Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 - 22 June 1792) was an Arabian religion reformer from Najd in central Arabia who founded the movement now called Wahhabism. He rejected certain common Muslim practices which he regarded as amounting to either religious innovation (bidah) or polytheism (shirk).Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's pact with Muhammad bin Saud helped to establish the Emirate of Diriyah, the first Saudi state, and began a dynastic alliance and power-sharing arrangement between their families which continues to the present day in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Al ash-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia's leading religious family, are the descendants of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and have historically led the ulama in the Saudi state, dominating the state's clerical institutions.