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SAUDI PETRODOLLARS, SPIRITUAL CAPITAL, AND THE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MEDINA: A WAHHABI MISSIONARY PROJECT IN TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2015

Michael Farquhar
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Abstract

While the idea that Saudi Arabia has functioned as a beacon of ultraconservative religious influence since the 1970s oil boom is commonplace, the modalities of this influence have rarely been seriously interrogated. As a window onto this issue, this article considers the history of the Islamic University of Medina, an influential Wahhabi missionary project with global ambitions. It pays particular attention to the role played by non-Saudi staff, who for long periods made up a majority of the university's faculty. Previous accounts of migrants working in Saudi religious educational institutions have tended to focus on the contested question of their contribution to the rise of politically activist modes of Islamism within the kingdom. In contrast, the account offered here draws on the concept of spiritual capital to argue that they also played an important part in legitimizing the expansion of the Wahhabi mission to diverse Muslim communities around the world.

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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 701 - 721
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I am very grateful to the IJMES reviewers for their detailed, fair, and constructive critique. Others who gave valuable feedback on material that would eventually make its way into this article include John Chalcraft, Neil Ketchley, John Sidel, Madawi Al-Rasheed, James Piscatori, and Matthias Determann. Lamiaa Shehata was kind enough to offer advice on some finer points of translation. I also thank the former students of the Islamic University of Medina who have lent me their time and trust. The research project that gave rise to this article was made possible by generous funding from the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the University of London Central Research Fund, the Gilchrist Educational Trust, the Abdullah al-Mubarak al-Sabah Foundation, and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. The staff at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh facilitated visa documents and provided me with office space during a period as a visiting researcher at that institution in 2012.

1 al-ʿAqil, ʿAbd Allah, Min Aʿlam al-Daʿwa wa-l-Haraka al-Islamiyya al-Muʿasira (n.p.: Dar al-Bashir, 2008), 263Google Scholar.

2 Saʿid ibn Falih al-Maghamisi, “Juhud Khadim al-Haramayn al-Sharifayn fi Taʿlim Abnaʾ al-Muslimin min Khilal al-Minah al-Dirasiyya allati Tuqimuha al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya,” Majallat al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya bi-l-Madina al-Munawwara 118 (n.d.) (henceforth Majallat al-Jamiʿa).

3 Works addressing this geopolitical and domestic juncture include inter alia Vassiliev, Alexei, The History of Saudi Arabia (New York: New York University Press, 2000)Google Scholar, chap. 16 and 17; Al-Rasheed, Madawi, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)Google Scholar, chap. 4; and Chalcraft, John, “Migration and Popular Protest in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf in the 1950s and 1960s,” International Labor and Working-Class History 79 (2011): 28–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The emergence of the IUM in this context is also touched upon in Farquhar, Michael, “The Islamic University of Medina Since 1961: The Politics of Religious Mission and the Making of a Modern Salafi Pedagogy,” in Shaping Global Islamic Discourses: The Role of Al-Azhar, Al-Medina, and Al-Mustafa, ed. Sakurai, Keiko and Bano, Masooda (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015)Google Scholar.

4 These tropes are pervasive in dozens of articles documenting the founding of the project in local newspapers and journals—including al-Madina al-Munawwara, al-Bilad, al-Nadwa, and al-Manhal—from the late 1950s.

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11 Verter, Bradford, “Spiritual Capital: Theorizing Religion with Bourdieu against Bourdieu,” Sociological Theory 21 (2003): 150CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Ibid., 159–69.

13 Ibid., 167–68.

14 Ibid., 161–62.

15 Ibid., 158.

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17 Haykel, Bernard, “On the Nature of Salafi Thought and Action,” in Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious Movement, ed. Meijer, Roel (London: Hurst, 2009), 38–39Google Scholar.

18 The label “Wahhabi” is an exonym generally considered derogatory by those to whom it is applied. I use it here for lack of a better alternative and because of the importance of distinguishing the Wahhabi tradition from the broader Salafi tradition.

