies at UC Berkeley. He wrote in the first chapter of this 2002 essay, “What follows is a modest survey of the history, the doctrines, and the contemporary significance of Wahhabism… in the … rich history of Islamic thought, Wahhabism does not occupy a particularly important place. Intellectually marginal, the Wahhabi movement had the good fortune to emerge in the Arabian Peninsula … and its Saudi patrons had the good fortune, in the twentieth century, to acquire massive oil wealth, a portion of which has been used in attempts to propagate Wahhabism in the Muslim world and beyond.” (Pg. 1-2)
He explains, “In the twentieth century, it is true, the Saudi state came to acquire a second raison d’être as a privileged instrument of foreign---first British and then American---interests in the Middle East. In its origin, however, it was simply the political and the military arm of the Wahhabi sect. the weakening of the linkage between the religious establishment and the Saudi family now visibly underway is in its essence the inevitable outcome of a clash between these two inherited loyalties, the Wahhabi and the Anglo-American. It remains to be seen what will occur once these Siamese twins… are disconnected from each other and which will survive.” (Pg. 19)
He notes, “the Wahhabi dismissal of all Muslims other than themselves as non-believers is of more than historical significance. Discreetly concealed over the years because of a variety of factors---above all the desire of the Saudi regime to portray itself as a protector of Muslim interests, despite abundant evidence to the contrary---this attitude of monopolistic rejection continues to inform the attitudes to Muslims held by contemporary Wahhabis and those under their influence, even when not fully articulated.” (Pg. 20)
He points out, “It is … indisputable that the millennial role of the Haramayn as centers of Islamic scholarship and intellectual exchange, populated by teachers and students from places as far apart as Central Asia, the Malay-Indonesian world, Subsaharan Africa, and India, was now definitively at an end. The dead hand of Wahhabism has left nothing in its place. With the exception of small, semi-clandestine teaching circles, all that is now to be found in Mecca and Medina are institutes for the propagation of Wahhabism, grotesquely mislabeled as universities.” (Pg. 44)
He suggests, “Wahhabism has by no means universally triumphed. In many parts of the Middle East, the Sufi orders had shown a resilience and vitality that have confounded Wahhabis and Western scholars alike. Certain areas of the Muslim world are, however, particularly vulnerable to Wahhabism, especially those now emerging from decades of communist rule and war. It is undeniable that Wahhabism has made progress in the Central Asian republics as well as the North Caucasus, although certainly to a lesser degree than is claimed by Moscow. The misery suffered by the Bosnian Muslims in recent years has been accentuated by the efforts of various outsiders, Wahhabis among them, to propagate their own understandings of Islam at the expense of local tradition. This has had an architectural as well as a creedal dimension. As if the depredations carried out by Serbs and Croats during the war were not enough, Wahhabi exertions in Bosnia have included defacement in the name of restoration.” (Pg. 54-55)
He observes, “It remains uncertain whether the Northern Alliance will prove a lesser evil than the Taliban, but what is striking in the fulminations of these sages is their complete indifference to the real and acute sufferings of the Afghan people and their censorious concentration on issues of the type mentioned. A similar callousness can be deduced from their assessment of the attack on the World Trade Center as ‘divine retribution.’ What offenses meriting divine punishment had bene committed by thousands of people going about their daily business is a mystery, unless one espouses a Qur’anically untenable belief in collective guilt… It strikes the present writer as little short of blasphemous to suggest that the death of unsuspecting postal workers from handling anthrax-laden mail is somehow a manifestation of divine will and wisdom.” (Pg. 59)
He concludes, “The two raison d’être of the Saudi regime---subservience to external powers and adherence to the Wahhabi sect---are now proving increasingly incompatible. It is devoutly---in the literal sense of that word---to be hoped that if the Saudi monarchy collapses, something other than a retrograde Wahhabi regime will emerge from its ruins.” (Pg. 66)
He adds, “What has inspired this essay… [is] a concern that the Wahhabis have seriously distorted fundamental teachings of Islam; functioned for many decades as the ideological mainstay of a regime that has squandered the wealth of the Arabian peninsula; vilified Muslims, both Sunni and Shi’i, as non-Muslim and shed their blood; introduced or exacerbated division and strife wherever they have gone; destroyed a significant part of the cultural patrimony of all Muslims, first in the Hijaz and then in places such as Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosova; and signally failed to contribute anything to either the intellectual elaboration of Islam or the advancement of its political and civilizational agenda in the present age.” (Pg. 69-70)
Although short, this essay will be of great interest to those studying Wahhabism, and modern Saudi Arabia.
