WAHHBIS

   an eighteenth century REVITALIZATION MOVEMENT in ISLAM owing its origin to Muhammad Abd al-Wahhb who denounced idolatry including visiting the tombs of SAINTS, invoking PROPHETS, saints and angels and seeking their intercession, and making vows to anyone but GOD. It stressed PREDESTINATION and denounced ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION of the QUR'N. Demanding that FAITH should be proved by works, it made attendance at public PRAYER obligatory, the ROSARY was forbidden and MOSQUES were stripped of ornaments. In 1902 Ibn Sa'd, captured Ryad and the HOLY cities of MECCA and MEDINA and in 1925 established a Wahhbi dynasty in Arabia. Although puritanical, the movement is modernizing and has no hesitation about using the results of Western SCIENCE.