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Further information: First Saudi State
Further information: Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab
The founder of Wahhabism, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab studied in Basra (in southern Iraq) and is reported to have developed his reformist ideas there. [10][11] He is reported to have studied in Mecca and Medina while there to perform Hajj [12][13]before returning to his home town of Uyayna in 1740.
After his return to 'Uyayna, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab began to attract followers there, including the ruler of the town, Uthman ibn Mu'ammar. With Ibn Mu'ammar's support, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab began to implement some of his ideas such as leveling the grave of Zayd ibn al-Khattab, a companion of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, and ordering that an adulteress be stoned to death. These actions were disapproved of by Sulaiman ibn Muhammad ibn Ghurayr of the tribe of Bani Khalid, the chief of Al-Hasa and Qatif, who held substantial influence in Najd and ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was expelled from 'Uyayna.[14]
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was invited to settle in neighboring Dir'iyya by its ruler Muhammad ibn Saud in 1740 (1157 AH), two of whose brothers had been students of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Upon arriving in Diriyya, a pact was made between Ibn Saud and Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, by which Ibn Saud pledged to implement and enforce Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's teachings, while Ibn Saud and his family would remain the temporal imams ("leaders") of the movement.
Beginning in the last years of the 18th century Ibn Saud and his heirs would spend the next 140 years mounting various military campaigns to seize control of Arabia and its outlying regions, before being attacked and defeated by Ottoman forces.
One of their most famous and controversial attacks was of Karbala in 1217/1802. There, according to a Wahhabi chronicler `Uthman b. `Abdullah b. Bishr, Wahhabis "scaled the walls, entered the city ... and killed the majority of its people in the markets and in their homes." They "destroyed the dome placed over the grave of al-Husayn" and took as booty "whatever they found inside the dome and its surroundings. .... the grille surrounding the tomb which was encrusted with emeralds, rubies, and other jewels. .... different types of property, weapons, clothing, carpets, gold, silver, precious copies of the Qur'an." [15]
In the early 20th Century, the Wahhabist-oriented Al-Saud dynasty conquered and unified the various provinces on the Arabian peninsula, founding the modern day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. This provided the movement with a state. Vast wealth from oil discovered in the following decades, coupled with Saudi control of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, have since provided a base and funding for Salafi missionary activity.
