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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab less reliable works 1 that state that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab ventured to a number of other areas. For example, the European traveler Niebuhr stated that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab traveled to Baghdad and Persia. Al- Shashtari said that he also went to Isfahan. 2 The unidentified author of Lam’ al-Shihaab fi Seerah Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab (“The Brilliance of the Meteor in the Life of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab”) 3 states that ibn Abdul- four areas, it is safe to conclude that these are the only areas that ibn Abdul- Wahhaab visited in his journeys. 1 They are less reliable because they relied on second hand information or “rumors” about Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, as opposed to the works of, for example, ibn Bishr and ibn Ghannaam. Furthermore, some of those works contain much information that is definitely incorrect. For example, Niebuhr stated that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab did not consider the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) a prophet but simply a great sage. 2 Cf., Al-Uthaimeen, Al-Shaikh Muhammad, pp. 36-37. 3 This is a rather famous work written by, according to most scholars, an anonymous author. (According to al-Ajilaani, the manuscript bears the name Hasan al-Ribki, who may have been its author.) It covers the history of the “Wahhabis” from their beginnings until 1233 A.H. (1817 C.E.). Naseer (pp. 30- 31) notes that it was the major work of reference for the majority of the Orientalists who wrote about ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. She states that many of the Arabs who later wrote about ibn Abdul-Wahhaab relied upon what the Orientalists wrote and thus indirectly took from this work. She concludes that although the Orientalists may be excused for using such a work, since they may not have had access to better works in the Western museums and universities (in earlier times), no such excuse is available for the Arab writers who just followed in their paths. Abu Hakeemah (pp. 9-11) has rather kind words to say about this book. He stated that the author does a good job of analyzing events, had no prejudices against Wahhabism and seemed to have been an eyewitness to the expedition somewhere near Basra. In this author’s view, though, the problem with this work is three-fold. First, the author is not known. Hence, one cannot tell how reliable or honest he was or what were his biases. Although not overtly unkind to ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, he does consider his teachings to be heresy. Second, the work contains a great deal of information that is contradicted by other stronger sources (such as on the lineage of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, his travels and so forth). Hence, if the information in this work is not corroborated through some known and reliable source, it must be dealt with very skeptically. Third, it seems clear from the work that the author spent no time in Najd itself. Thus, his sources of information were those outside of the land of the followers of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. As is known, much false information and many rumors were being spread about Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab in those lands and it seems that this unknown author used that type of information as, at least partially, the basis for his work. Hence, Vassiliev (p. 14) states that it is “a series of sketches, based on accounts by participants in the events in question, together with rumours and legends.” Later (p. 66), he states, “The author of The Brilliance of the Meteor was hostile to the Wahhabis.” Unfortunately, some 24
25 The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab Wahhaab also traveled to Baghdad (wherein he married a rich woman who later died and left him a good fortune), Kurdistan, Hamadhan, Isfahan, Rayy, Qum, Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem and Egypt, returning via the Suez through Yanbu, Madinah and Makkah. It also states that he studied Aristotelian philosophy and Sufism in Isfahan and that he was also proficient in Turkish and possibly Farsi. He later went to Qom where he became a follower of the Hanbali school. Furthermore, it states that he did not begin his travels until he was thirty-seven years old. That work also claims that Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab changed his name many times during those travels (being Abdullah in Basra, Ahmad in Baghdad and so forth). 1 Al-Uthaimeen notes that this means that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab did not leave Najd before 1152 A.H. while it is confirmed that he had completed all of his journeys long before that time. Furthermore, the anonymous author implies that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab remained traveling for some twenty-five years. Thus ibn Abdul-Wahhaab would not have returned to Najd before 1177 A.H.—in fact, the author actually implies that he returned in 1186 A.H. while Sharif Suroor was ruling Makkah. It is an established fact that the new state in al- Diriyyah was founded by Muhammad ibn Saud and ibn Abdul- Wahhaab a good thirty years before that time. Furthermore, no one makes any mention of ibn Abdul-Wahhaab knowing Turkish or Farsi. Similarly, none of them mention him having studied philosophy or Sufism. 2 later writers, such as the Orientalist Margoliouth (in writing his article for the first edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam), rely heavily on this work by an unknown author. (Later editions of the Encyclopedia of Islam replaced Margoliouth’s article with one written by the French Orientalist Laoust.) Even Vassiliev who noted such reservations about this work relied on it for some uncorroborated, outlandish statements concerning ibn Abdul-Wahhaab. For example, based on this work, Vassiliev (p. 90) states that Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab, “was fond of women, had 20 wives and begot 18 children.” Vassiliev simply notes that this may be an exaggeration. In reality, the chroniclers who were very keen on chronicling many details of ibn Abdul- Wahhaab’s life, including whom he was married to and what children he had, mention nothing resembling this at all. The same is true for other statements Vassiliev makes on the same page based on Lam’ al-Shihaab. 1 Cf., Al-Uthaimeen, Al-Shaikh Muhammad, p. 37. A refutation in English of these claims may be found in Vassiliev, pp. 65-66. 2 Al-Uthaimeen, Al-Shaikh Muhammad, pp. 37-38.
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