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The Life, Teachings and Influence of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab
misleading. Their erroneous statements were criticised by later
European writers like Burckhardt in his Notes on the Bedouins and
Wahabys.” 1 For example, Niebuhr was the first to send information to
the Europeans about the appearance of Muhammad ibn Abdul-
Wahhaab. He admitted that he was in a place wherein it was difficult
to find accurate information about ibn Abdul-Wahhaab’s belief. He
mentioned that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab considered the Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and all the
other prophets simply as sages, denying that any book was actually
revealed by God. 2 Later European writers and visitors to the area were
influenced by Niebuhr’s erroneous ideas. Some (such as Waring and
Rouseau) said that ibn Abdul-Wahhaab did not believe that Allah
revealed the Quran. Others (such as Malcolm, Raymond and
Corancez) stated that he rejected the hadith of the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) only. 3 Perhaps the strangest
information concerning ibn Abdul-Wahhaab is noted by Bidwell who
stated that “a report had reached Bonaparte in Egypt that their leader
[that is, Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhaab] was a renegade French
Jesuit.” 4
In this chapter, two early books that have recently been
published for the first time in English or republished will be reviewed.
One is Louis Alexandre Olivier de Corancez’s The History of the
Wahabis 5 and the second is Burckhardt’s Notes on the Bedouins and
Wahabys. The former is chosen because it is one of the first books
written in a Western language entirely on the “Wahhabis.” The second
is chosen to demonstrate that some accurate information was available
from a fairly early time.
1 Abu-Hakima p. 127.
2 See al-Uthaimeen, p. 104. Al-Uthaimeen published an article in the journal of
the college of social sciences at Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University
detailing the numerous mistakes of Niebuhr. That article, though, is not
available to this author.
3 See al-Uthaimeen, p. 104.
4 Robin Bidwell, Introduction to John Lewis Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins
and Wahabys (Reading, England: Garnett Publishing, 1992), vol. 1,
introduction, no page number.
5 Louis Alexandre Olivier de Corancez, The History of the Wahabis from their
Origin until the end of 1809 (Eric Tabet, trans. Reading, England: Garnet
Publishing, 1995).