IBN ʿABD AL-WAHHĀB, MUḤAMMAD (AH 1115–1206/1703–1792 CE), Islamic fundamentalist teacher who established the Wahhābi movement. He was born in Najd, a central region in Arabia. His father was the judge in the town of al-ʿUyaynah and also taught jurisprudence according to the strict Ḥanbali legal school and traditions. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb began his study of the Qurʾān and basic Ḥanbalī texts under his father but set out on travels "in search of knowledge" when he was about twenty years old. He went first to Mecca and Medina, where he studied mainly with ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sayf and Muḥammad Ḥāyat al-Sindi. ʿAbd Allāh was a Ḥanbali scholar from Najd who had settled in Medina. Through him, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahh...