# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab
# Generated: 2026-08-31T17:47:37.846Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab"
name: "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"
slug: "muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab"
description: "An 18th-century Arabian scholar who called for stripping Islam back to scripture alone — no tombs, no saints, no medieval commentaries — and forged a pact with a tribal chief that became the theological backbone of Saudi Arabia."
tagline: "Islamic Saudi scholar, jurist and eponym of Wahhabi movement (1703–1792)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF_%D8%A8%D9%86_%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%A8.png"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1703"
deathDate: "1792-06-22"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           61.02
  momentum:             6.202247302121296
  historical:           24.62470533333333
  currentAttention:     13.2664642414952
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Academics"
    slug: "academics"
  - name: "TV Personality"
    slug: "tv-personality"
  - name: "News Broadcasting"
    slug: "news-broadcasting"
  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "Early Modern Era"
    slug: "early-modern-era"
sources:
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    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikidata"
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    type:  "DATABASE"
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    title: "Muhámmad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab"
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    title: "МухӀаммад ибн ГӀабдул Вагьгьаб"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C9%99h%C9%99mm%C9%99d_ibn_%C6%8Fbd%C3%BClvahhab"
    title: "Məhəmməd ibn Əbdülvahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Мөхәммәт ибн Ғәбдел-Үәһһәб"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "মুহাম্মদ ইবনে আবদুল ওয়াহাব"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Abd_al-Wahab"
    title: "Ibn Abd al-Wahab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Мухьаммад бин Ӏабдул-ВаххӀаб"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "محەممەد کوڕی عەبدولوەھاب"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahháb"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Muhamad ibn Abd al-Ŭahab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Muhámmad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "محمد بن عبدالوهاب"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Abd_al-Wahhab"
    title: "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_ben_Abdelwahhab"
    title: "Mohammed ben Abdelwahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gpe.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Abd_al-Wahhab"
    title: "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ha.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Abd_al-Wahhab"
    title: "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%93_%D7%90%D7%91%D7%9F_%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%93_%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%95%D7%94%D7%90%D7%91"
    title: "מוחמד אבן עבד אל-והאב"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "मुहम्मद इब्न अब्दुल वहाब"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in 1703 in Najd to a family of jurists, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab studied Hanbali jurisprudence but grew convinced during travels to Hejaz and Basra that Muslims had drifted into idolatry through shrine worship and blind reliance on tradition. He demanded direct engagement with the Quran and Hadith, insisted every believer — male and female — read scripture personally, and condemned practices venerating tombs of saints as heretical innovation. His doctrine of tawhid, drawing on Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim, rejected even the standard Hanbali manuals of his era, alienating most mainstream scholars. In the 1740s he struck an alliance with Muhammad bin Saud, a local emir: religious authority for political power. That pact founded the Emirate of Diriyah, the first Saudi state, and locked his descendants — the Al ash-Sheikh family — into a power-sharing arrangement with the House of Saud that survives today. He died in 1792, but the state he theologized endures.