19 Peters, Rudolph, “Idjtihad and Taqlid in 18th and 19th Century Islam,” Die Welt Des Islams 20 (1980): 131–45Google Scholar; Vogel, Frank, Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia (Leiden: Brill, 2000), chap. 2Google Scholar; Steinberg, Guido, “Ecology, Knowledge and Trade in Central Arabia (Najd) during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” in Counter-narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, ed. Al-Rasheed, Madawi and Vitalis, Robert (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 92–93Google Scholar.

20 On the corpus of texts which had historically formed the basis of Wahhabi scholarship, see inter alia Steinberg, “Ecology, Knowledge and Trade,” 90; and David Dean Commins, The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), 123–24Google Scholar.

21 Voll, John O., “Muhammad Hayya al-Sindi and Muhammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab: An Analysis of an Intellectual Group in Eighteenth-Century Madina,” School of Oriental and African Studies, Bulletin 38 (1975): 32–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nafi, Basheer M., “A Teacher of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab: Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi and the Revival of Ashab al-Hadith's Methodology,” Islamic Law and Society 13 (2006): 208–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Nafi's article is an important rejoinder to those who had previously been more circumspect with regard to the significance of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab's encounter with al-Sindi. See Cook, Michael, “On the Origins of Wahhabism,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Third Series) 2 (1992): 191–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Dallal, Ahmad, “The Origins and Objectives of Islamic Revivalist Thought, 1750–1850,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 113 (1993): 341–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Commins, The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia, 42.

23 Links with the Ahl-i Hadith are discussed in more detail later in this article.

24 Redissi, “The Refutation of Wahhabism in Arabic Sources, 1745–1932.”

25 Allah al-Salman, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd, al-Taʿlim fi ʿAhd al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAziz (Riyadh: al-Amana al-ʿAmma li-l-Ihtifal bi-Murur Miʾat ʿAm ʿala Taʾsis al-Mamlaka, 1999), 69–70Google Scholar.

26 On arrangements for instruction in mosque study circles and the issuing of ijāza qualifications in this context, see ibid., 57–84, 101–18.

27 Al al-Shaykh, Mashahir, 323–28.

28 Salman's list comprises seven Al al-Sheikh scholars (Ibrahim ibn ʿAbd al-Latif, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Latif, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Latif, Salih ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Latif, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, and ʿAbd al-Latif ibn Ibrahim), along with Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Mahmud, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Bishr, and Hamad ibn Faris. See al-Salman, al-Taʿlim, 66–68. I draw on biographies of these scholars available in Al al-Shaykh, Mashahir. It should be noted that the dates of death given by Salman for ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Latif Al al-Sheikh and ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Bishr differ from those given in the biographies of individuals of the same name in Al al-Shaykh. It is my assumption that, despite these discrepancies, they are discussing the same two individuals.

29 Steinberg, “Ecology, Knowledge and Trade,” 94. For a list of scholars in Saudi-ruled territories in this period who had traveled for study, see al-Salman, al-Taʿlim, 85–100.

30 On those hired to run the Directorate of Education in this period, see ʿShalabi, Ali Muhammad, Tarikh al-Taʿlim fi al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Suʿudiyya fi ʿAhd Mudiriyyat al-Maʿarif al-ʿAmma 1344 H./1926 M.–1373 H./1953 M. (al-Kuwayt: Dar al-Qalam, 1987), 284–89Google Scholar.

31 al-Ghamidi, Ahmad ibn ʿAtiyya, ed., al-Kitab al-Wathaʾiqi ʿan al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya bi-l-Madina al-Munawwara (Medina: al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya, 1998), 212–25Google Scholar. See also Farquhar, “The Islamic University of Medina since 1961.”

32 Farquhar, “The Islamic University of Medina since 1961.”

33 “Nizam al-Majlis al-Istishari al-Aʿla,” reproduced in al-Ghamidi, al-Kitab al-Wathaʾiqi, 147–48.

34 Ibid., 149–58.

35 al-Qarʿani, Hamza ibn Hamid ibn Bashir, Sullam al-Wusul ila Tarajim ʿUlamaʾ Madinat al-Rasul (Damascus: Dar al-Maʾmun, 2009), 373–79.Google Scholar

36 Founding members of the Advisory Council are listed in Dalil al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya fi al-Madina al-Munawwara (Medina: al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya, 1971), 31–32.

37 Ibid., 45–46, 71–72.

38 Dalil Aʿdaʾ Hayʾat al-Tadris wa-l-Muhadirin wa-l-Muʿidin (Medina: al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya bi-l-Madina al-Munawwara: Idarat al-Takhtit wa-l-Mizaniyya wa-l-Mutabaʿa wa-l-Ahsaʾ, 1402 H. [1981/82]).

39 al-Majdhub, Muhammad, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun ʿAraftuhum (Riyadh: Dar al-Shawwaf, 1992), 3:355Google Scholar.

40 Author's interview with al-Sayyid Nazili, Cairo, 9 November 2011. Al-Sayyid Nazili's role at the IUM is also touched upon in al-Din Hasan, Salah, al-Salafiyyun fi Misr (Cairo: Dar Awraq li-l-Nashr, 2012), 90Google Scholar.

41 Usama Hasan, ed., “In Memoriam—Shaykh ʿAbdul Ghaffar Hasan (1330–1427/1913–2007),” Unity (blog), 8 June 2009, accessed 10 June 2013, http://unity1.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/biography-of-shaykh-abdul-ghaffar-hasan.pdf.

42 Author's interviews with Egyptians who had taught at the IUM and in other Saudi Islamic universities, Cairo, April, May, and October 2011.

43 “Akhbar al-Jamiʿa,” Majallat al-Jamiʿa 1 (1969); “Akhbar al-Jamiʿa,” Majallat al-Jamiʿa 4 (1972).

44 ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Qariʾ, “al-Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattah al-Qariʾ,” ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Qariʾ bi-l-Madina al-Munawwara, November 2008, accessed 19 June 2013, http://www.alqary.net/publish/article_282.shtml.

45 ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Qariʾ, “al-Taʿrif bi-l-Mushrif,” ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Qariʾ bi-l-Madina al-Munawwara, accessed 19 June 2013, http://www.alqary.net/publish/article_252.shtml.

46 Al-ʿAqil, Min Aʿlam al-Daʿwa, 811–22; Henri Lauzière, “The Evolution of the Salafiyya in the Twentieth Century through the Life and Thought of Taqi al-Din al-Hilali” (PhD diss., Georgetown University, 2008).

47 Al-Majdhub, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun, 3:151–64; al-Qarʿani, Sullam al-Wusul, 283–94.

48 Al-Majdhub, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun, 3:251–60; al- Qarʿani, Sullam al-Wusul, 193–99.

49 Lacroix, Awakening Islam, 38–42.

50 One prominent example is the Egyptian Muslim Brother ʿAli Juraysha. Al-Majdhub, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun, 1:155–70.

51 Ibid., 1:49–61.

52 Brenner, Louis, Controlling Knowledge: Religion, Power, and Schooling in a West African Muslim Society (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2001), 96–102, 146–49Google Scholar.

53 Dalil al-Jamiʿa, 127; al-Ghamidi, al-Kitab al-Wathaʾiqi, 361–66.

54 Salih Al Bassam, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn, ʿUlamaʾ Najd khilal Thamaniyat Qurun (Riyadh: Dar al-ʿAsima, 1419 H. [1998/99]), 3:275–79Google Scholar; Khalid Mohammad Younus, “The Twentieth Century and the Efforts of Missionary Movements in Egypt” (PhD diss., University of Karachi, 2006), 196–200; Tahir, Ahmad Muhammad, Jamaʿat Ansar al-Sunna al-Muhammadiya: Nashʾatuha, Ahdafuha, Manhajuha, Juhuduha (Cairo: Jamaʿat Ansar al-Sunna al-Muhammadiya, 2006), 173–84Google Scholar; al-ʿAqil, Min Aʿlam al-Daʿwa, 435–43.

55 They included brothers Muhammad ʿAbd al-Wahhab al-Banna and Hasan ʿAbd al-Wahhab al-Banna, as well as Saʿd Nida and ʿAbd al-Fattah Salama.

