Post by dustdevil28 on Dec 14, 2007 14:47:56 GMT -8
.. and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad"
By Charles Allen.
This book delves into the development of the Wahhabi sect in Islam both in the Arabia pennisula and area we know as Pakistan.
This book does provide nice little insights into the ideology that most matches the terrorists we fight in todays world. It gives the rise of Wahhabism to Muhhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab of the Nejd region of Saudi Arabia. Al-Wahhab grew up in the 18th century in Nejd and he grew up to be a proponant of the ideology professed by 12 century sunni Ibn Taymiyya.
This ideology rejected the revered status that muslims had placed in tombs of saints and called on this tombs to be torn down so that Islam could return to the exact status that it was in when it was founded. This ideology found many enemies and it is no wonder that it found no footing for Taymiyya in the 12th century. Al-Wahhab perhaps would have had the same fate except for finding himself a powerful convert in a local chief named Muhammad ibn Saud. Together these two and their families would bring about through military conquest the conversion of numerous towns in the penisula to Wahabism with Al-Wahhab serving as the Iman and Saud serving as the Amir, or military leader. Their families would later be put down and placed into exile only to return in the early 1900's.
Although the depiction of the Wahhab sect as an extremely intolerant religion was not much of a surprise, the history of how it came to be and how it has been made to flower in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan make for a decent read.
A problem I did have. For the reader, the book is a bit of a jumble as it often jumps from events say in 1782 to events that took place in 1857 and than back to 1782. With these constant jumps it often leaves the reader without a clear impression as to when the Wahhabi sect prospered and grew the way it did.
Not the best book to get, but if this is a topic that interests you as it does me than you won't be disappointed
By Charles Allen.
This book delves into the development of the Wahhabi sect in Islam both in the Arabia pennisula and area we know as Pakistan.
This book does provide nice little insights into the ideology that most matches the terrorists we fight in todays world. It gives the rise of Wahhabism to Muhhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab of the Nejd region of Saudi Arabia. Al-Wahhab grew up in the 18th century in Nejd and he grew up to be a proponant of the ideology professed by 12 century sunni Ibn Taymiyya.
This ideology rejected the revered status that muslims had placed in tombs of saints and called on this tombs to be torn down so that Islam could return to the exact status that it was in when it was founded. This ideology found many enemies and it is no wonder that it found no footing for Taymiyya in the 12th century. Al-Wahhab perhaps would have had the same fate except for finding himself a powerful convert in a local chief named Muhammad ibn Saud. Together these two and their families would bring about through military conquest the conversion of numerous towns in the penisula to Wahabism with Al-Wahhab serving as the Iman and Saud serving as the Amir, or military leader. Their families would later be put down and placed into exile only to return in the early 1900's.
Although the depiction of the Wahhab sect as an extremely intolerant religion was not much of a surprise, the history of how it came to be and how it has been made to flower in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan make for a decent read.
A problem I did have. For the reader, the book is a bit of a jumble as it often jumps from events say in 1782 to events that took place in 1857 and than back to 1782. With these constant jumps it often leaves the reader without a clear impression as to when the Wahhabi sect prospered and grew the way it did.
Not the best book to get, but if this is a topic that interests you as it does me than you won't be disappointed