Hamid Algar is a British-American Professor Emeritus of Persian studies at UC Berkeley. He wrote in the first chapter of this 2002 essay, “What follows is a modest survey of the history, the doctrines, and the contemporary significance of Wahhabism… in the … rich history of Islamic thought, Wahhabism does not occupy a particularly important place. Intellectually marginal, the Wahhabi movement had the good fortune to emerge in the Arabian Peninsula … and its Saudi patrons had the good fortune, in the twentieth century, to acquire massive oil wealth, a portion of which has been used in attempts to propagate Wahhabism in the Muslim world and beyond.” (Pg. 1-2)
He explains, “In the twentieth century, it is true, the Saudi state came to acquire a second raison d’être as a privileged instrument of foreign---first British and then American---interests in the Middle East. In its origin, however, it was simply the political and the military arm of the Wahhabi sect. the weakening of the linkage between the religious establishment and the Saudi family now visibly underway is in its essence the inevitable outcome of a clash between these two inherited loyalties, the Wahhabi and the Anglo-American. It remains to be seen what will occur once these Siamese twins… are disconnected from each other and which will survive.” (Pg. 19)
He notes, “the Wahhabi dismissal of all Muslims other than themselves as non-believers is of more than historical significance. Discreetly concealed over the years because of a variety of factors---above all the desire of the Saudi regime to portray itself as a protector of Muslim interests, despite abundant evidence to the contrary---this attitude of monopolistic rejection continues to inform the attitudes to Muslims held by contemporary Wahhabis and those under their influence, even when not fully articulated.” (Pg. 20)
He points out, “It is … indisputable that the millennial role of the Haramayn as centers of Islamic scholarship and intellectual exchange, populated by teachers and students from places as far apart as Central Asia, the Malay-Indonesian world, Subsaharan Africa, and India, was now definitively at an end. The dead hand of Wahhabism has left nothing in its place. With the exception of small, semi-clandestine teaching circles, all that is now to be found in Mecca and Medina are institutes for the propagation of Wahhabism, grotesquely mislabeled as universities.” (Pg. 44)
He suggests, “Wahhabism has by no means universally triumphed. In many parts of the Middle East, the Sufi orders had shown a resilience and vitality that have confounded Wahhabis and Western scholars alike. Certain areas of the Muslim world are, however, particularly vulnerable to Wahhabism, especially those now emerging from decades of communist rule and war. It is undeniable that Wahhabism has made progress in the Central Asian republics as well as the North Caucasus, although certainly to a lesser degree than is claimed by Moscow. The misery suffered by the Bosnian Muslims in recent years has been accentuated by the efforts of various outsiders, Wahhabis among them, to propagate their own understandings of Islam at the expense of local tradition. This has had an architectural as well as a creedal dimension. As if the depredations carried out by Serbs and Croats during the war were not enough, Wahhabi exertions in Bosnia have included defacement in the name of restoration.” (Pg. 54-55)
He observes, “It remains uncertain whether the Northern Alliance will prove a lesser evil than the Taliban, but what is striking in the fulminations of these sages is their complete indifference to the real and acute sufferings of the Afghan people and their censorious concentration on issues of the type mentioned. A similar callousness can be deduced from their assessment of the attack on the World Trade Center as ‘divine retribution.’ What offenses meriting divine punishment had bene committed by thousands of people going about their daily business is a mystery, unless one espouses a Qur’anically untenable belief in collective guilt… It strikes the present writer as little short of blasphemous to suggest that the death of unsuspecting postal workers from handling anthrax-laden mail is somehow a manifestation of divine will and wisdom.” (Pg. 59)
He concludes, “The two raison d’être of the Saudi regime---subservience to external powers and adherence to the Wahhabi sect---are now proving increasingly incompatible. It is devoutly---in the literal sense of that word---to be hoped that if the Saudi monarchy collapses, something other than a retrograde Wahhabi regime will emerge from its ruins.” (Pg. 66)
He adds, “What has inspired this essay… [is] a concern that the Wahhabis have seriously distorted fundamental teachings of Islam; functioned for many decades as the ideological mainstay of a regime that has squandered the wealth of the Arabian peninsula; vilified Muslims, both Sunni and Shi’i, as non-Muslim and shed their blood; introduced or exacerbated division and strife wherever they have gone; destroyed a significant part of the cultural patrimony of all Muslims, first in the Hijaz and then in places such as Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosova; and signally failed to contribute anything to either the intellectual elaboration of Islam or the advancement of its political and civilizational agenda in the present age.” (Pg. 69-70)
Although short, this essay will be of great interest to those studying Wahhabism, and modern Saudi Arabia.
October 27, 2023
If you’re looking for an in-depth analysis of the life & work of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, this is certainly not it. Very little information is provided on his biographical & theological background. Much more time is spent decrying the oppression of the Jafari Shia community under wahhabi rule, which is a legitimate concern but is obviously overemphasized in comparison to other communities as the author himself is Shia. The truth is almost any non-wahhabi sect of Islam (Traditional Sunni, Sufi, Zaydi, Ismaili, Ahmadi, Druze, Alawite, Alevi, Bektashi, etc) and other religious minorities in Muslim lands (Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Yazidi, Mandaeans, Manicheans , Baha’i, Azali, Zoroastrian, Animist - the list is endless) could also write a book and fill it with countless injustices done to their people at the hands of Wahhabi/Salafis.
