Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab

Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was born in al-'Uyayna in Najd into a family of Hanbali judges. He memorised the Quran before ten and studied with his father, then in Makkah, Madinah — with 'Abdullah ibn Ibrahim ibn Sayf and Muhammad Hayat as-Sindi — and in Basra. Returning to Najd, he called people to pure tawhid and to leave the veneration of graves, trees and saints. In 1157 AH (1744) he allied with Muhammad ibn Su'ud of ad-Dir'iyya, an alliance from which the first Saudi state grew. He taught in ad-Dir'iyya until his death; his short books on tawhid and the foundations of the religion are among the most widely studied texts today.