56 See, for example, the biography of ʿSalama, Abd al-Fattah, “al-Shaykh al-Duktur ʿAbd al-Fattah Salama, 1358–1418 H., 1938–1998 M.,” Majallat al-Tawhid 26 (1998), 58–59Google Scholar.

57 Steinberg, “Ecology, Knowledge and Trade,” 94–95; Lacroix, Awakening Islam, 84; and Al al-Shaykh, Mashahir, 323–28.

58 Dalil al-Jamiʿa, 127; al-Ghamidi, al-Kitab al-Wathaʾiqi, 361–66.

59 Author's interview with an IUM graduate, London, 27 June 2011.

60 Interviews conducted by the author at Dar al-ʿUlum, al-Azhar, and elsewhere in Cairo, April, May, and October 2011.

61 ʿSalih al-ʿAbbud, Abd Allah ibn, Juhud al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Suʿudiyya fi al-Daʿwa ila Allah Taʿala fi al-Kharij min khilal al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya (al-Madina al-Munawwara: al-Jamiʿa al-Islamiyya, 2004), 841Google Scholar.

62 “Akhbar al-Jamiʿa,” 1969. See also al-ʿAbbud, Juhud al-Mamlaka, 840.

63 Qasim Zaman, Muhammad, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change (Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002), 175Google Scholar.

64 Ibid.

65 Kepel, Gilles, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Belknap, 2004), chap. 5Google Scholar; and Lacroix, Awakening Islam.

66 Al-Rasheed, Madawi, Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).Google Scholar

67 Farquhar, “The Islamic University of Medina since 1961.”

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid.

70 Al-Ghamidi, al-Kitab al-Wathaʾiqi, 55–56.

71 Al-ʿAbbud, Juhud al-Mamlaka, 448–663.

72 Al-Majdhub, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun, 3:179–91; Al al-Shaykh, Mashahir, 517–20; al- Qarʿani, Sullam al-Wusul, 133–53.

73 Author's interview with an IUM graduate, London, 24 June 2011. This first part of the Islamic declaration of faith translates as, “There is no God but God.”

74 Al-Majdhub, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun, 1:27–48; Lauzière, “The Evolution of the Salafiyya,” 338–39.

75 Dalil al-Jamiʿa, 45–46, 71–72.

76 Dalil Aʿdaʾ Hayʾat al-Tadris.

77 Ibid.

78 Malcolm Reid, Donald, Cairo University and the Making of Modern Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 198CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

79 Dalil Aʿdaʾ Hayʾat al-Tadris.

80 Ibid. Particularly common among migrant staff members were degrees from the Universities of ʿAyn Shams, Alexandria, and Cairo in Egypt, and Khartoum University in Sudan.

81 Verter, “Spiritual Capital,” 160.

82 Al-Majdhub, ʿUlamaʾ wa-Mufakkirun, 3:179–91.

83 Author's interviews with Egyptian former employees of Saudi educational institutions and a former student of the IUM, Cairo, March and October 2011. See also Lacroix, Awakening Islam, 47.

84 Kenny, Erin, “Gifting Mecca: Importing Spiritual Capital to West Africa,” Mobilities 2 (2007): 363–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 “Akhbar al-Jamiʿa,” Majallat al-Jamiʿa 2 (1969); “Akhbar al-Jamiʿa,” Majallat al-Jamiʿa 6 (1973).

86 Dalil Aʿdaʾ Hayʾat al-Tadris, 34–44.

87 Al-Ghamidi, al-Kitab al-Wathaʾiqi, 277.

88 Lacroix, Awakening Islam, 211–21.

89 Lacroix, Stéphane, “Between Revolution and Apoliticism: Nasir al-Din al-Albani and His Impact on the Shaping of Contemporary Salafism,” in Global Salafism, 58–80Google Scholar.

90 Meijer, Roel, “Politicising al-jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl: Rabiʿ B. Hadi al-Madkhali and the Transnational Battle for Religious Authority,” in The Transmission and Dynamics of the Textual Sources of Islam: Essays in Honour of Harald Motzki, ed. Boekhoff-Van der Voort, Nicolet, Versteegh, Kees, and Wagemakers, Joas (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 375–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

91 Al-Qarʿani, Sullam al-Wusul, 225–35.