But overall it is a good springboard, starting point, for those who are trying to understand at a very fundamental level what is Wahhabism/Salafism.
Personally, if one wants a much more in-depth analysis of Wahhabism, and how much it’s propaganda/doctrines have infiltrated into all facets of Muslim life, theology and worldview, then I would recommend “WHY I AM A SALAFI” by Michael Muhammad Knight.
But overall it is a good springboard, starting point, for those who are trying to understand at a very fundamental level what is Wahhabism/Salafism.
Personally, if one wants a much more in-depth analysis of Wahhabism, and how much it’s propaganda/doctrines have infiltrated into all facets of Muslim life, theology and worldview, then I would recommend “WHY I AM A SALAFI” by Michael Muhammad Knight.
February 25, 2021
This book by Hamid Algar documents the rise of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and the distortion of the fundamental teachings of Islam that functioned for decades as the ideological mainstay of the Saudi regime. Depicting the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (d.1792), as an intellectual lightweight by expounding on his iconoclasm and condemnation as infidels of Muslims who do not accept his radical doctrines. The Wahhabi movement is vehemently vilified by the Muslim community at large; exacerbating divisions throughout Asia and Europe. Algar discusses how the Wahhabi movement made it possible to justify the shedding of blood of those who do not adhere to its brand of Islamic purity. This book serves as an introductory to ascertain a historical outlook admittingly too short to satisfy any real curiosity.
October 11, 2018
أقل من توقعاتي لأني انتظرت أن يقدم شرحا للأفكار الوهابية ونقد عميق لها ولكني وجدته يقدم معلومات تاريخية مختصرة عن نشأة محمد ابن عبد الوهاب وتحالفه مع آل سعود في الدرعية من أجل نشر افكاره في اراضي الحجاز قبل أن يسيطر آل سعود عليها
انتظرت منه أن يحلل شخصية محمد ابن عبد الوهاب أو يحلل افكاره ويقدم نقدا وافيا ومفصلا لها ولكني وجدت النقد في اخر عشر صفحات فقط ولم يكن هذا كافيا بالنسبة لي
انتظرت منه أن يحلل شخصية محمد ابن عبد الوهاب أو يحلل افكاره ويقدم نقدا وافيا ومفصلا لها ولكني وجدت النقد في اخر عشر صفحات فقط ولم يكن هذا كافيا بالنسبة لي
November 3, 2019
If you really want to dig in and discover what serious Muslim theologians think about the fanatics that have plagued them for 200 years this is a great book to read. A blistering critique and revealing history.
Read
February 22, 2020كتاب مليئ بالحقد والكراهية
لـ أهل السنة والجماعة
وللمملكة العربية السعودية
لاعجب
فالمؤلف انجليزي من أصل فارسي
👎👎👎
لـ أهل السنة والجماعة
وللمملكة العربية السعودية
لاعجب
فالمؤلف انجليزي من أصل فارسي
👎👎👎
November 19, 2024
كتاب مهم جدا، بيأرخ لتتاريخ الوهابي وعلاقتها بالسياسة على مدار مراحلها.
July 5, 2025
Thorough, but redundant.
June 29, 2008
Nothing really to it. A basic diatrabe on what the author believes as the difference between wahhabi and other isalmists. It takes him to the second to last chapter to tell you that he is against wahhabism. I knew that after the first chapter. This book is short and doesn't comprise of really anything. It makes statements without expanding and giving them a rational. Kind of like:
the orthodox christians have a different cross than the roman, and stopping without saying why.
the orthodox christians have a different cross than the roman, and stopping without saying why.
March 28, 2016
The first part of the book about the history of the rise of Wahhabism and the founder of the movement is good. The other parts of the book are not so great: the author sounds like another type of Islamist/fundamentalist. This is basically just a case of one Muslim sect criticizing another, so don't expect much rationality here.
May 10, 2007
Fiery yet engaging (and well referenced) polemics.
June 30, 2013
A brief introduction to Wahhabism I read for a class on Islam I took as part of my religion program at FSU. A competent introduction.
June 10, 2016
كتاب تاريخي مميز يشرح مدى علاقة الوهابية بالسنة و الاسلام عامة و ظروف نشأتها و مجالها الحيوي ... كتاب يكشف المعنى الحقيقي للوهابية بعيدا عن المنهج الاختزالي لبعض الكتاب الاخرين
March 24, 2016
I am using this book for a research paper and it has helped a lot!!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews