Historians differ on the detail of Abdul Wahhab’s life, but it is widely agreed he was born in the town of al-Uyayna, in the Nejd , in 1703. Tutored by his father in the strict Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, Wahhab studied in Basra in southern Iraq, where debates with Islamic scholars led him to decide reform was needed.
Wahhab’s main theological argument during his lifetime was for a more rigorous, conservative interpretation of Islam, in particular advocating monotheism in line with the Salafi tradition.
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