Wahhabism is without question one of the major movements of Islamic renewal in modern times. Among its controversial positions was the assertion that Ottoman rule was illegitimate. It was therefore natural for the Ottomans to dispute Wahhabi teachings and for a prolonged polemical controversy to unfold. One of the unexamined dimensions of that controversy is the participation of a handful of Arabian Hanbalis on the Ottoman side of the controversy. To shed light on what I call here the traditional Hanbalis, who bore the brunt of the Wahhabis’ criticisms, I examine a nineteenth-century biographical dictionary by Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Humayd (1820-78).

Commins, David. “Traditional Anti-Wahhabi Hanbalism in Nineteenth-Century Arabia.” In Ottoman Reform and Muslim Regeneration: Studies in Honour of Butrus Abu-Manneh, edited by Itzchak Weismann and Fruma Zachs, 81-96. New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005.

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