Discipleship
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 50, No. 2 - Spring 2008
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Library of Modern Middle East Studies 50. By David Dean Commins. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. 288 pages. Hardcover, $85.00.
The average citizen on the street has one of three responses to the sudden emergence of Islam as a global issue. First, he may well identify all who follow Islam as being part of a violent faith, which renders each Muslim individually suspect and somehow guilty of the actions of all Jihadists. The second prevalent view, born out of religious pluralism, is to defend Islam as a legitimate religion, opining that much about it is surely mis- understood. The third and most prominent perspective (the one discussed at Starbucks) is probably a simple shake of the head when the subject is broached. A wondering question about who can possibly understand what is going on in our world usually follows. This latter group tends to believe that if the United States would just leave Iraq, somehow most of the problems on the front page of the newspaper would be replaced by the latest hero of AmericanIdol. However, readers and thinkers who still operate with a fairly basic understanding of Islam have heard or read about Wahhabi Islam and are often quick to identify Al Qaeda and the work of Osama Bin Laden as the offspring of the Wahhabi expression of Islam, which is traced to Saudi Arabia. Many who have tried to be more studious about Islam, having read the Qur’an and the Hadith, as has this reviewer, are still guilty of this essential conclusion regarding both Al Qaeda and the Wahhabis.
David Commins, Professor of History at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, has written what is to this point the definitive volume on the history and content of the Wahhabi mission and its particular relation to Saudi Arabia. Commins was a visiting scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh and has written in 1990 on Islamic Reform and in 2004 an historical dictionary of Assyria. He remains one of the best informed authorities in America on the nature and history of Islam.
The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabiais not the most scintillating book ever published, but what is lacking in readability is accomplished superbly in the validation of its arguments and support of those conclusions from Islamic sources. (For those who desire a perspective about life in Saudi Arabia with greater adventure and color, yet perceptive regarding the tribalism of the Arabian Peninsula, Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian Sands [New York: Penguin Group Inc., 2008] is a scintillating volume to augment the picture.)
The reader will find numerous insights in Commins. Most people think primarily of two denominations within Islam, namely, Sunni and Shia. Some who have a bit more background might include Sufism as a third denomination. Others would protest the use of “denomination,” since that tends to be a term associated principally with various aspects of the Christian faith. However, Commins himself actually makes use of that terminology once in the book (166). But what relatively new readers in Islam will find enlightening is the multiplicity of legal traditions informing Islam as well as different religious groups normally led by some new leader who arises and demands a following. The number of these groups will be surprising to most non-initiates. However, the biggest surprise of all will be the author’s tracing of Wahhabism as it relates to the development of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.
Commins argues that revivalism among Islamic leaders and the rise of preaching radical Islam certainly has some things in common with Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia. However, he concludes that Wahhabism, while having common goals with radical Islam is, nevertheless, opposed to the developments that have unfolded in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Wahhabis believe, for example, that religious authorities cannot announce Jihad. Only the ruler of the country can do that, and hence the widespread use of Jihad among Muslim revivalists is considered illegitimate by Wah- habism. There are also other points in which Wahhabism would differentiate itself. The present state of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden owes its origin rather to teachings of Sayyid Qutb, arising originally in Egypt. On the other hand, Wahhabism’s base has been in Saudi Arabia; and while Osama Bin Laden is a Saudi and was definitely impacted by Wahhabism, he was able to muster considerable following among younger Muslims and mold together these Muslims of divergent perspectives to fight the infidels (Russians) in Afghanistan. His own attitude toward Saudi Arabia was then altered rather dramatically by the influence of democratic reform movements in Saudi Arabia, which ultimately led to allowing the United States military to move into Saudi Arabia for the protection of that king- dom as well as Kuwait and to resist the onslaught of the Baathists in Iraq. The result of all of this, Commins concludes, is that “the Wahhabi mission’s two-hundred-year reign as a hegemonic regional religious culture is in jeopardy” (205). Most readers will be surprised at this conclusion. Commins makes no attempt to predict the future, observing that it is not the responsibility of the historian to do so. Clearly there is substantial conflict within Islam, and the reading of this book gives one a far greater perspective in that regard.
The book employs endnotes; and while they are quite helpful in citing other sources and expanding information given briefly in the text, I confess my own preference for footnotes to avoid on a regular basis having to turn to the back of the book to ascertain what has been cited. On the other hand, the chronology beginning with the 1744 rise of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and coming all the way to the National Dialogues held in Saudi Arabia in 2004, is very helpful. By the same token, a glossary of terms, while in need of expansion, was nevertheless quite useful, and the reader can check repeatedly on unfamiliar terms and keep in mind what Commins is citing. Finally, the bibliography is thorough and demonstrates the breadth of Commins’ grasp of the Islamic world.
Several groups should take advantage of the opportunity to learn from the pages of this book. Anybody intending to do business anywhere in the world where the Muslim faith is heavily represented could profit immensely in relating to these various factions by gaining awareness and understanding of them. Those seeking to interact philosophically and theologically with Islam cannot afford to bypass this volume. Finally, it would be difficult to imagine a more critical volume for the reading of those who are engaged in state department work or in foreign affairs religiously or politically. David Commins has given us a superb and enlightening history and a rare insight into the Wahhabi mission and Saudi Arabia.
